The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1891-03-26
THE INVITATION COME"
A Single Word, But How Much
Depends Upon It.
The Solicitation May be for Good or for
ETil-It is the Word of God to His
Children and that of the Tempt
er to His Victims.

cred by Rev. 7. Dewitt Talmage in the
Brooklyn Academy of Music and also
in the New York Academy of Music,
from the text:
come.-Genesis. vi, Is and Revelations.
xii. Il.
Imperial, tender and all-persuasive is
this word Come Six hundred and
seventy-eight times is it found in the
Scriptures. 1t stands at the front gate
of the Bible as in my first text, inviting
antediluvians into Noahs ark, and it
stands at the other gate of the Bible as
IN my second text, inviting the post
diluvians into the ark of a Saviour's
mercy. Come" is only word of four
letters, but it is the queen of words, and
nearly the entire nation of English
vocabulary bows to its scepter. 1t is
an ocean into which empty ten thou
sand rivers of meaning. Other words
drive, but this beckons. All moods of
feeling hath that word s'Come." Some
times it weeps and sometimes it laughs
Sometimes it prays, sometimesit tempts
and sometimes it destroys It sounds
from the door of the church and from
the seraglios of sin, from the gates of
Heaven and the gates of hell. 1t is con-
fluent and aeerescent of all power. 1t
is the heiress of most of the past and
the almoner of most of the future
Gomez You may pronounce it so
that all the heavens viii be heard in its
cadences, or pronounce it so that all the
woes of time and eternity shall rever-
berate in its one syllable. 1t is on the
lip of saint and profigate. It is the
mightiest of all solicitants either for
good or bad.
To-day 1 weigh anchor, and haul in
the planl1s, and set sail on that great
world, although am sure I viii not be
able TO reach the further shore. / will
let down the fathoming line into this
sea and try to measure its depths, and,
though tie together all the cables and
cordage / have on board, viii not be
able to touch bottom. All the power
of the Christian religion is in that word
Come" The dictatorial and COM
mandatory in religion is OF no avail.
The imperative mood is not the appro-
priatiye mood when we would have peo-
pie savingly impressed. They may be
coaxed, but they can not be driven. Our
hearts are like our homes; at friendly
knock the door will be opened; but an
attempt to force open our door would
land the assailant in prison. Our theo-
logical seminaries, which keep young
men three years in their curriculum
before launching them into the min
: - = III =
they can teach the candidates for the
Holy Office how to say with right en-
phasis and intonation and power that
one word-t'Comei' That man who
has such efficiency In Christian work,
and that woman who has such power
to persuade people to quit the wrong
and begin the right, went through Sc
ries of losses, bereavements, perseeu-
tons and the trials of twenty or thirty
years before they could make it tri-
umph of grace every time they uttered
the word. Come"
ssYou must remember that in many
cases our "Come" has a mightier
Come" to conquer before it has any
effect at all. just give me the accurate
census, the statistics, of how many are
down in fraud, in drunkenness, in
n gambling, in impurity, or in vice of any
sort, and viii give you the accurate
census or statistics of how many have
been slain by the word Come. $
Come and click wine-glasses with me
at this ivory bar" ''Come and see
what we can win at this gaming table. -
'sCome, enter with me this doubtful
speculation ''Come with me and read
those infidel tracts on Christianity. >,
ssCome with me to a place of bad
amusement ''Come with me in a CAV
bout through underground New York. .
If in this city there are twenty thou
sand who are down in moral character
shen twenty thousand fell under the
power of the word Come" l was
reading of q wife whose husband had
been overthrown by strong drink. and
she went to the saloon where he was
ruined. and she said: "Give me back
my husband" And the bartender.
pointing to a maudlin and battered
man browsing in the corner of the bar
room, said: There he is; Jim, wake
mp; here's your wife come for Won. $
And the woman said: do You call
that my husband? What have YOU
been doing with him? Is that the man
" brow? Is that the clear eve? Is
that the noble heart that l married?
What vile drug have you given him
that has turned him into a fiend? Take
your tiger claws off of him. Uncoil
those serpent folds of evil habit that
are crushing him. Give me back nv
husband, the one with whom stood al
the altar ten years ago. Give him back
TO me- Victim was he, as millions of
others have been, of the word Conner
Now, we want all the world over to
harness this word for good as others
have harnessed it for evil, and it win
draw the Ave continents and the seas
between them, yea, it viii draw the
whole earth back to the God from
whom it has wandered. 1t is that WOO
ing and persuasive word that will lead
men to give up their sins Was sl1epti-
eism ever brought into love of the truth
BY an ebulition of hot words against
infsde1ity? Was ever the bIasrhamor