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

voice OF the stranger" The sides OF
these hills are terraced for grapes. The
boy Christ has often stood with great
round eyes watching the trimming of
the grapevines. Clip, goes the knife,
and off falls a branch. The child Christ
says to the farmer: what do you do
that for?" ''Oh," says the farmer, that
is dead branch, and it is
doing nothing and is only in
the way, so I cut it off," Then
the farmer with his sharp knife prunes
from living branch, this and that ten
drill and the other tendril. But" says
the child Christ" these twigs that you
cut off now are not dead; what do you
do that for?" ''Oh," says the farmer,
1--WE prune Off these that the main
branch may have more of the sap, and
so be more fruitful" No wonder in
after years Christ said in His sermon:
Il am the true vine, and my Father is
the husbandman; every branch in me
that beareth not fruit He taketh away,
and every branch that beareth fruit He
purgeth it, that it may bring forth more
fruit" Capitall No one who had not
been country boy would have said
that.
Streaks of nature all through Christ's
sermons and Conversations When a
pigeon descended upon Christ's head at
His baptism in the Jordan it was not the
first pigeon He had seen. And then He
has such wide sweep of discourse as you
may imagine from one who has stood on
the hills that overlook Nazareth. As
far as l understand, Christ visited the
Mediterranean sea only once, but any
clear morning He could run up on hill
near Nazareth and look off to the
west and see the Mediterranean, while
there in the north is snowy Mount
Lebanon, clad as in white robe of as
cension, and yonder on the east and
southeast Mount Gilboa, Mount Tabor
and Mount Gilead, and yonder in the
south is the Plain of Esdraelon, over
which we rode yesterday on our way
to Nazareth. Those mountains of his
boyhood in His memory. do you wonder
that Christ when He wanted a good
pulpit made it out of mountain-''see-
ing multitudes He went up into the
AiONHhAAh' AAi0 WHICH liz WduBCu 0S-
pecial communion with God, He took
James and John and Peter into ga
mountain apart"
Oh, this Country Boy of Nazareth,
come forth to atone for the sins of the
world. and to correct the follies of the
world, and to stamp out the cruelties of
the world, and to illume the darkness
of the world, and to transfgure the
hemispheres! So it has been the mis-
sion of the country boys in all ages to
transform and inspire and rescue.
They come into our merchandise
and our court rooms and our heal
ing art and our studios and our
theology. They lived in Nazareth be-
fore they entered Jerusalem. And but
for that annual influx our cities would
have ennervated and sickened and slain
the race. Late hours and hurtful APP
parel and overtaxed digestive organs
and clowding environments of city life
would have halted the world, but the
valleys and mountains of Nazareth have
given fresh supply of health AMI moral
IMMIGRATION to Jerusalem. and the
country saves the town. From the hills
of New Hampshire, and the hills of
Virginia, and the hills of Georgia,
come into our National eloouence the
Websters and the Clays, and the Henry
w. Gradys. From the plain homes of
Massachusetts and Maryland come into
our National charities the George Pea
bodys and the William Corcorans. From
the cabins of the lonely country regions
come into our National destinies the
Andrew Jacksons and Abraham Lin
colns. From plow-boy's furrow and
village counter and blacksm1th's forge
come most of our city giants. Nearly
all the messiahs in all departments
dwelt in Nazareth before they came to
Jerusalem. send this day thanks
from these great cities, mostly made
prosperous by country boys. to the farm
house and the prairies and the mount
ain cabins, and the obscure homesteads
of North and South and East and West.
to the fathers and mothers in plain
homespun, if they be still alive, or the
hillocks under which they sleep the
long sleep. Thanks from Jerusalem to
Nazareth.
But. alas, that the city should so
often treat the country boys as of old
the one from Nazareth was treated at
Jerusalem! Slain not by hammers and
spikes, but by instruments just as cruel.
On every street of every city the cruci-
fixion goes on. Every year shows it's
ten thousand of the slain. Oh, how we
grind them up! Under what wheels,
in whatmills and for what an ayful grist!
Let the city take better care of these
boys and young men arriving from the
country. They are worth saving. They
are now only the preface of what thew
will be if, instead of sacrificing, Won
help them. Boys as grand as the one
who with his elder brother climbed into
a church tower and, not knowing their
danger, went outside on some timbers
when one of those timbers broke and
the boys fell, and the older boy caught
on beam and the younger clutched
the foot OF the other; the older could
not climb up with the younger hanging
to his feet so the younger said: John.
! am going to let go; you can climb out
into safety, but you can't climb uu
with me holding fact. 7 an o.o;,-.. a.