The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1889-12-12

cassion which hag a tendency to injure
the success of the fair as great moral and
patriotic enterprise, after the locality
has been decided upon. There is such
thing as healthfuI rivalry between, cities,
but will you bear me out in saying that
there can be no good to come from the
uncanny things said about each other by
New York and Chicago, by Chicago aud
ST. Louis, by st. Paul and Minneapolis,
by Tacoma and Seattle, and all through
the States, by almost every two proximate
cities. All cities, like individuals, have
their virtues and their vices.
All our American cities should be our
exultatiou. What churches What pub
lie libraries! What asylums of mercy J!
What academies of musiel What mighty
men in law and medicine and art aud
scholarship What schools, colleges and
universities What women radiant and
gracious and au improvement on all
the generations OF women since Eve!
What p1ilanthropists who do not feel
satisfied with their own charities until
they get into the hundreds of thousands
and the millions! What GOODS acres"
for the dead, gardens Of beauty and pail
aces of marble for those vino sleep Tho
last sleep! Now stop your SANDER of
American cities. Do you say they are
the centers of crime and political cor
ruption? Please admit the fact that they
are centers OF intelligence and generosi
iy, and the mightiest patrons Of arehi-
lecture and sculpture and painting and
music, and reservoirs of religions infu-
ence for all the continent. 1t will be we'll
for the country districts to cease talking
against the cities, and it will BE- well for
the city of one locality to stop talking
against the cities of other localities.
New York will not get the Worlds Fair
by depreciating Chicago, and Chicago
will not get the Worlds Fair by bonn
harding New York.
Another suggestion concerning the
coming exposition: Let not the mate.
realistic and monetary idea overpower
the moral and religious. During that
exposition, the first time in all their
lives, there will be thousands of people
from other lands who will see a untry
without a State religion. Let us by an
increased harmony among ali denomina- =
sions of religion impress other rationale
ties, as they come here that year,
with the superior advantage of
having all denominations equal in
the sight of government. All the
rulers and chief men of E ropa baloug
to the State religion whatever it may be.
Although our last two Presidents have
been Presbyteuans, the previous one
was an Episcopaliau, and the two previ :
Gus Methodists; and going further back
in that line of Presidents, we find Martin
Van Buren, a Dutch Reformed. and John
Quincy Adams a Unitarian and a mans
religion il this country is neither him
derancs nor advantage in the matter of
political elevation. All Europe needs
that. All the world needs that. A mans
religion is something between himself
aud his God, and it must not, directly
or indirectly, be interfered with.
Furthermore, during that exposition,
Christian civilization will confront bar
barism. We shall as a nation have q
greater opportunity to make an evaLgel-
izing impression upon foreign national :
tiles than would otherwise be afforded US
in q quarter of q century. Let the
churches of the city where the exposition
is held be open every day. and prayers
be offered and sermons preached and
doxologies sung. III the less than three
years between this and that worlds con :
vocation, let US get baptism of the
Holy Ghost, so that the six months Of
that Worlds Fair shall be fifty Pente
costs in one, and instead of three thou
sand converted as in the former Pente-
cost, hundreds of thousands will be con-
verified. You must remember that tie
Pentecost mentioned in the Bible oc-
Cured when there was no print
ing press, no books, no Christian pam
phlets, no religious newspapers, and yet
the influence was tremendous How
many nationalities were touched? The
account says: "Parthians and Modes
and Eamites, " that is, people from the
Eastern countries; ''Plrygia and Pam
phylia, 5" that is. the Western countries;
''Cyrene and strangers of home, Cretes
and Arabians," that is, the S outhern
countries; but they were all moved By
the mighty spectacle. Instead Of the
sixteen or eighteen tribes of people re
ported at that Pentecost, all the chief
nations OF Europe and Asia, North and
South America, will he represented at
our Worlds Fair in 1892, and a Pente-
cost here and then would mean the sal
walton of the world.
But, you say. we may have at thai
fair the people of all lands and all To {
machinery for gospelization the re-
ligious printing presses and the churches,
| but all that would not make Penteeost:
we must have God. Well, you can have
Him. Has He not been graciously wait
| ing? and nothing stands in the way but
our own unbelief aud indolsnce and sin.
| May God break down the barriersl The
| graudest opportunity for the evangelical.
| ton of all nations since Jesus Christ
| died on the cross will be the WORLDS
Exposition of 1892. God may take US out
| of the harvest field before that, but let it
| be known throughout Christendom that
that year, between Nay and November,
will be the mountain of Christian advan
tage the Alpine and Himalayau height
of opportunity overlapping all others
| for salvation. Instead of the slow process
of having to send the Gospel to other
lands by our own American missions
aries, who have difficult toll in acquiring
the foreign language, aud thea must con :
| tend with foreign prejadices, what G
| grand thing so have able and influential
foreigners converted during their visit in
| America and then have them return te
| their native lands with the glorious ii.
| dingsi Oh, for an overwhelming work OF
| grace for the year 1892, that work begin
ming in the autumn of 1891
An other opportunity, if our public men
see ii, aud it is the duty of pulpit and
| printing press to help them to see it. viii