The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1888-04-05


hope by the grace of God we will, after
awhile, go up and sing the praises OF
Christ where we will never be- weary.
You know there are some songs that are
especially appropriate for the home cir
Gle. They stir the soul, they start the
tears, they turn the heart in on itself, and
keep sounding after the tune has stopped,
like some cathedral bell which, long after
the tap of the brazen tongue has ceased,
keeps throbbing on the air. Well. it will
be home song in Heaven; all the sweeter
because those who sang with US in the do
nestle circle on earth shall join that great
harmony:
Jerusalem, my happy home,
Name ever dear to me;
When shall my labors have an end
In joy and peace in thee?
On earth we sang harvest songs as the
wheat came into the barn and the bar
racks were filled. You know there is no
such time ON farm as when they get the
crops in; and so in Heaven it will be
harvest song on the part of those who on
earth sowed in tears and reaped in joy.
Lift up your heads, ye everlasting gates,
and let the sheaves come inl Angels shout
all through the heavens, and multi tudes
come down the hill crying: Harvest
home! harvest home"
There is nothing more bewitching to
one's ear than the song of sailors far out
at sea, whether in day or night, as they
pull away at the ropes-the music is
weird and thrilling. So the song in
Heaven will be a sailors song. They
were voyagers once, and thought they
could never get to shore, and before they
could get things snug and trim the cy-
clone struck them. But now they are
safe. Once they went with damaged
rigging, guns Of distress booming through
the storm; but the pilot came aboard
and he brought them into the harbor.
Now they sing of the breakers past, the
lighthouses that showed them where to
sail, the pilot that took them through tho
straits, the eternal shore on which they
landed.
Ay, it will be the childern's song. You
know very well that the vast majority of
our race die in infancy, and it is estimat-
ed that eighteen thousand millions of the
little ones are standing before God. When
they shall rise up about the throne to
sing, the millions and the millions of the
little ones-ah! that will be music for
you! These played in the streets of
Babylon and Thebes; these plueked lilies
from the foot of Olivet, while Christ was
preaching about them; these waded in
Sloan; these were victims of Herod's
massacre; these were thrown to crocodiles
or into the fire; these came up from Chris
tian homes, and these were fondlings on
the city commons-children everywhere
in all that land; children in the towers,
children on the seas of glass, children on
the battlements. All, if you do not like
children, do not go there. Thev are in
vast majority, and what song when
they lift it around about the throne!
The Christian singers aud composers of
all ages will be there to join in that song.
Thomas Hastings will be there. Lowell
Mason will be there. Bradbury will he
there. Beethoven and Mozart will be
there. They who sounded the cymbals
and the trumpets in the ancient temples
will be there. The forty thousand harpers
that stood at the ancient dedication will
be there. The two hundred singers that
ass listed on that day will be there. Patri
archs who lived amidst threshing floors,
shepherds who watched amidst Chaldean
hills, prophets who walked with long
boards and coarse apparel pronouncing
woe against ancient denominations, will
meet the more recent martyrs who went
up Will ltdpIUS Ct'lOIlS u anu SUIu6
will speak of the Jesus of whom they
prophesied, and others of Jesus for whom
they died. Oh, what song 1t came to John
upon Patmos; it came to Calvin in the
prison; it dropped to John Knox In the
fire; and sometimes that song has come to
your ear, perhaps, for really do think it
sometimes breaks over the battlements of
Heaven.
Thric 81 fhav 10 nE
lister of the Gospel, was dying in the par
| urday night the choir used to assembl e
and rehearse for the following sabbath,
and she said:
Glow strangely sweet the choir re-
hearses tonight; they have been re-
| hearsing there for an hour"
'No," said some one about her, "the
choir is not rehearsing tonight"
'Yes," she said, 81 know they are, l
hear them sing; how very sweetly they
singw
Now it was not choir of earth that she
heard but the choir of Heaven. 1 think
that Jesus sometimes sets aiar the door of
Heaven, and a passage of that rapture
greets our ears. The Ministries of Heaven
strike such tremendous strain the walls
of jasper can not hold it.
L wonder will you sing that song? Will
| l sing it? Not unless our sins are par
doned, and we learn now to sing the
| praise of Christ, will we ever sing il
there. The first great con cert ever at
tended was in New York, when Jul len,
| in tho "Crystal Palace" stood before
hundreds of singers and hundreds
of players upon instruments. Some
of you may remember that occa-
sion; it was the first one of the kind at
which I was present, and shall never
| forget it. 1 saw that one man standing,
and with the hand and foot WELD that
great harmony, beating the time. 1t
| was to me overwhelming. But, oh, the
| grander scene when they shall come from
| the east and from the west, and from
| the north and from the south, ga great
| multitude that no man can NUMBER into
| the temple of the skies. host beyond host,
| rank beyond rank, gallery above gallery.
and Jesus shall stand before that great
| host to conduct the harmony, with his
wounded hands and his wounded feet
Like the voice Of many waters, like the
voice of mighty thun behring's, they shall
| cry: "W orthy is the Lamb that was slam
| toreceive blessings, and riches, and honor,
| and glory and power world without end