The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1890-11-06


any department Daniel knew that if
he continued his adherence to the re-
ligion of the Lord he would be hurled
to the lions, but having set his compass
well, he sailed right on.
For the lack of that element of char
| acter, so eminent in Daniel, many men
are ruined for this world, and ruined
for the world to come. A great many at
forty years of age are not settled in any
respect, because they have not been
able to make up their mind. Perhaps
they will go West Perhaps they will
go East. Perhaps they will not. Per-
haps they will go North Perhaps
they may so South. Perhaps they
will not. Perhaps they may make that
investment in real estate or in
railroads. Perhaps they will not.
They are like a steamer that should go
out of New York harbor, starting for
Glasgow, and the next day should
change for Havre de Grace, and the next
for Charleston. and the next for Boston,
and the next for Liverpool. These men
on the sea of life, everlastingly tacking
| ship and making no Roadway. Or they
are like man who starts to build a
house in the Corinthian style, and
changes it to Doric, and then completes
it in the Ionic, and is cursed by all
styles of architecture.
Young man! start right, and keep on.
Have decision of character. Character
| is like the goldfinch of Tonquin-it is
magnificent while standing firm. bus
loses all its beauty in flight How much
decision of character in order that these
young men may be Christians! Their
! old associates make sarcastic filings at
them. They go on excursions and t,-ey
do not invite them. They prophesy
that he will give out. They wonder if
he is getting wings. As he passes they
grimace, and wink, and chuckle, and
say: There goes a saint"
Oyoung man! have decision OF char
acter. You can afford, in this matter
of religion, to be laughed at. What do
you care for the SCOTS of these men who
are affronted because you will not 60 to
ruin with them? When the grave
cracks open under their feet, and grim
messengers put them into it, and eter-
nifty comes down hard upon their spirit,
and conscience stings, and hopeless
ruin lifts them up to hurl them down,
will they laugh then?
learn also from my subject that men
may take religion into their worldly
business. Daniel had enough work to
do to occupy six men. All the affairs of
state were in his Neutrality-suspicious. of
finance, questions of war, of peace, all
international questions were for his set
Element or adjustment. He must have
had correspondence vast beyond all
computation. There was not a man
in all the earth who had more to do
than Daniel, the Secreta of State,
and yet we find him three times a day
bowling before God in prayer, There
are men in our day who have not hun
dredth part of Daniels engagements,
who say they are too busy to be re-
ligious. They have an idea somehow
that religion will spoil their worldly
occupation, that it will trip the ac-
countants pen, or dull the carpenters
saw, or confuse the lawyers brief, or
disarrange the merchants store-shelf
They think religion is impertinent
They would like to have it very well
seated beside them in church on the
Sabbath, to find the place in the psalm
book, or to nudge them awake when
they get sleepy under the .didactic dis
courses; or they would like to leave it
in the pew on Sabbath evening as they
go out closing the door saying: "Good
night, religion; I'll be back next Sun
day!" But to have religion go right
by them all through life, to have re-
ligion looking over their shoulder when
they are making a bargain, to have
religion take up a bag of dishonest
gold and shake it, and say: "Ha! hal
where did you get that?' They
think that is an impertinent religion.
They would like to have religion to
help them when they are sick, and
when the shadow of death comes over
them they would like to have religion
as sort of night-key with which to
open the door of Heaven; but religion
under other circumstances they take to
be an impertinence. Now, my friends,
religion never robbed man of dollar.
Other things being equal, mason will
| ONAAU a OOOOOI HdlI, d CdDlu0G-u1dK6F
will make better chair, plumber
will make better pipe, lawyer will
make better plea, merchant will sell
a better bill of goods
l say other things being equal OF
course when religion gives a man new
heart it does not propose to give him
head, or to intellectualize him, or to
change mans condition when his Or
binary state is an overthrow of the
philanthropical theory that a total
vacuum is impossible; but the more let
tiers you have to write, the more burdens
you have to carry, the more miles you
have to travel, the more burdens Won
have to lift, the more engagements YOU
have to meet, the more disputes you
have to settle, the more opportunity
you have of being a Christian.
If you have thousand irons in the
hire, you have a thousand more oppor.
tunities of serving God than if you had
only one iron in the fire. Who so busy
as Christi And yet who a mi11ionth
part as holy? The busiest men the best
men. All the persons converted in
na