The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1886-06-10

the right direction. Before that momens
he is q child of sin: after that mo-
ment he is child of God. Before that
moment, hellward; after that moment,
heavenward. Before that moment, devour-
ing the prev; after that moment, dividing
the spoil. Five minutes is as good as five
years.
My nearer, you know very well that the
best things you have done you have done
in fash. You made up your mind in an
instant to buy or to sell, or to invest, or to
stop or to start. II you had missed that
one chance, you would have missed Il
forever. Now just as precipitate and
quick and spontaneous will be the ransom
of your soul. This morning you are max
ing calculation. You are on the track
of some financial or social game. With
your pen or pencil you are pursuing it.
This very morning you are devouring the
prey; but tonight you will be in differ
emit mood. You find that all heaven is Of
fered you. You wonder how you can
get it for yourself and for your family.
You wonder what resources it will give
you now and hereafter. You are dividing
peace and comfort and satisfaction and
Christian reward in your soul. You are
dividing the spoil.
On Sabbath night at the close of the
service said to some persons:
"When did you first become serious
about your soul?"
And they told me:
"To-night."
And said to others:
"When did you give your heart to
God9"
And they said:
To-night."
And said to still others:
"When did you resolve to serve the Lord
all the days of your life?"
And they said: ~ ,rsrts5
"To-night."
saw by their apparel that when the
grace of God struck them they were de-
vouring the prey but saw also in the food
of joyful tears and in the kindling rap
lures on their brow, and in their exhil-
arant and transporting utterances. that
they were dividing the spoil. At night,
with one touch of electricity, all these
lights blaze. Oh, would to God that
the darkness of your souls might be
broken up, and that by one quick, over
whelming, instantaneous fash of illum-
ination you might be brougt into the
light and the liberty of the. sons of God /!
You see that.religion is different thing
from what some Of you people supposed.
You thought it was decadence; you
thought religion was cancellation; you
thought it was highway robbery; that it
struck one down and left him half dead /;
that it plucked out the eyes; that it
plucked out the plumes Of the soul; that it
broke the wing and crushed the beak as it
came clawing with its black talons through
the air. No, that is not religion. What is
religion? It is dividing the spoil. 1t is
taking defenseless soul and panoplying
1t for eternal conquest. It is the distribu-
| tion of prizes by the kings hand, every
medal stamped with q coronation. 1t is
an exhilaration, an expansion. It is inn
| paradisation. It is enforcement. Re-
| ligion makes q man master of earth, and
death, and hell. It goes forth to gather
the medals of victory won by Prince En-
manuel, and the diadens of heaven and
| the glories OF realms terrestrial and celes-
tial, and then, after ranging all worlds for
everything that is respondent, it divides
| the spoil.
What was it that James Turner, the
famous English evangelist, was doing VIXEN
in his dying moment he said: ''Christ is
ALI Christ is ALL" Why, he was enter
| ing into light; he was rounding the Cape
| of Good Hope; he was dividing the spoil.
What was the aged Christian Quakeress
doing when at eighty years of age she
arose in the meeting one day and said:
.'The time of my departure is come. My
grave-clothes are falling off," She was
dividing the spoil.
She Ionged with wings 20 Az away.
| And mix with that eternal day. a
What is Daniel now doing, the lion.
| tamer7 and Elijah, who was drawn by the
| flaming coursers? and Paul, the rattling OF
| whose chains made kings quaker and al
| the other victims of food, and fire, and
wreck, and guillotine? Where are they
Dividing the spoil. .s4,.
Ten thousand times ten thousand,
| In sparkling raiment bright,
! The armies of the ransomed salnts
Throng up the sleeps of light
IT'S finished, all is finished,
Their fight with death and sin;
Lift high your golden gates
And let the victors In.
Oh, what q grand thing IL is to be Z
Christianl We begin on earth to divid,
the spoil, but the distribution will not b,
completed to all eternity. There is pow
erty -struck soul, there is business de
spoiled soul, there is sin -struck soul, ther,
is bereaved soul-why do you not cam'
and get the spoils of Christian character
the comfort, the joy, the peace, the saliva
ton that am sent to offer you in nay
masters name? Though your knees
knock together in weakness. though
your hand tremble in fear, though you
eyes rain tears Of uncomfortable weeping
come and get the spoils. Rest for all tn
weary. Pardon for all the guilty. Labo
for all the bestormed. Life for all til
dead. verify believe that there are som
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