The Bossier banner., 1891-04-02

That night is BelshaZZer, the King OF
the Chaldeans, slain.
Here is young man who says: II
can not see why they make such fuss
about the intoxicating cup. Why, it is
exhilarating! 1t makes me feel well. 1
can talk better, think better, feel bet
ter can not see why people have such
prejadice against it." A few years
pass on and he wakes up and finds him.
self in the clutches of an evil habit
which he tries to break, but he can not,
and he cries out: ''Oh, Lord God, help
mel" 1t seems as though God would
not hear his prayer, and in an agony of
body and soul he cries out: cit biteth
like serpent and it stingeth like an
adder" How bright it was at the startI
How black it was at the lastl
Here is a man who begins toread cor
rupt novels. 'They are SO charming
says he; 81 will go out and see for my
self whether all these things are 500
He goes in. A sinful sprite meets him
with her wand. She waves her wand,
and it is all enchantment. Why,
it seems as if TIE angels of
God had poured out phials of
perfume in the atmosphere As He
walks on He finds the hill becoming
more radiant with foliage, and the ra-
vines more resonant with the falling
water. Oh! what charming land
scape he sees! But that sinful sprite,
with he wand, meets him again; but
now she reverses the wand, and all
&c
is full of poison. The fruit turns to
ashes. All the leaves of the bower are
forked tongues of kissing serpents,
The flowing fountains fall back in
dead pool, stenchful with corruption.
The Turing songs become curses and
screams of demoniac laughter Lost
spirits gather about him and feel for his
heart, and beckon him on with: "Hail,
brother! Hail, blasted spirit, hailp' He
tries to get out. He comes to the front
door where he entered, and tries to push
it back, but the door turns against him;
and in the jar of that shutting door he
hears these words: This night is Bel
shazzar, the King of the Chaldeans,
slain." Sin may open bright as the
morning. 1t ends dark as the night!
l learn further from this subject that
Death sometimes breaks in upon BAN
quet. Why did he not go down to the
prisons in Babylon? There were peo-
pie there that would like to have died.
suppose there were men and women
in torture in that city who would have
welcomed death. But he comes to the
palace, and just at the time when the
mirth is dashing at the tip-top pitch
Death breaks in at the banquet. We
have often seen the same thing Illus
trated. Here is a young man just come
from college. He is kind. He is low
ing. He is enthusiastic. He is elo-
quent. By one spring he may bound
to heights toward which many men
have been struggling for years. A pro-
fession opens before him. He is estab-
lished in the law. His friends cheer
him. Eminent men encouraged him.
After awhile you may see him standing
i'll the United States Senate, or moving
a popular assemblage by his eloquence
as trees are moved in whirlwind Some
night he retires early. A fever is on
him. Delirium, like a reckless chari-
oteer, seizes the reins of his intellect.
Father and mother stand by and see
the tides of his life going out to the
great ocean. The banquet is coming to
an end. The lights of thought, and
mirth, and eloquence are being extin-
guished. The garlands are snatched
from the brow. The vision is gone.
Death at its banquet
We saw the same thing, on a larger
scale, illustrated at the last war in this
country. Our whole Nation had been
sitting at a National banquet-North,
South, East and West. What grain was
there, but we grew it on our hills. What
invention was there, but our rivers must
turn the new wheel and rattle the
strange shuttle. What warm frlrs. but
our traders must bring them from
the Arctic What fish, but our
nets must sweep them for the
markets. What music, but it must
sing in our halls. What eloquence,
but it must speak in our Senates,
Hol to the National banquet, reaching
from mountain to mountain and from
sea to sea! To prepare the banquet the
SHO6pIO1QS anu the dVldrlcS OF the cOuQ-
try sent their best treasures. The or
chards piled up on the table their sweet
est fruits. The presses burst out with
new wines. To sit at that table came
the yeomanry of New Hampshire, and
the lumbermen of Maine and the Caro-
linian from the rice fields, and the
Western emigrant from the pines Of Ore
gon, and we ara all brothers-brothers
at banquet. Suddenly the feast end
ed. What meant those mounds thrown
up at Chickarnauga, Shiloh, Atlanta,
Gettysburg, South Mountain? What
meant those golden grain fields, turned
into a pasturing ground for cavalry
horses? What meant the cornfields guI-
led with the wheels of the heavy sup
ply train? Why those rivers of tears
those lakes of blood? God was angryl
Justice must come. A handwriting on
the wall! The Nation had been weiShed
and found wanting. Darkness! Dark
ness! Woe to the. North! Woe to the
South! Woe to the East Woe to the
West! Death at the banquet!
have also to learn from the subject