The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1889-08-29

| soar, all the better for us. The armies oil
the Lord Jesus Christ have stormed the
| observatories of the worlds science, anL
| from the highest towers have flung out
the banner of the cross, and Christianity
| tonight, from the observatories Of AL.
bany and Washington, stretches out its
hand toward the opposing scientific
weapon, crying:
There is none like that; give 1t me.
was reading this afternoon of Her.
schel, who was looking at meteor
through telescope, and when it came
over the face of the telescope it was Sc
powerful he had to avert his eyes. And
it has been just so that many an astron-
omer has gone into an observatory and
looked up into the midnight heavens, and
the Lord God has, through some swing
ing world, famed upon his vision, and
the learned man cried out: ''Who am I:
Undone! Uncleanl Have mercy, Lord
Godw
Again, remark, that the travelling dis
position of the world, which was averse
to morals and religion, is to be brought
ON our side. The man that went down to
Jericho and fell amidst thieves was a
type OF great many travellers. There is
many man who is honest at home who,
when he is abroad, has his honor filched
and his good habits stolen. There are but
very few men who can stand the stress of
an expedition. Six weeks at a watering
place has damned many a man. In the
olden times God forbade the travelling of
men for the purposes of trade because of
the corrupting influences attending it. A
good many men now can not stand the
transition from one place to another.
Some men who seem to be very consist
emit at home in the way of keeping the
Sabbath, when they get into Spain,
on the Lords day, always 60 out
to see the bull-fghts. Plato said
that no city ought to be built
nearer to the sea than ten miles, lest it
be tempted to commerce. But this trav-
cling disposition of the world, which was
adverse to that which is good is to be
brought on our side. These rail trains,
why, they are to take our Bibles; these
steamships, they are to transport our
missionaries; these sailors rushing from
city to city all around the world, are to
be converted into Christian heralds and
go out and preach Christ among the
heather nations. The Gospels are in
hn1tely multiplied in beauty aud power
since Robinson, and Thompson, and
Burckhardt have come back aud talked to
us about Sloan, and Capernaum and
Jerusalem, pointing out to us the lilies
about which Jesus preached, the beach
upon which Paul was shipwrecked, the
fords at which Jordan was passed, the
Red Sea bank on which were tossed the
carcasses of the drowned Egyptians. A
man said:
Il went to the Holy Land an infdel; 1
came back Christian. I could not help
it."
am not shocked at the idea of building
a railroad to the Holy Land. 1 wish that
all the world might go and see GoIgotha
and Bethlehem. If we can not afford to
pay for muleteers now, perhaps when the
rail train goes we can afford to buy
ticket from ConstantinopIe to Joppa, and
so we will get to see the Holy Land.
Then let Christians travel. God speed
the rail trains, and guide the steamships
this night painting across the deep in the
phosphorescent wake of the shining feet
of Him who from wave cliff to wave cliff
trod the stormed Liberals. The Japanese
come across the water and see our
civilization, and examine our Christiani-
ty, and go back and tell the story, and
keep that empire rocking until Jesus
shall reign.
Where err the sun
Does his successive journeys run,
And the firearms with which the infidel
traveller brought down the Arab horse
man and the jackals of the desert, have
been surrendered to the church, and we
reach forth our hands crying:
There is none like that; give it mel
So it has also been with the learning
and the eloquenee of the world. People
say:
Religion is very good for women, it is
very good for children, but not for men,"
But we have in the roll of Christ's host
Mozart and Handel in music: Canova
and Angelo in sculpture; Raphael and
Reynolds in painting; Harvey and Boer-
have in medicine; Cowper and Scott in
poetry; Grotius and Burke in statesman
ship; Boyle and Leibnitz in philosophy:
Thomas Chalmers and John Mason in
theology. The most brilliant writings of
a worldly nature are all aglow with
spiritual illusions. Through senatorial
speech and through essayists discourse
Sinai thunders and Calvary pleads and
Sloan sparkles.
Samuel L. Southland was mighty in the
courtroom and in the Senate chamber.
but he reserved his strongest eloquence
for that day when he stood before the
literary societies at Princeton commence
ment and pleaded for the grandeur of our
Bible. Daniel Webster won not his chief
garlands while he was consuming Hayne,
nor when he opened the batteries of his
eloquence on Bunker Hill, that rocking
Sinai of the American revolution, but
on that day when, in the famous Girard
will case, he showed his affection for the
Christian religion and eulogized the
Bible. The eloquence and learning that
have been on the other side came over to
our side. Where is Gibbons historical
pen! Where is Robespierre's sword?
Captured for God.
There is none like that; give it mel
So, also, has it been with the picture
making of the world. We are very anx-
ous on this day to have the printing press
md the platform on the side of Christian |
ty; but we overlook the engraver's knife !
Ind the painters pencil. The antiouari-
IN goes and looks at pictured ruins, or |
the chiseled pillars of Thebes |
md Nineyeh and Pompeii, and then |
,omes back to tell us of the beastliness
# ancient art; and it is fact now that
many of the finest specimens--merely ar
considered-of sculpture and |