The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1886-01-07

comes into the house, which erst was full
of sunny locks and greetings at the door,
and kisses flung by little hands from the
window as you went down the front steps,
and the doves In the nest cry because the
hawk swoops, and the heart stops. Oh, to
put away garments that never will be
worn again, to gather up from the floor
toys that never again viii strew the carpet,
and to go with sense of suffocation through
the desolated household that once rang
with childish merriment! Oh, my God!
who can stand that without thy grace to
help, without thy grace to smooth, with
out thy grace to comfort? Oh, you will
want Christ in your first trouble, and SO
beg of you this morning to take him as
yours.
You say you are strong and well. So am
I. You say that life is buoyant and beau
full. So it is to me. But sickness will come
to you and it will come to me. We shall
be told we can not go out, the door will be
closed against the world, there will be two
watches, and some will order silence ON
the stairs, saying, "Hush, hush" and in
your dream you will hear the dash of
water, which you will take to be the beat
ing of the wave of the Jordan against your
pillow, and you will hear sound at the
gate which you will take to be the paving
of the pale horse. Oh! then you and will
want q physician; we will want Christ
to come in and put his arms around us
and say: "Fear not; all is well, all is
WELL"
But there is one more pass of great i'm
(,f I fra.
mendous crisis, when we will want God. l
say that not more to you than I do to my
self. We will want God in that crisis
And that pass is the last hour.
suppose we all would like to expire at
home. We want our friends in the room,
some to recite the promise, some to sing,
one to hold the hand. We want to look up
in faces that have been familiar to us a
good while and we viii have messages to
give. II we are parents, we will want to
tell our children how they ought to act
when we are gone, what principles they
ought to adopt, how near they ought to
live to God.
And if we have aged parents living, we
will want to tell our children how they
ought to act toward the old people--how
they ought to care for them after wo
are gone. I think when we leave
this world we will all have q
message to give to somebody. When that
hour comes we will want Christ, we will
want divine friend to stand by us, and to
say that all shall be well in the future.
"When thou passest through the waters /
will be with thee, and through the rivers
they shall not overflow thee.n But you
know very well that if we go out of this
world, my brother, without Christ, we take
a leap into the dark.
Who would want to go out of the world
like that when he can go in triumph inde-
seribable? like Paul, saying: 81 have
fought the good fight, have finished my
course, have kept the faith; henceforth
there is laid up for me a crown of right
eousness which the Lord, the righteous
Judge, viii give me-" Or that other battle
shout: 40 death, where is thy sting? o
grave, where is thy victory? Thanks be
unto God who giveth me the victory through
my Lord Jesus Christ"
Well, there are good many men in this
house who say: "What you have declared
this morning is the truth, but am so far
gone in sin that there is no hope for me-"
Oh, my brothers. there you make great
mistake. / stand here this morning to de-
clare there is hope for any man who wants
to come to God. 'Let the wicked forsake
his way, and the unrighteous man his
thought, and let him return unto the Lord,
who viii have mercy, and unto our God,
who will abundantly PARDON Come this
morning. "Oh," you say, "if you knew
my history you wouldn't invite me-" do
not care what your history is; come to God
to-day. whatsoever will" That word
whatsoever" covers all cases of wander
ings of iniquity. "Whosoever will, let
him come"
"But," says some one in the house, 81
have started in the line of iniquity and |
am going on; I will risk the future: l
haven't much faith in Christianity; / am
going to have an easy time in this world,
get all out of it can, go into all kinds of
sin, taking the risk for the future.'' Oh,
will you not be diverted from that course?
viii you not now realize the fact that you
want God? Oh, how much you need him !!
1t may take a great struggle to bring you
back, but come back you may and you
wiz OAlS IAoAAAu6 SoAA0 VI yCu Will. may
God by his holy spirit move upon your
heart.
have sometimes heard people say it is
as easy for them to become Christians as
to turn their hands. Oh, what a misrepre.
sentation that is! 1t takes the blood. 1t is
the mightiest struggle in all the world
when a man who has been doing wrong
tries to do right. 1t is mightier struggle
than would ask any man to go into un.
| less he lays hold of the strong arm of God,
who will help him and who win deliver
him.
Some years ago there was an excursion
steamer some miles above Niagara Falls.
There We're many on the excursion, many
passengers, and the boat foated ON down
toward the rapids; but the Captain ex-
pected to return in time to avoid all danger,
and they were laughing on the deck, when
| one said to the Captain: "Are you not
| going too far DOWN.. He said: "No,
know what am about" After awhile he
| told the engineer to turn and go up stream;
but the Captain found they were farther
down the rapids than he thought for. He
cried to the engineer: "Put on more
steam!" More steam was applied. But