The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1889-01-31

| Pharaoh that the old shepherd mas come.
In the royal apartment Pharaoh and ia
cob meet-dignity and rusticity-the
| gracefulness of the court and the
| plain manners of the field. The
King, wanting TO make the old
| countryman at ease, and seeing how
white his beard is, and how feeble his step,
looks Familiarity in his face and says to
the aged man: "How old art thou?" Give
the old man a seat. Unload the wagons
drive out the cattle toward the pastures of
| Goshen. Let the slaves in scarlet kneel
and wash the feet of the newly arrived,
| wiping them on the finest linen of the pal
ace. From vases of perfume let the new
! ly arrived be sprinkled and refreshed;
| let MINISTRIES come in with sandals of
crimson, and thrum the harps, and clap
the cynabals, and jingle the tambourines,
while we sit down, at this great distance
of time and space, and learn the lesson of
| the Kings wagons.
! My friends, we are in a world by sin
famine -struck; but the King is in con-
slant communication with us, his wagons
coming and going perpetually; and in the
rest of my discourse 1 will show you what
the wagons bring and what they take
back
In the first place, like those that came
from the Egyptian palace, the Kings
wagons now bring us corn and meat and
many changes of raiment. We are apt to
think of the fields and the orchards as
feeding US; but who makes the flax grow
for the linen, and the wheat for the bread,
| and the wool on the sleeps back? Oh,
wish we could see through every grain
field, by every sheep-fold, under the trees
of every orchard, the Kings wagons.
They drive up three times a day-morn-
ing, noon and night. They bring furs
from the Arctic, they bring fruits from
the tropic, they bring bread from the tenn
perate zone. The King looks out, and He
says: s'There are twelve hundred millions
of people to be fed and clothed. So many
pounds of meat, so many barrels of -four,
so many yards of cloth and linen and fan
mel, so many hats, so many socks, so
many shoes;" enough for all, save
that we who are greedy get more
shoes than belong to us, and others
go barefooted. None but a God
could feed and clothe the world.
None but a Kings corn-crib could APP
pease the worlds famine. None but a
King could tell how many wagons to send,
and how heavily to load them, and when
they are to start. They are coming over
the frozen ground to-day. Do you not
hear their rumblingl They will stop at
noon at your table. Oh, if for a little
while they should cease, hunger would
come into the nations, as to Utica when
Hamllcar besieged it, and as in Jerusalem
when Vespasian surrounded it; and the
nations would be hollow-eyed, and fall
upon each other in universal cannibalism:
and skeleton would drop upon skeleton;
and there would be no one to bury the
dead; and the earth would be a field of
bleached skeletons; and the birds of prey
| would fall dead, flock after flock, without
| any carcasses to devour; and the earth in
silence would wheel around, one great
black hearse! All life stopped because the
Kings wagons are stopped. Oh, thank
| God for bread-for bread!
remark again, that, like those that
came from the Egyptian palace. the
Kings wagons bring us good news. Jacob
has not heard from his boy for great
| many years. He never thought of him
but with q heartache. There was in
Jacobs heart room where lay the corpse
of his unburied Joseph; and when the
| wagons came, the Kings wagons, and told
him that Joseph was yet alive, he faints
dead away. Good news for Jacob! Good
news for u.s. The Kings wagons come
down and tell us that our Joseph Jesus is
| yet alive; that He has forgiven us because
we threw Him into the pit of suffering and
the dungeon of shame. He has risen from
thence to stand in a palace. The Bethle-
hem shepherds were awakened at mid
| night by the rafting of the wagons that
brought the tidings, Our Joseph-Jesus
sends US a message of pardon, of life, of
Heaven; corn for our hunger, raiment
| for our nakedness. Jesus-J Joseph is vet
alive.
| go to hunt up jesus. l go to the village
of Bethany, and say: SWhere does Mary
| live~ They say: "Yonder Mary lives. J"
go in. l see where she sat in the sitting
room. I go out where Martha worked in
the kitchen, but find no Jesus. 1 go into
Pilates courtroom and find the judges
and the police and the prisoners box, but
no Jesus. go into the Arimathean Gem
etery, but the door is gone, and the
shroud is gone, and Jesus is gone. By
faith look up to the Kings palace; and
behold have found Him. Joseph Jesus
is still alive! Glorious religion, a religion
made not out of deaths head, and cross
bones, and undertaker's screw driver, but
one bounding with life, and sympathy.
and gladness. Joseph is yet alive!
know that my Redeemer lives
What comfort this sweet sentence givesl
He lives, He lives, who once was dead
He lives, my everything head!
He lives to grant me daily breath,
He lives, and shall conquer death
He lives my mansion to prepare
He lives to bring me safely there.
He lives, all glory to His name:
He lives, my Jesus still the same.
Oh, the sweet Joy this sentence gives.
know that my Redeemer livesl
The Kings wagons will after awhile un-
load, and they will turn around and thew
will go back to the palace, and l really
think that you and I will go with them.
The King win not leave us in this famine
struck world. The King has ordered that
we be lifted into the wagons, and that we
go over into Goshen, where there shall be
pasturage for our largest flock of Joy, and
then we will drive up to the palace. where
there are glories awaiting us that will melt
all the snow of Egyptian marble into for
getfulness.
think that the Kings wagons will take
us up to see our lost friends. Jacobs
chief anficina+ia4, xuac y,o+ so,3,,.. Al. :. NJ,