The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1889-05-02


What is true Of individuals is true of
nations. The horrors of the American
revolution gave this country this side
of the Mississippi river to INDIE
pendence, and the conflict between En-
gland and France gave the most of this
country west of the Mississippi to
the United States. France owned it,
but Napoleon, fearing that England
would take it, practically made a
present! to the United States-for The re-
ceived only SIS, 900, 000-of Louisiana, Mis-
souri,, Arkansas, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa,
Minnesota, Colorado, Dakota, Montana,
Wyoming and the Indian Territory. Out
of the fire of the American revolution
came this country east Of the Mississippi,
out of the European war came that west
of the Mississippi river. The British
Empire rose to its present overtowering
grandeur through gunpowder plot, and
Guy Fawkes' conspiracy, and Northamp-
ton instruction, and Walter Raleigh's
beheading,. and Bacon's bribery, and
Cromwell's dissolution of Parliament
and the battles of Edge Hill, and
Grantham, and Newberry, and Marston
Moor, and Naseby, and Dunbar. and
Sedgemoor, and execution of Charles
the First, and London plague, and
London fire, and London insurrec-
tioA, and Ryehouse plot, and the vicissi-
tudes Of centuries. So the earth itself,
| before it could become an appropriate
and beautiful residence for the human
! family had, according to geology, to be
washed by universal deluge, and scorched
and made incandescent by universal fires,
and pounded by sledge- hammer of ice
bergs, and wrenched by earthquakes that
| split continents, and shaken by volcanoes
that tossed mountains, and passed
through the catastrophes of thousands of
years before Paradise became possible
and the groves could shake out their
| green banners, and the first garden pour
its carnage OF color between the Gihon
and the Hiddekel. Trouble is a good thing
for the rocks, good thing for nations, as
well as good thing for individuals. So
when you push against me with sharp
Interrogation point. Why do the good suf
fer? l open the dark saying on a harp and,
though l can neither play an organ, or
cornet, or hautboy, or bugle, or clarionet,
l have taken some lessons on the Gospel
harp, and if you would like to hear me l
will play you these: 'All things work to-
gether for good to those who love God"
"Now no Christening for the present SEEM
eth to be joyous, but grievous; neverthe-
less, afterward it yieldeth all possible
fruits Of righteousness unto them which
are exercised thereby" "Weeping may
endure for night but JOY cometh in the
morning." What sweet thing is harp.
and / wonder not that in Wales,
the country of my ancestors, the
harp has become the national instru-
ment, and that they have festivals
where great prizes are offered in the
competition between harp and harp; or
that weird Sebastian Erard was much Of
his time bent over this chorded and vi
brating triangle, and was not satisfied un-
til he had given it compass of six oc-
taves from E to E with all the semi tones,
or that when King Saul was demented the
son of Jesse came before him, and putting
his finger among the charmed strings of
the harpiplayed the devil out of the crazed
monarch, or that in Heaven there shall
be harpers harping with their harps. So
you will not blame me for opening the
dark saying on the Gospel harp:
Your harps We trembling saints,
Down from the willows take;
Load to the praise of love Divine
Bid every string awake
, Interrogation the third: Why did gooG
} God let sin and trouble come into the
world when he might have kept them out
My reply is, he had a good reason. h
had reasons that he has never given US
, He had reasons which he could no more
Q make US understand in our finite statC
than the father starting out on some grea
4 and elaborate enterprise could make thu
/ two-year- child in its armed chat
Y comprehend it. One was to demonstrate
: what grandeur of character may be
, achieved on earth by conquering evil
n Had there been no evil to conque
Y and no trouble to console, then thi
: universe would never have know
S an Abraham or Moses, or
3 Joshua or an Ezekiel, or a Paul o
q a Christ, or a Washington or John Mil
d ton, or John Howard, and million vic
It tories which have been gained by the con
: secrated spirits of all ages would neve
S have been gained. Had there been n
n battle there would have been no victory
d Nineteen of the anthems of Heave
g would never have been sung. Heave
j. could never have been a thousandtn PAL
i of the Heaven that it is. will not sa
n that l am glad that sin and sorrow di
u enter, but l do say that l am glad tha
Is after God has given all his reasons to a
q oooOAAO4Oo ul4AfO1oO nc WILL D0 0QOI
/. honored than if sin and sorrow had neye
2 entered, and that the unfallen celes
e tials will be outdone, and will pu
y down their trumpets to listen, and it wi
(, be in Heaven when those who have con
IS quered sin and sorrow shall enter, as
g would be in small singing-schoo O
d earth if Thalberg, and Gottschalk, an
is Wagner, and Beethoven, and Rheinbel
d ger, and Schumann should all at ono
h enter. The immortals that have bee
Y, chanting ten thousand years before th
n throne will say, as they close the
It librettos: "Oh, if we could only sin
IS like that" But God will say to thos
y who have never fallen and consequent
ID have not been redeemed: "Yon must h
u silent now; you have not the qualificatio
for this anthem" So they set with close
10 lips and folded hands, and sinners save
;: by grace take up the harmony, for th
,e Bible says: mo man could learn ths
q song but the hundred and forty and fou
d thousand which were redeemed from tn
I EARTH"
N A great prima donna, who can now d
: any thing with her voice, told me thu
IF when she first started in music her teach
II er in Berlin told her she could be goo