The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1886-05-20
let the satirist laugh at us and all our com.

| panions may laugh at US, and we NAV he
the target for the merriment of earth and
hell; but God forbid that we should ever
come to the fulfillment of the prophecy
against the rejeetors of the truth: 81 viii
laugh at your calamity" But, my frie nds,
all of us who reject Christ and the pardon
| of the Gospel must come under that tire.
mendous bombardment. God wants us all
to repent. He counsels. He coaxes. He
| importunes, and he dies for us. He comes
down out of Heaven. He pats all the
worlds sin on one shoulder, He puts ali The
worlds sorrow on the other shoulder, and
then with that Alp on one side and that
Himalaya on the other, he starts up tie
hill back of Jerusalem to achieve orr sal.
walton. He puts the palm of his right foos
on one long spike, and he puts the palm Of
his left foot on another long spike, and
then, with hands spotted with his own
blood, he gesticulates, saying: "Leok!
look and live; with the crimson veil Of NY
sacrifice will cover mp all your sins: with
my dying eroan will swallow up all your
| groans. Look. live'' But soma of
you this morning turn your hs' k
| on that, and then this yoire
Of invitation turns to tone di-
vinely ominous that sobs like simeon
| through the first chapter of Proverts: "Be.
cause have called and we refused have
stretched out my hand, and no man re-
| garded: but We have set at naught all NV
counsel and would none of my reproof:
also will laugh at your calamity" Oh,
what a laugh that is! deep laueb;
| long reverbersting laugh; an cverwhelH.
| ing laugh. God grant we may never hear
| it hut in this day of merciful visita tinn
| yield your heart to Christ that you NAV
| spend all your life on earth under His
smile and escape forever the thunder of
the laugh of Gods indignation.
| The other laughter mentioned in the
Bible, the only one l shall speak Of is
heavens laughter or the expression OF
| eternal triumph. Christ said to his dis.
| ciples: "Rlessed are we that weep now,
| for We shall laugh" That makes me know
| positively that we are not to spend our
days In heaven singin z long-meter psalms.
| The journalistic and stiff notions of heaven
that some people have would make me
miserable. am glad to know that tbs
heaven of the Bible is not only place ut
| holy worship hut of magnificent socahil-
ity. "What," say You, twill the rnein.
laugh go around the circles of the saveds"
| I say yes; pure laughter; cheering laugh-
! ter; holy laughter. II will be laugh Of
| congratulation. When we meet a friend
| who has suddenly come to fortune nr
| who has got-over some dire sickness. do
| we not shake hands: do we not laugh with
him? And when we get to heaven and
see our friends there. some Of thert having
come up out of great tribulatioDs, why,
We will say to one of them: 1.-The last time
L saw you, you had been suffering for six
weeks under low, intermittent fever"
or, to another we will saw: "You for ten
years were limping with the rheuma-
tism, and you were full of complaints
when we saw you last 1 congratulate
| you on this eternal recovery" We shall
laugh-yes, we shall congratulate all those
who have come up out of great fnan.
cial enbarrassments in this world be-
cause they have become millionaires in
| heaven.
Ye shall laugh. 1t shall be laugh OF
reassociation. 1t is just as natural for
us to laugh when we meet friend We
have not seen for ten years as any thing
| is possible to be natural. When we meet
our friends from whom we have hesn
parted ten, twenty or thirty years, will it
| not be with infinite congratulations: Our
perception quickened, our knowledge I'M
proved, we will know each other at a
flash. We will have to talk over all that
has happened since we have been separ.
ated, the one that has been ten years n
heaven telling us all that has happenel in
the ten years of his heavenly residence,
! and we telling him in return all that has
happened during the ten years of his ab.
| sence from earth.
| We shall laugh. I think George Whit.
field and John Wesley will have a laugh
| of contempt for their earthly collisions !;
and Toplady and Charles Wesley will have
| laugh of contempt for their earthly mis-
| UNDERSTANDINGS; and the farmers woo
4 were in a lawsuit all their days will have =
laugh of contempt over their earthly dis
| turbances about q line-fence. Exemption
| from all annoyance. Immersion in all
| gladness. Ye shall laugh. Christ says so.
! Ye shall laugh.
Yes, it will be laugh of triumph. Oh.
I what a pleasant thing it will be to stand
on the wall of Heaven and look down at
l
him Gagged and chained and we forever
| free from his clutches! Yes, it will be a
laugh of royal greeting. You know how
] the Frenchmen cheered when Napoleon
came back from Eliza; you know how the
English cheered when Wellington came
back from Waterloo; You know how Amer
leans cheered when Kossuth arrived from
Hungary; you remember how Rome
cheered when Pompey came back victor
| over nine hundred cities. Every cheer wa 5
laugh. But oh, the mightier greeting,
the gladder greeting, when the snow white
cavalry troop of Heaven shall go through
the streets and, according to the book of
I Revelation, Christ, in the red coat, in the
crimson coat, on a white horse and in all
the armies Of Heaven following on white
horses! Oh, when we see and hear that
| cavalcade we shall cheer, we shall laugh.
Does not your heart beat quickly this
morning at the thought of the great jubilee
upon which we are soon to enter? / pray
God that when we get through with this
| world and are going out of it we may have
some such vision as the dying Christian
had when he saw written all over the
clouds in the sky the letter "W;" and thew