The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1890-03-20

| come? Where are those who, having put
aside that one-tenth, draw upon it cheer
fully? Why, it is pull, and drag, and
hold on, and grab, and clutch; and Civ
ing is an affection to most people when
it ought to be an exhilaration and a
rapture. Oh, that God would remodel
our souls on this subject, and that we
might appreciate the house of God as
the great refuge. If your children are
to come up to lives of virtue and happi-
ness, they will come up under the shadow
of the church. If the church does not
get them the world will.
All, when YOU pass aw ay-and it will
not be long before you do-when you
pass away it will be satisfaction to
see your children in Christian society.
You want to have them sitting at the
holy sacraments. You want them min
Cling in Christian associations. You
would like to have them die in the sa-
cred precincts. When you are on your
dying bed, and your little ones come up
to take your last word and you look in
to their bewildered faces, you will want
t to leave them under the church's bene-
| diction. l don't care how hard you
are, that is so. / said to a man
of the world: ''Your son and
daughter are going to join our
Church next Sunday. Have you any
objections?" ''Bless you" he said, lob
jections? I wish all my children be-
longed to the Church. 1 don't attend
to those matters myself know 1 an
very wicked-but l am very glad they
are going, and shall be there to see
them. I am very glad, sir; 1 am very
glad. want them there" And so,
though you may have been wanderers
from God, and though you may have
sometimes caricatured the church OF
Jesus, it is your great desire that your
sons and daughters should be standing
all their lives within this sacred inclos-
ure.
More than that you yourself will
want the church for hiding place when
the mortgage is foreclosed, when your
daughter, just blooming into woman
hood, suddenly clasps her hands in
slumber that knows no waking, when
gaunt trouble walks through the parlor,
and the sitting-room, and the dining
hall, and the nursery, you will want
some shelter from the tempest. All
some of you have been run upon by mis-.
fortune and trial; why do you not come
into the shelter? I said to widowed
mother after she had buried her only
son-months after said to her:
''How do you get along nowadays?'
"Oh," she replied, 81 get along toIer-
ably well, except when the sun shines"
l said: What do you mean by that?"
when she said:
Il can't bear to see the sun shine; nv
heart is so dark that all the brightness
of the natural world seems a mockery
to me-" o, darkeneG soul! o, broken
hearted man, broken-hearted woman,
why do you not come into the shelters
swing the door wide open. swing il
from wall to wall. Come I'M Come in!
You want a place where your troubles
shall be interpreted, where your bur.
dens shall be unstrapped, where your
tears shall be wiped away
Church of God, be hiding place tc
all these people. Give them a seat
where they can rest their weary souls.
Flash some light from your chandeliers
upon their darkness. With some sooth-
ing hymn hush their griefs. O, Church
of God, gate Of Heaven, LOT me so
through it! All other institutions are
going to fall; but the Church of God-its
foundation is the Crock of Ages" its
charter is for everlasting years, its
keys are held by the universal proprie-
tor, its dividend is Heaven, it's president
is God!
Sure as thy truth shall last,
To Zion shall be given
The brightest glories earth can yield,
And brighter bliss of Heaven.
God grant that all this audience, the
youngest, the eldest, the worst, the best,
may find their safe and glorious hiding
place where Joash found it-in the tenn
pie.