The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1889-09-26

answer, but held up his arm, sWO1-
len and splintered. / saw where he YVES
hurt. The simple fact is, when man has
| wounded soul, all he has to do is to hole
it up before a sympathetic Lord and gel
it healed. 1t does not take any long
prayer. Just hold up the wound. Oh, il
is no small thing when Taan is nervous
and weak and exhausted, coming from
his evil ways, to feel that God puts two
Omnipotent arms around about him and
says: ''Young man, will stand by you
The mountains may depart and the bills
be removed. but l will never fail you.n
And then, as the soul thinks the news is
too good to be true, and can not believe
it, and looks up in Gods face, God lifts
His right hand and takes an oath, an af-
fidayit, saying: 'As L live, saith the Lord
God, l have no pleasure in the death OF
him that dieth."
Blessed be God for such Gospel as
this "Cut the slices thin," said the wife
to the husband, Cor there will not be
enough to go all around for the children;
cut the slices thin" Blessed be God
there is full loaf for every one that
wants 1t; bread enough and to spare. No
thin slices at the Lords table. remem-
Der when the Master Street Hospital, in
Philadelphia, was opened during the war
telegram came, saying: There will
be three hundred wounded men tonight;
be ready to take care of them;" and from
my church there went in some twenty or
thirty men and women to look after these
poor wounded fellows. AS they came,
some from one part of the land, some
from another, no one asked whether this
from OraoO3,
chusetts, or from Minnesota, or from New
York. There was wounded soldier, and
the only question was how to take off the
rags most gently, and put on the bandage
and administer the cordial. And when
soul comes to God He does not ask where
you came from or what your ancestry
was. Healing for all your wounds, par
don for all your guilt comfort for all
your troubles.
Then, also, counsel you, if you want
to get back, to quit all your bad associa-
tons. One unholy intimacy will fill your
soul with moral distemper. In all the
ages of the church there has not been an
instance where man kept one evil asso-
ciate and was reformed. Among the four.
teen hundred millions of the race not one
instance. Go home to-day, open your
desk, take out letter paper, stamp an en-
velope, and then write letter something
like this:
my Old Companions-I start this day
for Heaven. Until am persuaded you
will join me in this, farewell"
Then sign your name and send the let
ter with the first post. Give up your bad
companions or give up Heaven. 1t is not
ten bad companions that destroy man,
nor five bad companions, nor three bad
companions, but one. What chance is
there for that young man I saw along the
street. four or five young men with him,
hating in front of grog shop, urging
him to go in, he esisting-violently re-
sisting-until after awhile they forced
him to go in? 1t was a summer night and
the door was left open and | saw the
process. They held him fast, and thew
put the cup to his lips, and they forced
down the strong drink. What chance is
there for such young man?
Some one said to q Grecial General:
NV hat was the proudest moment in your
l1feW He thought moment, and said:
''The proudest moment in my life was
when l sent word home to my parents
that had gained the victory" And the
proudest and most brilliant moment in
your life viii be the moment when you
can send word to your parents that you
have conquered your evil habits by the
grace of God and become eternal victor.
Oh, despise not parental anxiety! The
time will come when you will have
neither father nor mother, and You will
go around the place where they used to
watch you and find them gone from the
house, and gone from the field, and gone
from the neighborhood. Cry as loud for
as you may over the mound
in the churchyard, they will not answer.
Dead Dead! Aud then you will take out
the white lock of hair that was cut from
your mothers brow just before they buried
her, and you will take the cane with
which your father used to walk, and you
will think and think and wish that you had
done Just as they wanted you to and
would give the world if you had never
thrust pang through their dear old
hearts.
God pity the poor young man who has
brought disgrace on his fathers name!
God pity the young man who has broken
his mothers heart! Better if he had
never been born-better if, in the first
hour of his life, instead of being laid
against the warm bosom of maternal
he had been cofined and
'epulchered. There is no balm powerful
enough to heal the heart of one who has
brought parents TO sorrowful grave and
Who wander about through the dismal
cemetery, rending the hair and wringing
-haphands and crying: "Mother motherp'
Oh, that to- day, by all the memories of
he past and by all the hopes of the future,
you would yield your heart to Godl Nav
your fathers God and your mothers God
be your God forever!
INDIVIDUAL EFFORT.