The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1889-03-28

DefS OF LnaG Idmliy, ana carried Lnem
amay. Ziklag in ashes! And you
go about, sometimes weeping and
sometimes enraged, wanting to get back
your loved ones as much as David and his
men wanted toreconstruct their despoiled
households. ziklag in ashesl Some of
you went off from home. You counted
the days of your absence. Every day
seemed as long as week. Oh, how glad
you were when the time came for you to
go aboard the steamer or rail car and start
for home! You arrived. You went up
the street where your dwelling was, and
in the night you put your hand on the
door bell, and behold it was wrapped
with the signal of bereavement, and you
found that Amalekitish Death, which has
devastated a thousand other households,
had blasted yours. You go about weeping
amidst the desolation of your once happy
home, thinking of the bright eyes closed,
and the noble hearts stopped and the
gentle hands folded, and you weep until
you have no more power to weep. Ziklag
in ashesl
A gentleman went to friend of mine
in the City of Washington, and asked
that through him he might get consul
ship to some foreign port. My friend said
to him: ''What do you want to go away
from your beautiful home for into a for
eign port?" ''Oh," he replied, "my home
is gonel My six children are dead! 1
must get away, sir. l can't stand it in
this country any longer" Ziklag in
ashes!
| preach this sermon to-day because I
want to rally you, as David rallied his
men, for the recovery Of the loved and
the lost. want not only to win Heaven,
but l want all this congregation to go
along with me. l feel that somehow I
have responsibility in your arriving in
that great city. 1 have on other Sabbaths
used other inducements. I mean to-day,
for the sake of variety, hoping to reach
your heart, to try another kind of induce
ment. Do you really want to join the
companionship of your loved ones who
have gone? Are you as anxious to Join
them as David and his men were to join
their families? Then I am here in the
name OF God to say that you may and to
tell you how.
1remark, in the first place, if you want
to join your loved ones in glory, you must
travel the same way they went. No sooner
had the half-dead Egyptian been resusci-
tated than he pointed the way the captors
and the captives had gone, and David and
his men followed after. So our Christian
friends have gone into another country,
and if we want TO reach their companion
ship we must take the same road. They
repented; we must repent They prayed;
we must pray. They trusted in Christ;
we must trust in Christ. They lived re-
ligious life; we must live religious life.
They were in some things like ourselves.
| know, now that they are gone,
there is halo around their names: but
they had their faults. They said and did
things they ought never to have said or
done. They were sometimes rebelious.
sometimes cast down. They were far
from being perfect. So 1 suppose that
when we have gone some things in us that
are now only tolerable may be almost re-
splendent. But as they were like us in
deficiencies, we ought to be like them in
taking a supernal Christ to make up for
the deficits. Had it not been for Jesus
they would have all persisted, but Christ
confronted them and said: st am the
way" and they took it.
have also to say to you that the path
that these captives trod was troubled
path, and that David and his men had to
go over the same difficult way. While
these captives were being taken off, they
said: sob, we are so tired; we are so
sick; we are so hungryp' But the men
who had charge of them said: 'Stop this
crying. Go onl" David and his men also
found it hard way. They had to travel
it. Our friends have gone into glory, and
it is through much tribulation that we are
to enter into the Kingdom. How our loved
ones used to have to struggled how their
old hearts ached! how, sometimes, they
had tussle for bread In our childhood
we wondered why there were so MANY
wrinkles on their faces. We did not
know that what were called scrow's
feet" on their faces were the marks of
the black raven of trouble. Did you
never hear the old people, seated
by the evening stand, talk over
their early trials, their hardships, the
accidents, the burials, the disappoint-
ments, the empty -four barrel when there
were so many hungry ones to feed, the
sickness almost unto death, where the
next dose of morphine decided between
CHASTITY bereavement and an unbroken
home circle. Oh, yes! it was trouble that
whitened their hair. 1t was trouble that
shook the cup in their hands. 1t was
trouble that washed the luster from their
eyes with the rain of tears, until they
needed spectacles. 1t was trouble that
made the cane q necessity for their Jour-
ney. Do you never remember seeing your
old mother sitting, on some rainy day.
looking out Of the window, her elbow on
the window-sill, her hand to her brow:
looking out, not seeing the falling shower
at all-you we'll knew she was looking
into the distant past-unti1 the apron
came up to her eyes, because the me morv
was too much for her?
Oft the big, unbidden tear,
Stealing down the furrowed cheek,
Told in eloquence sincere,
Told of woe they could not speak.
But this scene of weeping ser,
Past this scene OF toll and pain,
They shall feel distress no more,
Never, never weep again.
"Who are these under the ALTAR" the
question was asked, and the response
came: "These are they which came out
of great tribulation, and have washed
their robes, and made them white in the
blood of the Lamb" Our friends went
by path of tears into glory. Be not
surprised if we have to travel the same
pathway.
| remark, again, if we want to win the
society of our friends in Heaven, we will
- L. L.