The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1886-11-18
"THE VICTORY"
Eloquent Sermon by Rev. T. De
Witt Talmage, D. D.
A Glowing Picture of What Is Yet to
Be-The Coming Triumph of the
Glorious Gospel of the
Son of God.


d. D., took for his subject ''The Victory"
and for his text, Zechariah, viii, 5: And
the streets of the city shall be full of boys
and girls playing in the streets thereof"
He said:
A glimpse of our cities redeemed. Now
boys and girls who play in the streets run
such risks that multitudes of them end in
ruin. But in the time spoken of our cities
will be so moral that lads and lasses shall
be as safe in the public thoroughfare as in
the nursery.
Every man has pride in the city of his ma
tivity or residence, if it be city distin-
guished for any dignity or prowess. Caezar
boosted of his native Rome, Virgil, of Man.
tua, Lycurgus, Of Sparta, Demosthenes, of
Athens Archimedes of Syracuse, and Paul,
of Tarsus. 1 should have suspicion of base
eartedness in man who had no especial
interest in the city of his birth or residence
no exhilaration at the evidence of its pros
perity, or its artistic embellishments, or its
scientific advancement.
If should find man coming from any
city, having no pride in that city, that city
having been the place of his nativity, or
now being the place Of his residence,
would feel like asking him right away:
"What mean thing have you been doing
therea What outrageous thing have you
been guilty OF that you do not like the
placer
New York is goodly city. 1t is on both
sides of the river, the East river only the
main artery of its great throbbing life. We
or our children will live to see two Or three
bridges spanning that river, and more and
more, as the years go by, we will be one; so
when I say in my sermon New York, l
every thing from Spuyten Duyvel creek to
Gowanus. That which helps one city will
help the other; that which blasts one city
will blast the other Sin is giant, and
when it comes to the Hudson or the East
river it steps across it as easily as you step
across figure in carpet Gods angel of
blessing has two wings, and one wing how
ers over that city and one wing hovers over
this city.
In infancy our metropolis was put down
by the banks of the Hudson. 1t was as
feeble as Moses i'll the ark of the bull
rushes by the Nile, and, like Miriam, there
our fathers stood and watched it. The royal
spirit of American commerce came down to
battle. She took it up in her arms and it
waxed strong, and foreign ships brought
silver and gold to its feet, and it stretched
itself up into great metropolis, looking up
to the mountains and off upon the sea, the
mightiest energy in American civilization
Every city is influenced by the character
of the men who founded it. Romulus i'm
pressed his life upon Rome. The pilgrim
fathers will never relax their grasp from
New England. William Penn left a legacy
OF fair dealing and integrity to Phila-
delphia and you can now, any day, on the
streets OF that city, see his customs, his
manners, his morals, his hat, his wife's
bonnet and his Westinghouse So the Hol-
landers, founding New York, left their i'm
preston on all the following generations.
What Southern thoroughfare was ever
smitten by pestilence, and our physicians
did not throw themselves on the sacrifice?
What foreign Nation was ever struck with
famine, and our ships did not put out laden
with breadstuffs? What national struggle.
and our citizens did not pour their blood
into the trenchess What street Of Damas-
Gus, or Beyrout, or Madras, has not resound-
ed with the step of our missionaries?
What gallery of art, and our painters have
not hung in it their pictures? What de-
partment OF science or literature, and our
scholars have not made to it contributions /?
need not talk to you of our public
schools, where the children of the cord
blower sit side by side with the favored
sons of millionaires and merchant princes.
Nor need l tell you of the asylums for the
insane on these islands, where those who
cut themselves among the tombstones come
forth clothed in their right mind. Nor
need tell you of the asylums for the blind.
the deaf and the dumb, and the orphans,
the widows, the outcasts.
thank God for the place of our residence.
and while there are thousand things that
ought to be corrected, and many wrongs
that ought to be overthrown, while thank
God for the past look forward this morn
ing to glorious future. ] think we ought
and take it for granted that you are all
interested in this great work of evangeliz-
ing the cities and saving the world-we
ought to toll with the sunlight in our faces.
we are not lighting in miserable Bull Run
OF de1eat. We are on our way to final vic
tory. We are not following the rider on
the black horse, leading us down to death
and darkness and doom, but the rider ON
the white horse with the moon under His
feet and the stars of Heaven for his tiara.
Hail, conqueror, hall
know there are sorrows, and there are
sins, and there are sufferings all
around about US, but as in some bit
ter, cold winter day, when we are
threshing our arms around us to keep our
thumbs from freezing, we think of the
warm spring day that will after awhile
come, or in the dark winter night we look
up and see the northern lights, the win
dows OF Heaven Illuminated by some great
victory, just as we look from the night of
suffering and sorrow and Indebtedness in
our cities, and we see light streaming
through from the other side and we know
we are on the way to morning, more than
that, on the way to "a morning without
clouds.n
want you to understand, all YOU who
are telling for Christ, that the castles of
sin are all going to be captured. The
victory for Christ in these great towns is
going to be SO complete that not man on
earth, or an angel in Heaven, or devil in
hell will dispute it. How do know2 know
just as certainly as God lives and that this
is holy truth The old Bible is full of it.
Ii the nation is to be saved, of course. all
the cities are to be saved. It makes a
great difference with you and with me
whether we are toiling on toward a defeat
or toiling on toward a victory
Now, in this municipal elevation of which
1 speak, have to remark there will be
greater financial prosperity than our cities
have ever cnan Sarno r,aorla have -