The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1885-10-22

SQUARE the booms and tarpaulin the hatch
ways, the vessel is grooming and creaking
In the grip of tornado, and falls over in
the trough of the sea, and broadside on
rolls on to the beach and keels over, leav
| ing the crew to strug gle in the merciless
surf. Cast away! Cast away! Aud, SO
I have to tell you that there are thou
sands of men destroyed through the swoop
of temptations. Some great inducement
to worldliness, or TO sensuality, or to high
| temper, or to some form OF dissipation,
comes upon them II they had time to
examine their Bible, If they had time to
consult with their friends, If they had
| time to deliberate, they could stand
| IL; but the temptation came SO sud.
| denly-a curoclydon on the Meiiterra-
mean, whirlwind of the Caribbean One
awful surge of temptation, and they per.
| ish. And so we often hear the old story:
81 hadn't seen my friend in great many
years. We were very glad to meet He
| said must drink, and he took me by the
| arm and pressed me along, and filed the
| cup until the bubbles ran over the edge,
and in an evil moment all my good reso-
lutions were swept away, and to the out
raging of God and my own soul, fell"
| Or the story is: II had hard work to sup.
| port my family. knew that by ono false
entry, by one deception, by one embezzle-
ment, might spring out free from all my
| troubles; but the temptation came upon
me so fiercely that could not think. /
did wrong, and having done wrong once,
/ could not STOP" Oh, it is the first step
that costs; the second is easier, and the
third, and so on to the last. Once having
broken loose from the anchor, it is not so
easy to tie the parted strands. How often
it is that men perish for the reason that
the temptation comes from some unex-
/ pected quarter. As vess Is lie in Margate
Roads safe from southwest winds, but
| the wind changing to the northeast they
are driven helpless and go down. Ga that
God would have mercy upon those upon
whom there comes the sudden swoop of
temptation, that they perish not, becom-
ing, for this world and the world to come,
cast away, cast away.
BY talking with sailors, I have found
out, also, that some vessels come to this
calamity through sheer recklessness
There are 3,000, 600 men who follow the
sea for living. 1t Is a simple fact thai
the average of human life on the sea is
less than twelve years. This comes from
the fact that msn by familiarity with
danger become reckless-the Captain, the
helmsman. the stoker, the man on the
lookout, become reckless, and in nine
out of ten shipwrecks it is found
out that some one was awfully to blame.
So have to tell you that men lost their
souls through sheer recklessness. There
are thousands of my friends in this house
tonight who do not ire where they are
in spiritual things. They do not know
whether they are sailing toward Heaven
or toward hell, and the sea is black with
piratical huks that would grapple them
with hooks of steel and would blind fold
them and make them ''walk the plank /"
They do not know what the next moment
may bring forth. Drifting in their the
ology, drifting in their habits, drifting in
regard to all the future. No God, no
Christ, no settled anticipations of eternal
felicity, but all the time coming nearer
and nearer to dangerous coast. Some of
; them are on fire with evil habits, aud they
shall burn on the sea, the charred hulk
tossed up on the barren beach of the lost
world; many of them with great troubles,
financial troubles domestic troubles. so
cial troubles; but they never pray for
Comfort With au aggravation of sir
that stirs up the ire of God, they pray
for no pardon. They do not steer for the
light ship that dances in gladness at the
, mouth of Heavens harbor, reckl ess as tc
where they come out, drifting farth 81
from God, farther from early religious in
, f1uences, farther from their present happi
. ness, farther from heaven. Aud, what /;
| the WORST thing about it is, that they ar,
, taking their families along with them
and il one perish, perhaps they will al
> perish; and the way one goes, the proba
bility is they will all go. Yet no anxiety
, As unconscious of danger as the passen
gers on board the Arctic one moment be
fore the vesta rushed into her Wrappe'
; | up in the business Of the store, not emem
f bering that soon they must quit all thei
earthly possessions. Absorbed in thei
a social position, not knowing that yer,
soon they will have attended the last leve
, and whiried in the last schottiss he. The,
/, do not deliberately choose to b, ruined
3 neither did the French frigate Medus
v aim for the Arguiu banks, but there
It went to pieces. o, We reckless souls!
!: wish that tonight I could wake you u
r with some great perturbation. The peril
: are so augmented, the chances of escap
s are SO few; you will die just as certainl,
t as you sit there, unless you bestir your
: self. fear, my brother, you are bscom
s ing a castaway. You are making no el
fort, you are putting forth no exertion fc
: escape. You throw out no car; you tax
. no soundings; you watch no compass; yo
: are not calculating your bearings Will
o the wind is abalt, and yonder is Ion
k line of foam bounding the horizon, an
6 you will be pushed on toward it, an
y thousands have persisted there, and yo
!! are driving in the same direction. Read
n aboutl Down helm! Hard dowal or
u the next five minutes, or four minutes, {
Is three minutes, or two minutes, or or
J. minute, you may be castaway.
o unforgiven soul! II you could 81
= your peril before God to might on accour