The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1889-02-07

| promises are mine, Christ is mine, Chris
| tan compa1ionship is mine, Heaven is
mine. What though mr. apparel be worn
out? Christ gives nee robe of righteous
| ness. What though my money be gone?
| l have title deed to the whole universe
| in the promise: All are yours What
though my worldly friends fall away!
| Ministering angels are my bodyguard.
| What though my fare be poor and my
bread be scant? sit at the Kings ban
quet."
You and I have found out that people
who pretend to be happy are not always
happy. Look at that young man car1ca-
turing the Christian religion, scofirfg at
every thing good, going into registering
drunkenness, dashing the champagne
bottle to the floor, rolling the glasses from
the bar-room counter, laughing, shout
ing, stamping the floor, shrieking. Is he
happy? will go to his midnight pillow.
will see him turn the gas off. will ask
myself if the pillow on which he sleeps is
as soft as the pillow on which that pure
young man sleeps. All! no. When
he opens his eyes in the morning
will the world be as bright to
him as to that young man who re-
| tired at night saying his prayers,
invoking Gods blessing upon his own
! soul ana the souls Oh his anu
father and mother and brothers and sis
tiers far away2 No, no. His laughter will
ring out from the saloon so that you hear
J it as you pass by, but it is hollow laugh
: ter; in it is the swapping of heart-strings
and the the rattle of prison gates. Happy
that young man happy! Let him fill high
| the bowl; he can not drown an upbrald-
ing conscience. Letthe balls roll through
/ the bowling alley; the deep rumble
} and the sharp crack can not over
power the voices of condemnation.
l Let him Whirl in the dance
3 of sin and temptation and death. All the
4 brilliancy of the scene can not make him
. forget the last look of his mother, as he
: left home, when she said to him: Snow,
3 my son, you will do right, l am sure you
: will do right; you will, won't your" That
young man happy? Why, across every
: night there fit shadows of eternal dark
g ness; there are adders eoiled up in every
g cup; there are vultures of despair strik-
9 ing their iron beak into his heart; there
IS are skeleton fingers of grief pinching at
r the throat. l come in amid the clinking
: of the glasses and under the flashing of
n the chandeliers, and 1 cry: "Woe! woe
a The way Of the ungodly shall perish.
IS There is no peace, saith my God to the
1
Ir Oh, my friends, there is more JOY in one
: cup of Christian satisfaction than in the
l. whole river of sinful delight. Other wings
SO may be drenched of the storm and
II splashed of the tempest, but the dove
Of that comes in through the window of this
z: Heavenly ark has wings like the dove GOV
ct cred with silver, and her feathers witt
ID yellow gold.
w Oh, do you know of any thing, my hear
er, that is more beautiful than to see (;
s. young man start out for Christ? Here i!
g, some one falling; he lifts him up. Here
ut is vagabond boy; he introduces him to
s: mission school. Here is family freezin!
m to death; he carries them a scuttle of coal
o. There are eight hundred million perishin
he in midnight heather darkness; by all pos
N, sible means he tries to send to them tn
he Gospel. He may be laughed at, and h
us may be caricatured, but he is not ashame
re. to go everywhere, saying: 81 am nc
it's ashamed of the Gospel of Christ. 1t
the power of God and the wisdom of Go
oh unto salvation" Such young man ca
is, go through every thing. There is no fore
is on earth or in hell that can resist him.
a show you three spe etacles. Spectacl
re- the first: Napoleon passes by with the hos
lat that went down with him to Egypt, and u
he with him through Russia, and crossed til
nd continent on the bleeding heart of whic
M he set his iron heel, and across the quiz
old ering flesh of which he went grinding Il
am wheels of his gun carriages-in his dyiI
led moment asking his attendants to put {
al his military boots for him.
ep- Spectacle the second: Voltaire, brig
aac and learned, and witty and eloquent, wi
ned tongue and voice and stratagem inferno
am warning against God and poisoning who
} a kingdoms with his infdelity, yet applau
ing ed by the clapping hands of thrones al
men empires and continents-his last words,
use delirium supposing Christ standing
it. the bedside-his last words: 'Crush tn
BILE, wretch"
ing Spectacle the third: Paul-Paul, insi
cal, nifcant in person, thrust out from all I
ght fined association, scourged, spat {
to bounded like a wild beast from city
20 city, yet trying to make the world go
3 it and Heaven full; announcing resurre
yer, ton to those who mourned at the barr
gates of the dead; speaking consolatio
IS which light up the eyes of widowhood, a
oms orphanage, and want with glow of certa
usi- and eternal release; undaunted befc
g is those who could take his life, his che
pity flushed with transport, and his eye
light Heaven; with one hand shaking dehar
lied at all the foes of earth and all the prin
his palities of hell, and with the other ha
h is reckoning messenger angels to come a
re is bear him away, as he says: 81 am n
ian, ready to be offered, and the time of
the departure is at hand; have fought !
all good fight, have finished my course
his have kept the faith; henceforth there
light laid up for me a crown of righteousn
that which the Lord, the righteous Judge, v
lied, give me-"
OBJ Which Of the three spectacles do J
/ be most admire? When the wind of de;
rs of struck the conqueror and the inidel Il
are were tossed like sea gulls in a tempe
eing drenched of the wave and torn of
and hurricane their dismal voices hei
lirer through the everlasting storm; but WI
liver the wave and the wind of death str
Paul, like an albatross he made thr,
will of the tempest, and one day foated ap
how into the calm, clear summer of HeaV
fore brighter than the dove, its wings cove
p to with silver and its feathers with vel
do gold. Oh, are you not in love with sue
or; I religion-a religion that can do so m
from for man while he lives and so much
once a man when he comes to die? I supp
III an | Won may have noticed the contrast