The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1888-06-28


am very lame and very old, but the Lord
has been good Lord to me. I have
buried all my children. The Lord gave
them, and the Lord has right to take
them away. Blessed be His name. was
very sick. and had no money, and my
neighbors came in and took care of me,
and l wanted nothing. l suffer great
deal with pain, but then have SO many
mercies left. The Lord has been good
Lord to me-"
And before we had got far I was in
doubt whether was giving him ride or
he was giving me ride! He said:
''Now, if you please, I'll get out here.
Just help me down on my crutches, if you
please. God bless you. Thank you, sir.
Good morning. Good morning. You
have been feet to the lame, sir, you have.
Good morning."
Swarthy men had gone the road that
day. do not know where they came out,
but every hobble of that old man was to-
ward the shining gate. With his old
crutch he had struck down many a Sem
nacherib of temptation which had master
ed you and me. Lame, so fearfully lame,
SO awfully lame; but he took the prey.
A step further: There are in all COM
munities many orphans. During our last
war, and in the years Immediately follow
ing, how many children we heard say:
"Oh! my father was killed in the war"
Have you ever noticed fear you have
not-how we'll those children have turned
out? Starting under the greatest disad-
vantage, no orphan asylum could do for
them what their father would have done
had he lived. The skirmisher sat one
night, by the light of fagots, in the swamp,
writing a letter home, when a sharp
shooters bullet ended the letter which
was never folded, never posted and never
read.
Those children came up under great dis
advantage. No father to fight their
way for them. Perhaps there was
in the old family Bible an old yellow let
ter pasted fast, which told the story of
that fathers long march, and how he suf-
fered in the hospital; but they looked
still further on in the Bible, and they came
to the story of how God is the father of
the fatherless, and the widows portion,
and they soon took their fathers place in
that household. They battled the way for
their mother. They came on up, and
many of them have in the years since the
war taken positions in Churc CHI and State.
While many of those who suffered moth
ing during those times have had sons 60
out into lives of Incidence and vaga-
bondage, these who started under SO
many disadvantages because they were
so early bereft, these are the lame who
took the prey.
oh, my friends! why do you not 60 to
work and preach this Gospel! You say:
II have no pulpit" You have. 1t may
be the carpenters bench; it may be the
mason's wall. The robe in which you are
to proclaim this Gospel may be shoe
makers apron. But woe unto you if you
| preach not this Gospel somewhere. some
| where. If this world is ever brought to
Christ it will be through the unanimous
and long continued efforts of men who,
waiting for no special endowment, con-
secrate to God what they have. Among
| the most useless people in the world are
men with ten talents, while many one
with only two talents, or no talent at all,
| is doing great work, and so 1.-THE lame
| take the prey"
There are thousands of ministers of
whom you have never heard-in log
cabins at the West, in mission chapels at
the East-who are warning against the
| legions of darkness, successfully war;
ring. Tract distributors, month by month
not know their going or their coming, but
the footballs of their ministry are heard
in the palaces of Heaven. Who are the
workers in our Sabbath schools through
out this land to-day? Men celebrated,
men brilliant, men of vast estate? For
the most part, not that at all. have no.
ticed that the chief characteristic of the
most of those who are successful in the
work is that they know their bibles, are
earnest in prayer, are anxious for the
salvation of the young, and Sabbath by
Sabbath are willing to sit down unob-
served and tell of Christ and His resur-
rection. These are the humble workers
who are recruiting the great army of
Christian youth-not by might, not by
power, not by profound argument not by
brilliant antithesis, but by the blessings
of God on plain talk, and humble story,
and silent tear, and anxious look. 1.-THE
lame take the prey"
Oh! this work of saving the youth of
our country-how few appreciate what it
is! This generation tramping on to the
grave-we will soon all be gone. What
| next?
| The engineer on a locomotive going
across the Western prairies day after day,
saw little child come out in front of q
cabin and wave to him; so he got in the
habit of waving back to the little child.
and it was the days joy to him to see this
little one come out in front of the cabin
door and wave to him, while he answered
back.
One day the train was belated and it
came on to the dusk of the evening. As
the engineer stood at his post he saw by
the headlight that little girl on the track,
wondering why the train did not come,
looking for the train, knowing nothing of
its peril A great horror seized upon the
engineer. He reversed the engine. He
gave it in charge of the other man on
board, and then he climbed over the en-
CINE and he came down on the cow catch
er. He said, though he had reversed the
engine, it seemed as though it were going
at lightning speed, faster and faster,
though it was really slowing up, and with
almost supernatural strength he caught
the child by the hair aud lifted it up. and
when the train stopped and the passen-
gers gathered around to see what was the
matter, there the old engineer lay, tainted
dead away, the little child alive in his
swarthy arms.