The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1885-07-30

| look sweet God intends us to admire
music and fair faces and graceful step;
but amid the heartlessness and the infla-
ton and the fantastic influences of oui
modern watering places, beware how you
make life long covenants.
BANEFUL LITERATURE.
Another temptation that will hover over
the watering places is that of baneful lit
erature. Almost every one starting off for
| the summer takes some reading matter.
1t is a book out of the library or off the
| bookstand, or bought of the boy hawking
| books through the cars. l really believe
| there is more pestiferous trash read among
the intelligent classes in July and August
/ than i'll all the other ten months of the
| year. Men and women who at home would
not be satisfied with book that was not
rea ly sensible l found sitting ON hotel
| piaZzas or under the trees reading books
| the index of which would make them blush
il they knew that you knew what the book
was "Oh," they say, you must have in
| tellectual recreation" Yes. There is no
need that you take along into a watering
place "Hamilton's Metaphysics" or some
| thunderous discourse on the eft srnal de-
crees, or "Faraday's Philosophy" There
are many easy books that are good. You
might as well say: II p. oppose now to give
little rest to my digestive organs, and
instead OF eating heavy meat aad vege-
tables | viii for little while take
| lighter food-a little stryc hnine and few
grains of ratsbane." Literary poison in
August is as la as literary poison in De-
cember. Mark that.
INTOXICATING DRINKS.
Another temptation lowering all around
our watering places is to intoxicating
beverages. l am told that it is becoming
more and more fashionable for women to
drink. care not how well a woman NAV
dress. if she has taken enough of wine to
flush her cheek and put glass ness on he..
eye, she is int Ixicated. She may be hand
ed int twenty five hundred dollar car
rlage and have diamonds enough to con-
found the Titfany's-she is intoxicated
She may be graduate of Packer Insti-
tute, and the daughter of some man in
danger of being nominated for the Presi-
dency-she is drunk. You may have a
larger vocabulary than / have, and you
may say in regard to her that she is s'con-
Vivial," or she is merry" Or she is 50 fes-
tive" or she is ''exhilaraJed," but you can
not with all your garlands of verbiage
cover up the plain fact that it is an old
fashioned case of drunk. Now, tue water
ing places are full of temptations to men
and women to tipple. At the close of the
ten-pin or billiard game they tipple. At
the close of the cotiilon they tipple.
Seated on the piazza, cooling themselves
off, they tipple. The tinged glasses come
around with bright straws, and they tip
pie. First they take light Wines" as
they call them; Lut eight wines" are
heavy enough to deLase the appe-
tite. There is not very long
road between champagne at five dol
lars bottle and whisky at five cents a
glass. Satan has three or four grades
down which he takes men to destruction.
One man he takes up, and, through one
spree, pitches him into eternal darkness.
That is rare case. Very seldom indeed
can you find man who will be such a fool
as that Satan will take another man to
grade, to a descent at an angle about
ike that of the Pennsylvania coai-c CHUTE
or the Mount Washington rail-track and
a man goes down to destruction Satan
brings him to plane. 1t is almost level.
The depression is SO slight that you can
hardly see it. The man does not actually
know that he is on the down grade, and it
tips only little toward darkness-just a
little; and the first mile it is claret, and
the second mile it is sherry, and the third
mile it is punch, and the fourth mile it is
ale, and the fifth mile it is porter, and the
sixth mile it is brandy, and then it gets
sleeper and sleeper and sleeper, and the
man gets frightened and says: "Oh, let
me get offw NO." says the conductor,
this is an express train, and it don't stop
until it gets to the Grand Central Depot at
Smashuptonw
BE PREPARED FOR TEMPTATION.
My friends, whether you tarry at home
which will be quite as safe and perhaps
quite as comfortable-or go into the coun-
try, arm yourself against temptation. The
grace of God is the only safe shelter
whether in town or country. There are
watering-place accessible to all of us.
You can not open a book of the Bible with
out finding out some such watering place.
Fountains open for sin and uncleanliness.
Wells of salvation. Streams from Leb.
anon. A flood struck out of the rock by
Moses. Fountains in the wilderness dis
covered by Hagar. Water to drink and
water to battle in. The river of God,
which is full of water. Water of which if
altman drink he shall never thirst. Wells
of water in the valley of Baca. Living
fountains of water. A pure river of water,
as clear as crystal, from under the throne
of God. These are the watering places ac-
cessible to all of us. We do not have a
laborious packing up before we start
only the throwing away of our transgres-
sions. No extensive hotel bills to paw: it
is without money and without price, No
long and dusty travel before we get there.
1t is only one step away. In California
in five minutes l walked around
and saw ten fountains all bubbling ND, and
they were all different. And in five min
utes can go through this Bible parterre
and find you fifty bright, sparkling fount-
aims, bubbling up into eternal life-healing
and therapeutic. A chemist will go to one
of these summer watering places and take
the water and analyze it, and tell you that
it contains so much of iron and SO much of
soda and so much of lime and On ranch %