The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1891-01-29

was the invalid he carried? 1t was
Robert Hall, the rapt pulpit orator Of
all Christendom. Better give to the
boys who come up from Nazareth to
Jerusalem crown instead of cross.
On this December morning in Pales-
tine on our way out from Nazareth we
saw just such a carpenters shop as
Jesus worked in, supporting His wild
owed mother, after He was old enough
to do so. / looked in, and there were
hammer, and saw, and plane, and anger,
| and wise, and measuring and chis'
| ell, and drill, and adze, and wrench, and
bit. and all the tools of carpentry.
Think of til He who smoothed the sur.
face of the earth, showing plane. He
who cleft the mountains by earth
quake, pounding chiseL. He who
opened the mammoth caves of the
earth, turning an auger. He who
Yields the thunderbolt, striking with
hammer. He who scooped out the bed
for the ocean, hallowing ladle. He
who flashes the morning on the earth,
and makes the midnight heavens culver
with aurora, constructing window. ]
skeptic said to an old clergymen: 81
will not believe any thing can not
explain" "Indeedp' said the clergy
man, you will not believe any thing
you can not explain. Please to ex.
plain to me why some cows have
horns and others have no horns" ''No!'
said the skeptic: Il did not mean
exactly that. 1 mean that 1 will not
believe any thing 1 have not seen!'
'Indeed!' said the clergyman, you
will not believe any thing you have not
seen. Have you backbone?" YES"
said the akeptic. GLOW do you know"
said the clergyman. Have you ever
seen it?" This mystery of God-head
and humanity interjoined I can not I'M
derstand, and can not explain, but
believe it. l am glad there are so
many things we can not under
stand, for that leaves something
for Heaven. If we knew every
thing here, Heaven would be a great
Incidence. What foolish people, those
who are in perpetual fret because
they can not understand all that God
says and does A child in the first
juvenile primer might as well burst in
to tears because it can not understand
COMIC sections. In this world we are
only in the A B G class, and we can not
now understand the libraries of eternity
which put to the utmost test faculties
archangelic. I would be ashamed of
Heaven if we do not know more there,
with al our faculties intensified mill
ion-fold and at the center of the uni
verse, than we do here with our dim
faculties and cling to the outside rim of
the universe.
But we must hasten on, for l do not
mean to close my eyes tonight till /
SEQ from mountain top Lake GalliIee,
on whose bank, next Sabbath, we will
worship, on whose waters the following
morning we will take a sail. On and
up we go in the seVerest climb of all
Palestine, the ascent of the Mount of
Beatitudes, on the top of which Christ
preached that beautiful sermon on the
Blesseds-Bless ed this and Blessed
that. Up to their knees the horses
plunge in mOle-hills, and a surface
that gives way at the first touch
OF the hoof, and again and
again the tired beasts halt, as much as
to say to the riders: sit is unjust for
you to make US climb these Sleeps"
On and up over mountain sides where
in the later season hyacinths and
daisies, and phloxes, and anemones
kindle their beauty. On and up until
on the rocks of black basalt we dis
mount. and climbing to the highest
peak, look out on an enchantment of
scenery that seems to be the Beatitudes
themselves arched into skies, and
rounded into valleys, and silvered into
waves. The view is like that of Tennes-
see and North Carolina from the top OF
Lookout Mountain, or like that of Yer
mont and New Hampshire from the top
of Mount Washington. Hall hills OF
Galilee! Hail Lake Genesaret onlv
four miles away! Yonder, clear up and
most conspicuous, is Safed, the very
city to which Christ pointed for illus
tration in the sermon preached here,
"A city set on a hill can not be hid"
There are rocks around me on this
Mount of Beattude, enough to build the
highest pulpit the world ever saw. Ave,
IL IS the highest pulpit 1t overlooks all
time and all eternity. The Valley of
Hattin, between here and Lake Gaiilee,
is an amphitheater, as though the nat
ural contour of the earth had invited
all nations to come and sit down,
and hear Christ preach a sermon, in
which there were more startling novel
ties than were ever announced in all the
sermons that were ever preached. To
those who heard Him on this very SPOT.
His word must have seemed the con-
tradiction of every thing that they had
ever heard or read or experienced. The
worlds theory had been; Blessed are
the arrogant; blessed are the super
cilious; blessed are the fearless; blessed
are they that have every thing their
own way; blessed are the war
eagles; blessed are the persecu.
tors; blessed are the popular;
blessed are the Herods, and the
Caesars, and the Ahabs. 'sNol mol nor'
says Christ with voice that rings over
these rocks, and through yonder valley
of Hattin, and down to the opaline lake