The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1888-09-06

destiny; without regard to faith or char
acter, we are all coming out at the Shin
ing gate. There they are, all in glory to-
gether. Thomas Paine and George
Whitefeld, Jezebe1 and Mary Lyon, Nero
and Charles Wesley, Charles Guiteau and
James A. Garfield, John Wilkes Booth
and Abraham Lincoln-all in glory
together! All the innocent men, women
and children who were massacred, side
by side with their murderers. IL we are
all coming out at the same destiny, wi tn
out ard to character, then it is true,
turn away from such a debauched
Heaven. Against that cauldron of piety
and blasphemy, philanthropy and assas-
sination, self-sacrifice and beastliness,
place the two destinies of the Bible for
ever and forever and forever apart.
Behold also the splendors of the Chris
tian orthodox death-beds.
Those who deny thu Bible or deny any
part of it, never die we'll. They either go
out in darkness or they go out in silence
portentous. You may gather up all the
biographies that have come forth since
the art of printing was invented, and
challenge you to show me a triumphant
death of a man who rejected the Script
ures, or rejected any part of them. Here
l make great wide avenue. On the one
l put the death-beds of those who be-
lieved in an entire Bible. On the other
side Of that avenue l put the death beds
of those VIII rejected part of the Bible,
or rejected all of the Bible. Now take my
arm and let us pass through this dividing
avenue. Look off upon the right side.
Here are the death beds on the right side
of this avenue: Victory drought our
Lord Jesus Christi" 'sFree grace %
"Glory, glory!' 81 am sweeping through
the gates washed in the blood of the
Lambl" s'The chariots are coming !" 81
mount, / fy!" Swings, wings!" 'They
are coming for mel" "Peace, be still ~
Alfred Cookman's death-bed, Richard
Ceci's death bed, Commodore Foote'S
death-b bed, your fathers death bed, your
mothers death bed, your sisters DEATH
bed, your child's death-bed. Ten thou
sand radiant, songful death-beds of those
who believed an entire Bible.
Now, take my arm and let US go through
that avenue and look off upon the other
side. No smile of hope. No shout of
trump. No face systematically illu-
mined. Those who reject any part of the
Bible never die well. No reckoning for
angles to come. No listening for the
celestial escort. Without any exception
they go out of the world because they are
pushed out; while, on the other hand, the
list of those who believed in an entire
Bible and gone out of the world in tri-
umph is a list so long it seems intermin-
able. Oh, is not that a splendid in
f1uence, this orthodoxy, which makes that
which must otherwise be the most dread
full hour of life-the last hour-positively
paradisaical?
Young men, old men, middle-aged
men, take sides in this contest between
orthodoxy and heterodoxy.
Ask for the old paths, walk therein, and ye
shall find rest for your souls.
But you follow this crusade against any
part of the Bible-first of all, you will
give up Genesis, which is as true as
Matthew; then you will give up all the
historical parts of the Bible; then after
awhile you will give up the miracles;
then you will find it convenient to give up
the Ten Commandments; and then after
awhile you will wake up in fountainless,
reckless, treeless desert swept of ever
lasting sirocco. If you are laughed at
you can afford to be laughed at for stand
ing by the Bible just as God has given it
to you and miraculously. preserved it.
Do not jump overheard from the stanch
old Great Eastern of old-fashioned
orthodoxy until there is something ready
to take you up stronger than the fantastic
yawl which has painted on the side "Ad-
vanced Thought" and which leaks at the
prov and leaks at the stern, and has
steel pen for one and glib tongue for
the other ore, and now tips over this way
and then tips over that way, until you do
not know whether the passengers will
land in the breakers of despair OIL on the
sinking sand Of infidelity and atheism.
1 am in full sympathy with the adj
vancements OF our time, but this world
will never advance single inch beyond
this old Bible. God was just as capable
of debating the truth to the prophets aud
apostles as He Is capable of debating the
truth to these modern apostles and
prophets. God has not learned any thing
in thousand years. He knew Just as
much when He gave the first dictation as
He does now, giving the last dictation, if
He is giving any dictation at ALL So |
will stick to the old paths. Naturally a
skeptic, and preferring new things to old,
never so much as day felt the truth
of the entire Bible, especially as I see
IutO WudL spectacular luDeClllUy men
rush when they try to chop up the Script
ures with the meat-axe of their own
preferences; now calling upon philoso-
ply, now calling upon the Church, now
calling on God. now calling on the devil.
1 prefer the thick, warm robe of the old
religion-old as God-the robe which has
kept many warm amid the cold pilgrim
age Of this life and amid the chills of
death. The old robe, rather than the thin,
uncertain gauze offered us by these WISE
acres who believe the Bible in spots.
On July q, 1914, at seventy two years of
age, expired Isabella Graham. She was
the most useful woman of her day amid
the poor and sick, at the head of the or
phan asylums and Magdalen asylums,
and an angel of mercy in hospital and
DR.. Mason, one of the
mightiest men of his day, said at her
funeral that she was mentally and spirit
ually the most wonderfully endowed per-
son he had ever met She was an imper.
sonation of the most orthodox orthodoxy
Her last word was peace. As sublime
peroration to my sermon l will give an
extract from her last will and testament,
showing how one who believes in an
entire Bible may make glorious exit:
sMy children and my xandchildren ]
lnavp IN NV eovpuaOt Cob ba Odd WIZ