The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1888-11-22

black preach black sermon, and from
invocation to benediction have the inn
preston black, few will come, and those
who do come will wish they had not come
at all.
Golden candles.icksi Scour up the six
lilies on each branch and know that the
more lovely and bright they are, the more
fit they are to hold the light. But
Christless church is damage to the
world rather than good. Cromwell
stabbed his cavalry horses in St Paul's
Cathedral, and many now use the church
as a. place in which to stable their vani-
ties and worldliness. A worldly church
is g candlestick without the candle, and
it had its prototype in st. Sophia, in Con-
stantinople, built to the glory of God by
Constantine, but transformed to base
uses by Mohammed ii. Built out of coll
ored marbles, cupola with twenty -four
windows souring to the height Of one
hundred and eighty feet; the ceiling one
great bewilderment of mosaic; galleries
supported by eight columns of porphyry
and sixty columns of green jasper;
nine bronze doors with alto relieve work,
fascinating to the eye of any artist; vases
and vestments encrusted with all manner
of precious stones. Four walls on fire
with indescribable splendor. Though
labor was cheap, the building
cost million and a half dollars.
E ecclesiastical structure almost super
natur al in pomp and majesty. But Mo-
hammedanlsm tore down from the walls
of that building all the sanity and Christ
ly images, and high up in the dome
the figure of the cross was
rubbed out that the crescent of
the barbarous Turk might be substi-
tuted. A great church, but no Christi A
gorgeous candlestick, but no candlel Ten
thousand such churches would not give
the world as much light as one home
made tallow candle by which last night
some grandmother in the eighties put on
her spectacles and read the Psalms of
David in large type. Up with the churches,
by all meansi Hundreds of them, thou
sands Of them, and the more the better.
But let each one be blaze OF Heavenly
light, making the world brighter till the
last shadow has disappeared and the last
of the suffering children of God shall
have reached the land where they have no
need Of candlestick or 'sof candle, neither
hight of the sun, for the Lord God glveth
them light, and they shall reign forever
and ever"
Ipass on to another mighty Bible seven,
and they are the seven seals. st. John,
in vision, saw scroll with seven seals,
and he heard an angel cry: ''Who is
worthy to loose the seal thereof?' Take
eight or ten sheets of toolscap paper,
paste them together and roll them into a
scroll, and have the scroll at seven dit
ferent places sealed with sealing wax
You unroll the scroll till you come to one
OF these seals, and then you can go no
further until you break that seal, then
unroll again until you come to another
seal and you can go no further until you
break that seal; then you go on until all
the seven seals are broken and the con-
tents of the entire scroll are revealed.
Now, that scroll with seven seals held by
the angel was the prophesy of what was
to come on the earth; it meant that the
knowledge Of the future was with God,
and no man and no angel was worthy to
open it; but the Bible says Christ opened
it, and broke all the seven seals. He
broke the first seal and unrolled the
scroll, and there was a painting of a
white horse, and that meant prosperity
and triumph for the Roman Empire; and
SO 1t really came to pass that for ninety
years virtuous Emperors succeeded each
other, Nerva, Trajan and Antoninus.
Christ in the vision broke the second seal
and unroled again, and there was paint
ing of a red horse, and that meant blood
shed, and so it really came to PASS, and the
next ninety years were red with assassi-
nations and wars. Then Christ broke the
third seal and unrolled it, and there as
a painting of a black horse, which in all
literature means famine, oppression and
taxation, and so it really came to pass.
Christ went on until He broke all the
seven seals and opened all the scroll.
Well, the future of all of us is sealed
scroll, and / am glad that no one but
Christ can open it. Do not let US join
that class Of Christians IN our day who
are trying to break the seven seals of the
future. They are trying to peep into
things they have no business with. They
try to foretell what is going to come to
them and what is going to come on the
earth. They know nothing about it,
Christ is the only one who can break the
seal of the future. Bible prophesy was
not written to help us to tell things in
the future, but to have us, when the
| things actually do come to pass, COM
pare them with prophesy, aud so learn
Gods foreknowledge and the inspiration
| OF the Scriptures. But you go into the
| study of the prophecies in order to find
out what is going to happen year from
| now, or twenty years from now or one
| thousand years from now, aud will
make prophesy of my own, and that is
that you will have your brain added, if
you do not positively get into pu bic or
private insane asylum, where the great
est of expounders and preachers Of
prophesy ended his life few
years since, and where you may re-
gale the visitors of the institution
by incoherent mumblings over some
thing from Daniel or Revelations about
the leopard which means Greece, and the
bear which me ans Medo-Persia, and the
| image with the great toes. What a men,
tai wreck did the persistent attempt to
forestall events make of that miracle of
preachers, Edward Irving, of London. 1t
| would take several mad houses to hold
the demented victims of the improper use
OF the prophecies OF Daniel and Revela-
ton. What are not those books to be
studied? Yes. No part of the Bible is
more important. Neither Is there any
more important shelf in that apothecary,s
store than the shelf on which are the
belladonna and the morphine, but he is
more careful in using them than in the