The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1888-12-13

own way through" And SO with spite
and an acuteness and velocity that have
been gaining for six thousand years, he
ranges up and down battling, dis appoint
ing, defeating, affecting, destroying the
human race.
Through his own hand or delegated in
fern alism he has pursued and hurt us all,
and cursed every heart, and cursed every
home, and cursed every nation, and
cursed every continent He has reioiced
in every pestilence. He has started
every groan. He has pressed out every
sigh. He has hurled every shipwreck.
Lazarettoes, insane asylums, CONNER.
cial panics, plaques, destroying angels,
continental earthquakes and world wide
disasters are to him perfect glee. Can
you look upon the Communism and the
Mormonism and the Mohammedanism
and the wide sweep Of drunkenness and
fraud and libertinism, the Franco Ger
man war and Crimean war, the North and
South United States war, and rivers Of
blood flowing across continents of misery
into oceans of wretchedness, without
realizingi.he power of the Evil One, who
reported to the Lord Almighty, and when
asked: Whence CONTEST thou? answered.:
From going to and fro in the ear til and
from going and down in it."
But, blessed be Godi I may substitute
anthem for requiem and Hallelujah
Chorus for the Dead March in Saul The
New Testament says: "The Son of God
was manifested that He might destroy the
works of the devil" 1t prophesied that
an angel would come down from Heaven
with key and chain and incarcerate and
shut up the old dragon. It says that
Christ came to 'destroy him that had the
power of the devil" And from the way
Christ drove the devil out of those pos
sessed by him until he was glad to hide
under the bristles of the swine of
Gadara and from other violent
ejectments, we know that there
is in existence a power a million
fold mightier than the diabolic. The old
lion of death shall go down under the
stroke and roar of the sIion of Judah's
tribe" Yea, my text shows that Satan
was compelled to report to the Almighty
and give account of himself. When God
said to him: whence contest thou?" he
was forced to answer. What means that
Scripture which says that Christ shall
bruise the serpsnt's head? If you have
ever killed snake the passage ought to
be plain to you. You see this old serpent,
the devil. has crawled across the nations,
poisoning whole generations and leaving
its trail on every thing; but after
awhile 1t will be eornered. and Kissing
and writhing in rage and with crest lifted
and forked tongue shot out it will make
final attack on Christ and Christ will adj
vance upon it, and lifting his omnipotent
foot, that foot strong enough to crush
world, lifting that foot right over the
head of the reptile, will put down his
heel with crushing power that shall
leave the monster bleeding and mashed,
never to hiss again or bite again or shake
his old rattle again.. Thank God he has
already received a stunning blow.
Hear you not the rumbling of the Chris
tian printing presses and the whirl-
ing of the Gospel chariot wheels:
AS many souls have been added to
the Christian Church in the last eighty
years as in the previous eighteen centu-
ries, and that is ratio of increase &C.
clamatory with gladness. The Kingdom
is coming, and l am so sure of it that |
do not propose to frat and worry because
it has not already come. l may jump to
get on boat that is going off, but I do
not propose to jump for boat that is
coming in. The sharp attacks of infideli-
ty and sin are a good sign that especial
blessing is coming in showers over all
the earth. Flies bite sharp just before
rain.
If we do not see the full contamination
our children will see it, In the time OF
the French revolution great procession
of boys carried through the streets BAN
ner with the inscription: s'Tremble
tyrants; we shall grow upw Though we
may fail to do our duty there is a rising
generation being gospelized, and coming
by the hundreds of thousands from our
Sabbath schools and Christian homes,
who might properly have on their BAN
ners: 'Tremble. we powers of darkness
and sin, for we are growing up!' We may
not amount to much in ourselves, but if
we put ourselves in the right place we
can do great exploits Two put under
two make only four; but placed beside
two make twenty two. Yet what you
and l most need is power to drive
back this Apollyon, this Asmodeus, this
Ahrimanes from our hearts aud lives.
And we can do it not by our own strength,
but by Divine power afforded, for here is
a passage embrazoned with encourage
ment, which says: RESIST the devil and
he will flee from YOU" r emember, it is
no sin at all to be tempted. The best and
the mightiest have been tempted. Mill
ton describes a toad squat at the ear of
Eve. The sin is in surrenderlng. Do not
feel so secure in yourself as to think you
can not be overthrown. How do you ac-
count for the fact that there are SO many
men in Sing Sing and Auburn and the
other penitentiaries serving out their
prOtracted sentences for frauds COM
mitted in mid life or advanced
ages, although their early life
had been good and nothing bad
suspected of them until at fifty
of sixty-gears of age the whole land was
struck dumb at their forgery or embtz-
Element The clock in the steep1e Of old
Trinity Church striking the hours did not
remind the recreant Wall-streeter of the
passage of time that would soon bring
exposure to him and doom. The sxplana-
ton is that Mephistopheles. Apollyon,
Satan got in his work at that time. The
man was not naturally bal. He was as
good as any OF you are, but Satan, with
whole battalions OF infdeis, swoopel up
on him unawares. Look out for the wiles
of the devil, not only those of you who
are young, but the middle- aged and the
old Outside of God you are not safe a
moment. But yield not to dishearten