The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1886-06-24
Thoughts for the Thoughtful.
sREL1eIous sELEcTIoNs.)


sREL1eIous sELEcTIoNs.)
Christianity works from what is
internal to what is external.
Philosophy has become Christian,
science las knelt to Christ.
The Church is the ideal of human
ity. Itgepresents what God intend
ed man 20 be-what man is in Gods
sight as beheld in Christ by Him; and
the MINISTER of the Church speaks as
the representative of that ideal hui
mainly
1t is a Church most truly when it
is most plainly devoted. Thus it was
in martyr times, when the death and
persecIted existence of the saints of
God wsre at once the life-blood of
the Church and testimony to the
truth of its Faith.
The Bible is full of Christ. Every
unfulfisled aspiration of humanity in
the past; all partial representation of
perfect character; all sacrifces-point
to the .fulfllment of what we want,
the answer to every longing-the type
of perfect humanity, the Lord Jesus
Christ
CHRIST came to call out all the prin-
| ciples and powers of human nature,
to restore the natural equilibrium of
all ous, faculties; not to call US back
to our own individual selfish nature,
but to human nature as it is in Gods
ideal-s-the perfect type which is to be
realized in us.
To mourn over old superstitions
and esfete creeds is just as unwise as
it was unwise in Jonsh to mourn with
that passionate sorrow over the decay
of the gourd which had sheltered him
from the heat of the noontide sun
A woSm had eaten the root of the
gourG, and it was gone. But He who
made: the gourd the shelter to the
weary-ihe shadow of those who are
oppressed by the noontide heat of
| life-.lived on: Jonah's God. And so
all things change-all things outward
change and alter, but the God of the
Chu1ch lives on.
| The Redeemer's soul was alone in
dying. The hour had come, they
were all gone, and He was, as He
predicted, left alone All that is hui
man; drops from us in that hour
Human faces fit and fade, and the
sounds of the world become confused.
81 shall die alone'-yes, and alone
you live. The philosopher tells us
that no atom in creation touches
another atom-they only approach
within a certain distance; then the
attraction ceases, and an invisible
something repels-they only seem to
touch. No soul touches another soul
except at one or two points, and
those chiefly external-a fearful and
a lonely thought.
/ Some men write and speak as il
the difference between the Christian
and the worldly man was this, that in
the one conscience is self-reproach-
ing hell, and in the other self-con-
circulating heaven. Is this the fact
Think you that the Christian goes
: home at night counting up the noble
deads done during the day, saying to
, hitnself, "Well done, good and faith.
ful servant?" That habit of looking
forward to the future prevents al
pride and self-righteousness, and
makes our best and only rest and sat
|, isfaction to consist in contemplating
thu future which is bringing us nearer
and nearer home. Our motto, there
fore, must be that striking one O.
the Apostle Paul, forgetting those
things which are behind, and reach
) ing forth to those things which ar,
before, I press toward the mark fol-
the prize of the high calling of God il
Christ Jesus"
When we speak of the Church WI
generally mean society to aid mer
III their progress Godward; but thu
Church of God is by no means cock
tansive in any age with that organic
: ed institution which we call Church
t sometimes it is nearly coextensive--
that is, nearly all on earth who ar
born of God are found within it
Q pale, nearly all who are of the worlt
are extraneous to it; but sometime
6 the born of God have been found dis
tinct from the institution called tn
8 Church-opposed to it, prosecuted b,
y it. The institution of the Church i
q blessed ordinance of God, organic
cd on earth for the purpose of repre-
senting the eternal Church, and Q
: extending its Limits, but still eve
! subordinate to it.
: It is the heart alone which can Civ
: us key to His words. Recollect hoa
g he taught By metaphors, by images
\ by illustrations, boldly fgurative, i
rich variety; yes, in daring abundance
He calls Himself gate, king, vine
p shepherd, a thief in the night. L