The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1891-07-23

nothing about trouble. Ny wife has
been in an insane asylum for ff-
teen years" And then he turned and
looked out of the window and into the
night with silence was too overpow-
cred to break. That was another illus
tration of the fact that no ore escapes
trouble. Why, that mar seated next to
you in church has on his soul weight
compared with which mountain is a
feather That woman seated next to
you in church has a grief the recital of
which would make your body, mind and
soul shudder.
When you are mending your net for
this wide, deep sea of humanity, take
out that wire thread of criticism and
that horse hair thread of harshness and
put in soft, silken thread of Christian
sympathy, Yea, when you are mend
ing your nets tear out those old threads
of gruffness and weave in few
threads of politeness and geniality
In the house of God let all the
Christian faces beam with a look
that means welcome Say: Good
morning" to the stranger as he enters
your pew, and at the close shake hands
with him and say: "How did you like
the music?" Why, you would be to
that man a panel of the door of
Heaven you would be to him note of
the doxology that seraphs sing when a
new soul enters. That man is
thousand miles from home, and
he has just heard by telegraph that
his child is sick with scarlet
fever and his boy at college has got into
disgrace. and he has had business
troubles, and is so homesicl1 he can
hardly keep from crying. Just one
word of brotherly kindness from you
would lift him into small heaven. |
have in other days entered a pew in
church and the woman at the
other end of the pew looked at
me as much as to say: ''How dare you?
This is my pew and pay the rent for
it!' Well, | crouched in the other cor
ner and made myself as small as posi-
bic, and felt as though l had been
stealing something. So there are peo-
pie who have a sharp edge to their re-
hgion, and they act as though they
thought most people had been elected
to be damned and they were glad of it.
Oh, let us brighten up our manner and
appear in utmost gentlemanliness or
ladyhood.
The object in fy-fshing is to throw
the fly far out, and then let it drop
gently down and keep it gently rising
and falling with the waters, and not
plunge it like a man-of-war's anchor;
and abruptness and harshness of man.
ner must be avoided in our attempt at
usefulness. I know a man in New
York who is more sunshiny and genial
when he has dyspepsia than when he
IS not suffering from that depressing
trouble. | have found out his secret
When he starts out in the morning with
such depression he asks for special
grace to keep from swapping up any
body that day, and puts forth additional
determination to be kindly and genial,
and by the help of God he accomplishes
it. Many of our nets need to be mended
IN these respects, the black threads and
the rough threads taken out and the
bright threads and the golden threads
OF Christian geniality woven in.
In addition to this, we need to mend
our nets with more threads of patience.
1t IS no rare thing for fisherman to
spend one whole day before he can take
a st. Lawrence pike, or an Ohio salmon,
or Long Island pickerel, or Cayuga
black bass, or a Delaware catfish, and he
does that day after day without partic-
ular encouragement. But what a lack
OF patience if we do not immediately
succeed in soul-catching. We are apt tc
give it up end say: 81 will never try
again" Into all our nets we need to
weave all along the edge, and
all through the center, great
long, stout threads of Christian
patience. How patient God has
been with us! Can we not be patient
with our fellows? l had presented me
from Scotland few days ago, an orna-
mented ink-stand, the wooded parts OF
which were made from a piece of a tree
cut down by Mr.. Gladstone, at Hawar.
den, and sent by him to Scotland by re.
quest The incident reminded me of the
TACT that woman who had long beer
on Mr.. Gladstones estate had a wav.
ward boy, and in her despair she asked
Mr. Gladstone to take the boy in hand.
While prime minister of England, with
all the mighty affairs of the kingdom in
MS hands, he took that boy in his study
and counseled him, and then knelt
down and prayed with him, and the
boy was saved. If we all had hearts OF
sympathy like that, what would
be to us impossible? rs it not
delightful that can sing SO well?" said
Jenny Lind, in burst of joy that she
could help others. rs it not delightful
that l can sing so well?" And might
we not all say in thankfulness to God:
is it not delightful that we can sym.
oathize with others, and encourage
other rs, and save others?'
But do not spend your time fishing
With hook and line. Why did not James, |
5he son of Zebedee, sit on the wharf at |
Jana, his feet hanging over the lake, |
md with'a long pole and a worm on the
hook dipped into the wave wait for
'ome mullet to swim up and be
aught? Why did not Zebedee spend /
us afternoon trying to catch one eel? |