The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1888-09-20

has often sent a man up The quicker into
the sunlight of Gods favor and the noon
day of his glorious promises. 1t is diff
ficult thing for a man to feel his depend
ence upon God when he has ten thousand
dollars in the bank and fifty thousand
dollars in Government securities, and q
block of stores and three ships.
"Well," the man says to himself, sit is
silly for me to pray Give me this day my
daily bread when my pantry is full and
the canals from the West are crowded
with breadstuffs destined for my store
houses"
Oh, my friends, if the combined mis-
fortunes and disasters OF life have made
you climb up into the arms of SYM
pathetic and compassionate God, through
all eternity you will bless Him that in this
world
There was q sharp rock on the one side and
sharp rock on the other side.
Again, that man is in the crisis Of the
text who has home troubles and outside
persecution at the same time. The world
treats man well just as long as 1t pays
best to treat him we'll. AS long as it can
manufacture success out of his bone and
brain and muscle it favors him. The
world fattens the horse it wants to drive.
But let a man see 1t his duty to cross the
track of the world, then every bush is full
of horns and tusks thrust at him. They
will belittle him. They will caricature
him. They will call his generosity self
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT and his piety sanctimoni-
BUSINESS. The very worst persecution will
some time come upon him from those who
profess to be Christians.
1nhn Mi1fr,,, I'll
ton-so forgot himself as to pray, in so
many words, that his enemies might be
eternally thrown down into the darkest
and deepest gulf of hell, and be the un-
dermost and most detected and the low
est down vassals of perdition! And Mar
tin Luther SO far forgot himself as to
say, in regard to his theological oppo :
nents:
'sPut them In whatever sauce you
please, roasted. or fried, or baked, or
stewed, or boiled, or hashed, they are
nothing but asses"
All, my friends, il John Milton or Mar
tin Lutl er could come down to such sour
rility, what may you not expect from less
elevated opponents? Now, the world
sometimes takes after them; the news
papers takes after them; public opinion
takes after them; and The unfortunate
man is lied about until all the dictionary
OF Billinsgate is exhausted on him. You
often see man whom you know to be
good, and pure, and honest set upon by
the world and mauled by whole commu-
mites, while vicious men take on a super
cilious air in condemnation of him; as
though Lord Jeffreys should write an es-
say on gentleness, or Henry VIII. talk
about purity, or Herod take to blessing
little children.
Now certain amount OF persecution
rouses mans defiance, stirs his blood
for magnificent battle and makes him
fifty times more man than he would
have been without the persecution. So it
was with the great reformer when he
said:
II will not be put down; will be
heard"
er. in the time of Louis XII. When Louis
XII. sent word to him that unless he
stopped preaching in that style he would
throw him into the river, he replied:
Tell the King that will reach Heaven
sooner by water than he will reach it by
fast horses"
A certain amount OF persecution is q
tonic and inspiration. but too much of 1t,
and too long continued, becomes the rock
Bozez, throwing dark shadow over a
mans life. What is he to do then? Go
home, you say. Good advice, that. That
is just the place for man to 60 when the
world abuses him. Go home. Blessed be
God for our quiet and sympathetic homes.
But there is many a man who has the
reputation of having home when he has
none. Through unthinkingness or pre-
cipltation, there are many matches made
that ought never to have been made An
officiating priest can not alone unite a
couple. The Lord Almighty must pro-
claim banns. There Is many a home in
which there is no sympathy and no hap
piness and no good cheer. The clamor of
the battle may not have been heard out
side. but God knows, notwithst anding all
the playing Of the 'W edding March" and
all the odor of the orange blossoms and
the benediction of the officiating pastor,
there has been no marriage.
Sometimes meu have awakened to find
on one side of them the rock Of persecu-
ton, and on the other side the rock of do
nestle infidelIty. What shall such an
one do? Do as Jonathan did-climb Get
up the heights of Gods cons olatiou, from
which we may look down in triumph up
on the outside persecution and home
trouble. While good and great John
Wesley was being sileuced by the magis-
trates, and having his name written on
the board fences of London in doggerel,
at that very time, his wife was making
him as miserable as she eould-acting AS
though she were possessed with the devil,
as suppose she was; never doing him a
kindness until the day she ran away, SO
that he wrote in his diary these words:
did not forsake her; have not dis
missed her; will not recall herr
Planting one foot John Wesley did,
upon outside persecution. and the other
foot ON home trouble, he climbed into the
heights of Christian joy, and, after
preaching forty thousand sermons and
travelling two hundred aud seventy thou
sand miles, reached the heights of Heay-
en-, though in this world he had 1t hard
enough.
sharp rock on the one side, and sharp
rock on the other.
Again, that woman stands In the crisis
OF the text who has bereavement and a
struggle for a livelihood at the same time.
Without mentioning names, 1 speak from
observation. All, it is hard thing for a
woman to make an honest living, even
tl%~ l.