The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1886-11-25

aroused in q storm is overwhelming, and
/ yet that sea crouched in His presence, and
| licked His feet. He knew all the waves
| and the wind When He beckoned, they
came. When He frowned, they fed. The
| heel of His foot made no indentation on the
| solidified water. Medical science has
wrought great changes in rheumatic limbs
and diseased blood, but when the muscles
are entirely withered, no human power can
restore them, and when limb is once dead
it is dead But here is paralytic-his
hand is hfeless. Christ says to him:
"Stretch forth thy hand, p and he stretches
| it forth.
In the eye infirmary, how many diseases
| Of that delicate organ have been cureda
| But Jesus says to one blind: ssBe opeT,"
and the light of Heaven rushes through
| gates that have never before been opened.
The frost of an axe may kill tree, but
Jesus smites one dead with word. Chem
istry can do many wonderful things, but
what chemist at a wedding when the wine
gave out, could change pail Of water into
i a cask of wines
What human voice could command a
| school of fish, Yet here is voice that
marshals the scaly tribes, until, in a place
where they had let down the net and raised
it up with no fish in it, they let it down
again, and the disciples lay hold and begin
TO pull, when, by reason of the multitude
of fish,, the net broke.
Nature is His servant The fowers-He
/ twisted them into His sermons; the winds
they were His lullaby when He slept in
the boat; the rant hung glitteringly on
the thick foliage of the parallels; the star
of Bethlehem-it sang Christmas carol
over his birth; the rocks-they beat dirge
| at His death.
| Behold His victory over the grave! The
hinges of the family vault become very
rusty, because they are never opened ex-
cept to take another in. There is knob
| on the outside of the door of the sepulcher,
but none on the inside. Here comes the
conqueror of death. He enters that realm
and says: Daughter of Jalrus, sit up;" and
| she sits up. To Lazarus: 'tCome forth,n
and he came forth To the Widows son He
said: sect up from that BIER" and he goes
1 home with his mother. Then Jesus snatched
| up the keys of death and hung them to His
| girdle, and cried until all the graveyards
of the earth heard him: 80 death, will be
thy plague. o, grave, will be thy de-
/ struction."
| No man could go through all the obstacles
have described, you say, without having
nature adjoined that was supernatural.
| That armand its muscles, and nerves,
| and bones, were intertwisted the energies
| of omnipotence. In the syllables of that
| voice there was the emphasis of the eternal
| God. That foot that walked the deck Of
| the ship in Gennesearet shall stamp king
doms of darkness into demolition. This
| poverty struck Christ owned Augustus,
owned the Sanhedrim, owned Tiberias,
owned all the castles on its beach and all
\ the skies that looked down into it's waters;
owned all the earth and all the heavens.
To Him of the plain coat belonged the
robes OF celestial royalty. He who walked
| the road to Emmaus-the lightnings were
the fire-shod steeds to His chariot.
| Yet there are those who look on and see
God turn water into wine, and they say /:
Sleight of hand. And they see Christ raise
the dead to life, and they say: Easily ex-
planned; not really dead; playing dead.
And they see Christ giving sight to the
blind man, and they say: Clairvoyant
doctor. O, what shall they do on the day
when Christ rises up in Judgment, and hills
shall rock, and the trumpets shall call, peal
on peall
In the time of Theodosius the Great there
was great assault made upon the divinity
| of Jesus Christ, and during that time Theo-
dosius the Great called his own son to sit
on the throne with him, and be co-partner
in the government of the empire; and one
day the old Bishop came and bowed down
before Theedosius the Emperor, and passed
out of the room, and the Emperor was Of
Tended, saying to the old Bishop: "Why
| did you not pay the same honor to my son
who shares with me in the government"
Then the old Bishop turned to the young
man and said: sThe Lord bless thee, my
young man, but still paid him no such
honor as he had paid to the Emperor. And
the Emperor was still offended and dis
pleased, when the Bishop turned to Theo-
dosius the Great and said to him: sYou
are offended with me because don't pay
the same honor to your son, whom you have
| made co-partner in the government of this
empire, the same honor pay to you, and yet
you encourage nultitudes of people in your
realm to deny the Son of God equal au-
thority, equal power with God the Father"
| My subject also treasures US of the fact
| that in all our struggles we have SYM
| pathizer. You can not tell Christ any
| thing new about hardship. do not think
that wide ages of eternity will take the
scars from His punctured side, and His
lacerated temples, and His sore hands. You
will never have burden weighing so many
pounds as that burden Christ carried up
the bloody hill. You will never have any
suffering worse than He endured when,
with tongue hot, and cracked and inaamed,
and swollen, He moaned: II thirst You
will never be surrounded with worse hos
tility than that which stood around Christ's
feet, foaming, reviling, livid with rage,
bowling down His prayers, and snuffing up
the smell of blood. Oh, We faint heartfelt
oh, ye troubled oh, We prosecuted one here
is heart chat can sympathize with you.
| Again, and lastly, learn from all that
has been said this morning that Christ was
awfully in earnest. If it had not been a
momentous mission He would have turned
/ back from it disguised and discouraged.
He saw you in a captivity from which He
was resolved to extricate you though it
cost Him all sweat, all tears, all blood. He
came great way to save you. He came
from Bethlehem here, through the place of
skulls, through the charnel house, through
Punishment. There was not among all the
ranks Of celestials one being who would do
as much for you. lay His crushed heart at
your feet to-day.
/ Let it not be told in Heaven that you de-
iberately put your foot on it. While it
4 will talra all the aras of ata1nifu m cole