The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1888-05-24

of certain tree and threw that branch
into the water, and it became sweet and
slaked the thirst of the suffering host?
Are we a branch of the Tree of Life
sweetening all the brackish fountains that
we can touch? Dear Lord, send us all out
on Thy mission. All around us embittered
lives, emb1ttered by persecution, en-
Uttered by hypercriticism, embittered
by poverty, embittered by pain, en-
FILTERED by injustice, embittered by
sin. Why not go forth and sweeten them
by smiles, by inspiring words, by bene-
factions, by hearty counsel, by prayer,
by gospelized behavior. Let us remember
that if we are NORWOOD to others
we are NORWOOD to ourselves, and
our life will be bitter and our eternity
bitter. The Gospel Of Jesus Christ is the
only sweetening power that is sufficient.
1t sweetens the disposition. 1t sweetens
the manners. 1t sweetens life. 1t sweet
ems mysterious providence. 1t sweetens
Affections. 1t sweetens death. 1t sweet
ems every thing. / have heard people
asked in social company: ''If you could
have three wishes gratiied, what would
your three wishes be?" If / could have
three wishes met this morning, tell you
what they would be: ~ More Of the
grace OF God. ~ More of the grace of
God. (3) More of the grace of God.
In the door-yard of my brother John,
missionary in Annoy, China, there is
tree called the Emperor tree, the two
characteristics of which are that it always
grows higher than it's surroundings, and
its leaves take the form of a crown. If
this Emperor tree be planted by rose
bush it grows little higher than the bush
and spreads out above it a crown. If it be
planted by the side of another tree, it
grows little higher than that tree and
spreads above it a crown. Would to God
that this religion of Christ, a more won
derful Emperor tree, might overshadow
all your lives; are you lowly in ambition
or circumstance, putting over you its
crown; are you high in talent and position,
putting over you its crown. Oh, for more
of the saccharine in our lives and less of
the wormwood.
What is true of individuals is true of
nations. God sets them up to revolve as
stars, but they may fall wormwood.
Tyre-the atmosphere of the desert, fra
grant with spices, coming in caravans'to
her fairs; all seas cleft into foam by the
keels of her laden merchantmen; her
markets rich with horses and camels from
Togarmah; her bazaars filled with
upholstery from the Ocean, with emeralds
and coral and agate from Syria, with
wines from Helbon, with embroidered
work from Ashur and Chilmad Where
now the CLEAN of her towers, where the
roar of her chariOts, where the masts of
her ships? Let the fishermen who dry
their nets where once she stood, let the
sea that rushes upon the barrenness
where once she challenged the admiration
of all nations, let the barbarians who set
their rude tents where once her palaces
glittered answer the question. She was a
star, but by her own sin turned to worm
wood and has fallen.
Babylon, with her two hundred and fifty
towers and her brazen gates and her en-
battled walls, the splendor of the earth
gathered within her palaces, her hanging
gardens built by Nebuchadnezzar to please
his bride, Amyitis, who had been brought
up in mountainous country and could
not endure the fiat country round Babylon
these hanging gardens built, terrace
above terrace, till at the height of four
hundred feet there were woods waving and
fountains playing, the verdure, the foliage,
the glory looking as if mountain were
on the wing. On the tip-top King walk
ing with his Queen, among statues snowy
white, looking up at birds brought from
distant lands, and drinking out of tank
ards of solid gold or looking off over riv-
ers and lakes upon nations subdued and
tributary, crying:
SIS not this great Babylon which 1 have
built?"
What battering ram smote the walls?
What plowshare upturned the gardens?
What army shattered the brazen gates?
What long, fierce blast of storm put out
this light which illuminated the world?
What crash of discord drove down the
music that poured from palace window
and garden grove and called the banquet
ers to their revel and the dancers to their
feet? walk upon the scene of desolation
to find an answer and pick up pieces of
bitumen and brick and broken pottery,
the remains of Babylon, and as in the
silence of the night hear the surging of
that billow of desolation which rolls over
the scene, hear the wild waves saying:
Babylon was proud. Babylon was i'm
pure. Babylon was star, but by sin she
turned to wormwood and has fallen"
pray that our Nation may not copy the
crimes of the nations that have persisted,
and our cup of blessing turn to worm
wood and like them we go down. I am
by nature and by grace an optimist, and /
expect that this country will continue to adj
vance until the world shall put on millen-
NAL era and that when Christ shall come
again He will set His throne somewhere
between the Alleghenies and the Sierra
Nevadas. But be not deceived! Our only
safety is in righteousness toward God and
justice toward man. If we forget the good
ness of the Lord to this land and break
His Sabbaths and improve not by the dire
disasters that have again and again come
to us as people, and we learn saving
lesson neither from civil war nor raging
epidemic, nor drought, nor mildew, nor
scourge of locusts and grasshopper; if
the political corruption which has
poisoned the fountains of public
virtue and beslimed the high places of
authority. making free government at
times kissing and byword in all the
earth; if the drunkenness and licentious-
ness that stagger and blaspheme in the
streets of our great cities as though they
were reaching after the fame of Corinth
and Sodom are not repented of, we will
yet see the smoke of our Nations ruin:
the pillars of our National and State CAPT.
tails will fall more disas trously than when