The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1885-10-22
Life.
Rev. F. W. Robertson.l

world; untried, with boundless pos
sible before him. No one can predict
what he may become, prescribe his
duties, or mark out his obligations.
Each mans own nature has its own
peculiar rules; and he must take up
his life-plan alone, and persevere in it
in a perfect privacy with which no
stranger intermeddleth.
Life is a deception; its anticipa-
tions-its promises to the immagina-
tion-are never realized. They who
know life best, and have trusted to
its blessings, are ever the first to say
that life is series of disappoint-
ments.
We are led through life as we are
allured upon journey. Could q man
see his route before him-a fat,
straight road, unbroken by bush, or
tree, or eminence, with the suns
heat burning down upon it, stretched
out in dreary monotony,-he could
scarcely find energy to begin his task;
but the uncertainty of what may be
seen beyond the next turn keeps ex-
pectation alive. The view that may
be seen from yonder summit-the
glimpse that may be caught, perhaps,
as the road winds around yonder
oll,-hopes like these, not far dis
tant, beguile the traveller on from
mile to mile, and league to league.
It is a twice told tale that the world
is passing away from us, and there
is very little new to be said on the
subject. God has written it on every
page of His creation that there is
nothing here which lasts. Our afec-
tions change. The friendships of the
man are not the friendships of the
boy. Our very selves are Altering
The basis of our being may remain,
but our views, tastes, feelings, are no
more our former self than the oak is
the acorn. The very face of the WIS.,
ible world is altering around US; we
have the gray Wondering ruins to tell
of what was once. Our laborers strike
their ploughshares against the founda-
tons of building which once echoed
to human Manifestations of men,
to whom life: once was dear-urns and
coins that remind the antiquarian of
a magnificent empire. To day the
shot of the enemy defaces and black
ems monuments and venerable temples
which remind the Christian that into
the deep silence of eternity the Ro-
man world, which was in its vigor in
the days of John, has passed away
And SO things are going. It is work
of weaving and unweaving. All passes.
Names that the world heard once in
thunder are scarcely heard at the end
of centuries: good or bad, they pass.
A few years ago, and ace were not. A
few centuries further, and we reach
the age of beings of almost another
race. Nimrod was the conqueror and
scourge of his far-back age. Tubal
Cain gave to the world the iron which
was the foundation of every triumph
of men over nature. We have their
names now. But the philologist is
uncertain whether the name of the
: first is real or mythical, and the
traveller excavates the sand-mounds
ofNiuevah to wonder over the records
which he cannot decipher. Tyrant
and benefactor, both are gone. And
] so all things are moving on to the last
fire which shall wrap the world in
confagration, and make all that has
been the recollection of dream
t This is the history of the world, and
all that is in it. It passes while We
look at it. Like as when you watch
the melting tints Of the evening sky
purple-crimson, gorgeous gold, few
, pulsations of quivering light, and i
is all gone: "We are such stuff al
dreams are made Of.
Such is life! At first all seems
: given. We are acquiring associations
sensations, new startling feelings
? then comes the time when all give
pleasure or pain by association-b,
touching some old chord which vi
:. brates again. And after that all il
} loss-something gone, and more il
a going: every, day, every year-thil
year. like all others. Into that fooc
. have fallen treasures that viii not b
: recovered: intimacies have been dis
. solved that viii not be reunited, at
fections cooled, we cannot say why
Many aship foundered, and the brav'
: hearts in her will be seen no NOR,
till the sea shall give up her dead.
Many British soldier fallen befor'
: Asiatic pestilence, or beneath thu
5 assegai, above him the bush or jungl
| is waving green, but he himself i
now where the rifles ring is heart
and the sabre's glitter is seen NJ
. more. Msny a pew before me is full
which at the beginning of the yea
was filed by others MANY a hearth