The Bossier banner., 1891-08-13

! Motley, in his Dutch Republic, tells
us of Egmona the martyr, who, con-
demned to be beheaded, unfastened his
collar on the way to the scaffold; and
when they asked him why he did that
he said: $50 they will not be detained
in their work; l want to be ready"
Oh, how little we have to endure COM
pared with those who have gone before
rs.
Now, if you have come across i'll
treatment, let me tell you you are IN
excellent company-Christ, and Luther,
and Galileo, and Columbus, and John
Jay, and Josiah Quincy, and thousands
of men and women, the best spirits OF
earth and Heaven. Bulge not one inch,
though all hell wreak upon you its ven
geance, and you be made a target for
devils to shoot at. Do you not think
Christ knows all aboU3 persecution?
Was He not Missed at? Was He not
struck on the cheek? Was He not pur-
sued all the days of His life? Did they
not eXpectorate upon Him? Or, to put
it into Bile language: "They spit upon
Him" And can not He understand
what persecution is? ''Cast thy burden
upon the Lord and He shall sustain
thee"
3. There are others who carry great
burdens of physical ailments. When
sudden sickness has come, and fierce
choleras and malignant fevers take the
castle of life by storm, we appeal to
God; but in these chronic ailments
which wear out the strength day after
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after year. how little resorting to God
for solace! Then people depend upon
their tonics and their plasters and their
cOrdials rather than upon heavenly
stimulants. Oh, how few people there
are comparatively we'll! Some of you,
by dint of perseverance and care, have
kept living to this time; but how you
have had to war against physical all
ments! Antediluvians, without medical
college and infrmary and apotheeary
shop, multiplied their years by hun
dreds, but he who has gone through
the gauntlet of disease in our time,
and has come to seventy years of age,
is hero worthy of palm.
The world seems to be great hospi-
tai, and you run against rheumatisms
and consumptions and scrofulas and
neural gias and scores of old diseases
baptized bv new nomenclature. Oh,
how heavy burden sickness is! 1t
takes the color out OF the sky and the
sparkle out of the wave and the sweet
ness out of the fruit AMI the luster out
of the night. When the limbs acne,
when the respiration is painful, when
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unhealthy Instructions, how hard it is
to be patient and cheerful and assiduous!
Cast thy burden upon the Lord" Does
your head ache? His wore the thorn.
Do your feet hurt? His were crushed
of the spikes. Is your side painful?
His was struck by the spear. Do you
feel like giving way under the burden?
His weakness gave way under a cross.
While you in every possible way try To
restore your physical vigor, you are to
remembe that more soothing than
any anodyne, and more vitalizing
than any stimulant, and more strength
ening than any tonic is the prescrip
tion of the text: "Cast thy burden
upon the Lord, and He shall sustain
thee" We hear a great deal of talk
now about faith cure, and some people
say it can not be done and it is a fail
ure. / do not know but that the
chief advance of the church is to be in
that direction. Marvellous things come
to me day by day which make me think
that if the age of miracles is past, it is
because the faith of miracles is past.
Another burden some have to carry
is the burden of bereavement. All.
these are the troubles that wear us out
If we lose our property, by additional
industry, perhaps, we may bring back
the estranged fortune; if we lose our
good name, perhaps by reformation OF
morals we may achieve again rcputa,
ton for integrity; but who will bring
back the dear departed? Alas, me- fo1
these empty cradles and these trunks Of
= childish toys that will never be used
again. Alas, me! for the empty chair
and the silence in the halls that
! will never echo again to these familiar
footsteps. Alas! for the cry of widow
hood and orphanage. What bitter
Marahs in the wilderness, what cities
, of the dead; what long, black shadow
from the wing of death; what eyes
sunlken with grief; what hand tremu-
lous with bereavement. what instru-
ments of music shut now because there
are no fingers to play them! Aye, let
, the soul ride into the harbor of my text.
The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for re.
pose,
will not, will not desert to its foes;
That soul, though all hell shall endeavor
: to shake,
PHnever, no never, no never forsake
Then there are many who carry the
burden of sin. All, we all carry it until
in the appointed way that burden is
lifted. We need no Bible to prove that
the whole race is ruined. What a spec
l tacle it would be if we could tear off
the mask of human deflement, or beat
a drum that would bring up the whole
army of the worlds transgressions-the
deception, the fraud, and the rapine, and
/ the murder, and the crime of all the cen,
turies Ay, if I could sound the trum-
pet of resurrection in the soul of the