The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1888-12-20

Better to have one talent and put 1t to
full use than FIVE hundred wickedly neg.
lected,
| NV subject teaches me that there is go-
| ing to come day of solemn settlement.
W hen the old farmer Of the text got home
he Immediately called all she servants
| about him and said: Here is the little
account have been keeping. Iwant to
| see your account and we will first COM
| pare Them and I'll pay you what owe
you and you'll pay me what you own me.
| Let us have q settlement The day will
| come when the Lord Jesus Christ will APP
! pear, aud will say to you: what have
/ you been doing with my property? What
| have you been doing with my faculties?
| What have you been doing with what l
gave you for accumulativs purposes!"
There will be no escape from that settle-
ment. Sometimes you can not get set
Element with man, especially IT he owes
you. He postpones and procrastinates,
and says: cpl see you next week." or
'.Pll see you next month" The fact is he
does not want to settle. But when the
| great day comes of which am speaking
there will be no escape. We will have to
face all the bills. have sometimes been
amazed to see how an accountant will run
up or down a long line of figures.
It see ten or fifteen figures in line,
and attempt to add them up, and | add
them two or three times. l make them diff
ferent each time. But | have admired
the way an accountant will take long
line of figures, and without o single mis-
take, and with great celebrity, announce
the aggregate. Now, in the last great
settlement, there will be a correct ac-
4 - -
line of sins, a long line OF broken Sab
baths, long line of profane words, q
long line Of discarded sacraments, a
long line of misimproved privileges.
They will all be added up, and before
angels, and devils, and men, the aggre-
gate will be announced. Oh, that will be
the great day of settlement. I have
to ask the question: sAm ready for
it?' It is of more importance to me to
! answer that question in regard to N.Y.
self than in regard to you, and it is of
more Importance for you TO answer it in
) regard to yourself than in regard to me-.
} Every man for himself in that day.
l Every woman for herself III that day. "If
, you be wise, thou shalt be wise for thy
self; if thou soonest thou alone shall
t bear it." We are apt to speak of the last
1 day as an occasion of vociferation-a
l great demonstration of power and pomp;
but there will be- on that day, l think, a
. few moments oe entire silence; / think a
: | tremendous, an overwhelming silence;
, think it will be such silence as the
q earth never heard. It will be at the
. moment when all nations are liste ming
. for their DOOM
. learn also from this parable of the
I text that our degrees of happiness IL
I Heaven will be graduated according to
: our degrees of usefulness Oh earth. Sew
= eral Of the commentators agree in max.
Q ing this parable the same one as in Luke,
! where one man was made ruler over two
IL cities. Would it be fair and right that
the protested Christian man who has
a lived very near the line between the
9 world and the church--the man who ha,
9 often compromised his Caristian charac.
$ ter-the man who has never Spoken
,, out for God-the man who hai
8. never been known as Chris
! tan only on communion days
!, the man whose great struggle has been t,
% see how much of the world he could ge
y and yet win Heavens 1T right to sup
ID pose that that man will have as grand
Is and glorious seat in Heaven as the mai
ID who gave all his energies of body, min,
10 and soul to the service of God? The dy
Q. ing thief entered Heaven, but not witt
II the same startling acclaim as that whic
ne greeted Paul, who had gone under scorch
T. jngs, aud across dungeons and through
q maltreatments into the Kingdom of glory
Id One star differs from another star i
M glory, and they who toll nightly fo
ne Christ on earth shall have a far create
c. reward than those who have rendere
only half service.
n Some OF you are fastening on towar
Dc the reward of the righteous. l want
Mt cheer you up at the thought that ther
s. Will be some kind of reward waiting fo
Oh you. There are Christian people in th
house who are very near Heaven. Til
as week some of you may pass out into tt
~, light of the unsetting sun. saw bin
lie man going along the road with his stat
Id, and he kept pounding the earth and the
se stamping with his foot. I said to him
"What do you do that for?" oh"
se said, 81 can tell by the sound of I'll
an ground when 1 am near a dwelling.
he And some OF you can tell by the sonnd
,st your earthly pathway that you aIe CON
r. ing near your Fathers house. / con
he gratuiate you. Oh weather beaten voJ
IN, | ayers, the storms are driving you in
an the harhor. just as when you wei
GU looking for friend. and came l
'ul to the gate of the house, and ye
gu | were talking With the servant, whe
nd your friend hoisted the window and shou
ito ed: "Come ini come int" Just so, whe
re You come to the gate of the future worl
nd and you are talking with Death, the bla'
lat porter at the gate, methinks Christ WI
it? | hoist the Window and say: s'Come il
of come in will make thee ruler over II
ter cities" In anticipation of that land / {
on not wonder that Augustus Toplady, tt
re? author of "Rock of Ages" declared
pit bis last moment: II have nothing mo
ote fto pray for; God has given me eve
ith thing. Surely 10 man can live on ear
lay after the glories have Witnessed" @
am my brothers and sisters how sweetit W
in be, after the long wilderness march,
al get home. That was bright moment +
eat the tired dove in the time of the Delu
ing when it found its way safely into the wi
18th dow of the ark.
NJ Unaffected Sincerity.
.no Unaffected sincerity can not be sin
III | lated, nor can it be concealed. It W
I'll. =