The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1889-08-01

is worse imam m1ne-QooS not cure NINE
If l, through my foolhardiness, leap of
into ruin, does it break the fall to know
that others leap of higher cliff into
| deeper darkness? When the Hudson
River rail train went through the bridge
at Spuyten DuyYil, did it alleviate the
matter at all that instead of two or three
| people being hurt there were seventy five
| mangled and crushed?
Because others are depraved, is thai
any excuse for my depravity? Am l bet
ter than they? Perhaps they had worse
temptations than I have had. Perhaps
their surroundings in life were more
overpowering. Perhaps. man, if you
had been under the same stress of temp
tation, instead of sitting here to day you
would have been looking through the
bars of the penitentiary. Perhaps, o
woman, if you had been under the same
power of temptation instead of sitting
here to-day you would be tramping the
street, the laughing stock of men and
the grief of the angels of God, dun
geoned, body, mind and soul, in the
blackness of despair. All, do not let US
solace ourselves with the thought that
Other people are worse than we. Per-
haps in the future, when our fortunes
may change, unless God prevents it, we
may be worse than they are. Many a
man after thirty years, after forty years,
after fifty years, after sixty years, has
gone to pieces on the sandbars. Oh! in
stead of wasting our time in hyper
criticism about others, let us ask our
selves the questions: Where do we stand?
What are our sinsl What are our de-
fcits? What are our perils? What our
hopes? Let each one say to himself:
where will be? Shall 1 range in sum-
merry fields, or grind in the mills of a
great night? Where? Where?"
Some winter morning you go out and
see snow bank in graceful drifts, as
though by some heavenly compass it had
been curved; and as the sun glints it the
ulster is almost insufferable, and it seems
as if God had wrapped the earth in a
shroud with white plaits woven in looms
celestial And you say: "Was there
ever any thing so pure as the snow, so
beautiful as the snow?" But you brought
pail of that snow and put it upon the
stove and melted it; and you found that
there was sediment at the bottom; and
every drop of that snow water was riled;
and you found that the snow bank had
gathered up the impurity of the field, and
that after all it was not fit to wash in.
And so say it will be if you try to gather
up these contrasts and comparisons with
others, and with these apologies attempt
to wash out the sins of your heart and
life. 1t will be unsuccessful ablution.
Such snow water will never wash away
single stain of an immortal soul.
But 1 hear some one say: ~ will try
something better than that. 1 will try
the force of a good resolution. That will
be more pungent, more caustic, more ex-
tlrpating, more cleansing. The snow
water has failed, and now 1 will try the
alkali of the good, strong resolution"
My dear brother, have you any idea that
a resolution about the future will liqui-
date the past? Suppose 1 owed you five
thousand dollars and I should come to
you tomorrow and say: 'tSir, will never
run in debt to you again; if l should live
thirty years will never run in debt to
you again." will you turn to me and say:
IF you will not run in debt in the future
| will forgive you the five thousand dol
lars" Will you do that? No! Nor will
God. We have been running up a long
score of indebtedness with God, If for
SAAO AOINIC W. SIOuIu dDSbdlu from SIN.
that would be no defrayment of past in
debtedness. Though you should live
from this time forth pure as an arch
angel before the throne, that would not
redeem the past. God in the Bible de-
clares that He ''will require that which is
opportunities, past neglects,
past wicked words, past impure magma
lions, past every thing. The past is
great cemetery, and every day is buried
n it. And here is a long row of three
hundred and sixty-five graves. They are
5he dead days of 1888. Here is a long row
If three hundred and sixty-fve more
graves, and they are the dead DAYS of
1887. And there is a long row of three
hundred aud sixty FIVE more graves. and |
hey are the dead days of 1886. It is a |
7ast cemetery of the past. But God will |
'ouse them all up with resurreetionary
blast and as the prisoner stands face to |
ace with juror and judge, so you and |
will have to come up and look upon those |
departed days face to face, exulting in /
heir smile or covering in their frown.
Murder will out" is a proverb that |
stops too shot. Every sin, however small. |
rs well as great, will out. In hard times |
n England, years ago, it is automatically |
stated that a manufacturer was on the |
way, with bag of money, to pay off his |
lands. A man Infatuated with hunger
net him on the road and took a rail with |
| nail in it from the paling fence and
struck him down, and the nail entering
he skull, instantly slew him. Thirty |
ears after that the murderer went back |
o that place. He passed into the grave
ard, where the sexton was digging a
rave, and while he stood there the spade
# the sexton turned up skull; and, 10
he murderer saw nail protruding from
he back part of the skull; and, as the
exton turned the skull, it seemed with
follow eyes to glare on the MUIR
erer, and he, first petrifed with
orror, stood in silence, but soon cried
ut: Guilty guiltyl o, Godu' The
MYSTERY of the crime was over. The
nan was tried and executed. Ny friends,
ii the unpardoned sins of our lives,
hough We may think they are buried out
f sight and gone into mere skeleton of
lemory, will turn up in the cemetery of
be past, and glover upon US with their
nisdolngs. l say all our unpardoned
ms. Oh, have you done the preposter-
us thing of supposing that good resolu-
ions for the future will wipe out the
asst? Good resolutions, though thew
lay be pungent and caustie as alkali
ave no power to neutralize a sin, have