The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1888-11-01

would have unvailed America? 1t did not
merely happen SO that when George
Washington was in Brooklyn great fog
settled down over all the place where this
church stands, and over all this end of
Long Island, and that under that fog he
and his army escaped from the clutches
of Generals Howe and Clinton. In a
chariot of mist and cloud the god of
American dependence rode along here.
On that pillow of consolation put down
my head to sleep at night. On that solid
foundation build when see this nation
in political paroxysm every four years
not because they care two cents about
whether it is high tariff or low tariff, or
no tariff at all, but only whether the
Democrats or the Repu blicans shall have
the salaried officers. Yea, when European
nations are holding their breath, wonder
ing whether Russia or Germanywill launch
a war that will incarnadine continent,
fall back on the faith that my Father
drives. Yea. / cast this as an anchor,
and plant this as a column Of strength,
and lift this as telescope, and build this
as fortress and propose without any
perturbation to launch upon an unknown
future triumphant in the fact that my
Father drives. Yea, He drives very near.
know that many of the clouds that you
see in summer are far off, the bases of
some of them five miles above the earth.
High on the highest peaks of the Andes
travellers have seen clouds far higher
than where they were standing. Guy
Lussac, after he had risen in balloon
twenty three thousand feet still saw
clouds above him.
But there are clouds that touch the earth
and discharge their rain, and, though the
clouds out of which Gods chariot is made
may sometimes be far away, often they
are close by, and they touch our Shout
ders, and they touch our homes, and they
touch us all over. have read of two
rides that the Lord took in two different
chariots of clouds. and of another that He
will take. One day, in chariot of clouds
that were mlngling Of fog and smoke
and fire, God drove down to the top of a
terrible crag fifteen hundred feet high,
now called Jebel- Musa, then called Mount
Sinai, and He stepped out of His chariot
among the split shelvings of rock. The
mountain shook as with an ague, and
there were ten volleys of thunder, each of
the ten emphasizing tremendous ''Thou
shalt' or "Thou shalt not" Then the
Lord resumed His chariot Of cloud and
drove up the hills of Heaven. They were
dark and portentous clouds that made
that chariot at the giving of the law.
But one day He took another ride, and
this time down to Mount Tabor; the
clouds out of which His chariot was made,
bright clouds, roseate clouds, illumined
clouds, and music rained from all of
them, and the music was a mingling of
carol and chant and triumphal march:
This is My beloved Son, in whom I am
we'll pleased" TRANSPORTATION chariot
''Oh," say hundreds of you, st wish I
could have seen those chariots-the black
one that brought the Lord to Jebel- Musa
at the giving of the law, and the white
one that brought Him down to Tabor"
Never mind, you will see something
grander than that and it will be might
Ter mingling of the somber and the ra-
diant, and the pomp of it will be such that
the chariots in which Trajan, and Diocle-
tian, and Xenobia, and Caesar, and Alex
ander, and all the conquerors of all the
ages rode will be unworthy of mention:
and what stirs me the most is that when
He comes in that chariot of cloud and
goes back He will ask you and me to ride
with Him both ways. How do know that
the judgment chariot will be made of
clouds?
Behold He cometh with clouds.-Revelation
i, Z.
Oh, He will not then ride through the
heavens alone as He does now. He is
going to bring along with Him an escort of
ten full regiments. Inspiration says:
Behold the Lord cometh with ten thou
sand of His saints" But these figures
simply mean that there will be a great
throng And as we shall probably,
through the atonement of Christ, be in
Heaven before that, l hope that we can
come down in that escort of chariots.
Christ in the center chariot, but
chariots before Him to clear the
way, and chariots behind Him, and
chariots on either side of Him. Perhaps
the prophets and patriarchs of the old
dispensation may ride ahead, each one
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. aud Moses, and
Ezekiel and David, and Joshua, who FORE
told His first coming. On either side of
the cen trail chariot apostles and martyrs
who, in the same or approximate centu-
ries, suffered for Him-Paul, Stephen and
IgnatIus, and Polycarp and Justin Martyr,
and multitudes who went up in chariot
of fire, now coming in chariot of cloud,
while in the rear of the central chariot
shall be the multitudes of later days, and
of our own time, who have tried to serve
the Lord, ourselves, hope, among them.
Behold the Lord come tn with ten thou
sand of His saints"
Yes; although all unworthy of such
companionship we want to come with
Him on that day to see the last of this old
world which was once our residence.
Coming through the skies myriads of
chariots rolling on and rolling down. By
that time how changed this world will be.
Its deserts all flowers, it's rocks all
messed and lichened, its poor houses all
palaces, its sorrows all joys, its sins all
virtues, and in the same pasture-feld
lion and calf, and on the same perch
hawk and dove. Now the chariots of
cloud strike the earth, filling all the val
leys, and covering all the mountain sides,
and hating in all the cemeteries and
grave yards and over the waters deep
where the dead sleep in coral sarcopha-
gus.
A loul blast of the resurrection trump
et is given and the bodies of the dead
rise and join the spirits from which they
have long been separated. Then Christ,
our King, rising in the center chariot of
cloud, with His SCARED hands waves the