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

had been heightened by other pilgrims,
some from America, and some from
Europe, and some from Asia, the cry
was sounded: 1.-THE Jordan The Jor-
dam" Hundreds of thousands of pill
grims have chanted on its banks and
bathed in its waters. Many of them
dip wet gown in the wave and wiring
it out and carry it home for their own
shroud. 1t is an impetuous stream,
and rushes on as though it were
fastening to tell its story to the ages.
Many an explorer has it whelmed and
many boat has it wrecked. Lieuten-
ant Molineux had copper-bottoIhedc crafts
split upon its shelvings. Only one boat,
that of Lieutenant Lynch, ever lived to
sail the whole length of it. At the
season when the SHOWS on Lebanon
melt the rage of this stream is like the
Conemaugh when Johnstown per
ished, and the wild beasts that may
be near run for the hills, ex
planning what jeremiah says: Behold
He shall go up like lion from the
swelling of Jordan" No river so often
changes its mind, for it turns and twists,
travelling two hundred miles to do that
which in straight line might be done
in sixty miles. Among banks now low,
now high, now of rocks, now of mud
and now of sand, LAYING the feet of the
terebinths and oleanders, and acacias,
and reeds, and pistachios, and silver
poplars. This river marries the Dead
Sea to Lake Galilee, and did ever so
rough groom take the hand of so fair
a bride?
Yes, from the bank of this river
Elijah took team of fire, showing that
the most raging element is servant of
the good, and that there is no need that
child of God fear any thing; for, if the
most destructive of all elements was
that day fashioned into vehicle for
departing saint, nothing can ever hurt
you who love and trust the Lord. l
am so glad that that chariot of
Elijah's was not made out of
wood, or crystal or any thing
ordinarily pleasant, but out of
fire, and yet he went up without having
so much as fan himself. When,
stepping from amid the foliage of these
oleanders and tamarisks on the banks
of the Jordan, he put his foot on the
red step of the red equipage, he took
the red reins of vapor in his hands, and
spurred the galloping steeds toward
the wide-open gate of Heaven. It was
a. scene forever memorable. So the
hottest Affections of your life may
roll you Heavenward. So the most
burning prosecutions, the most
fiery troubles, may become uplift-
ing. Only be sure that when you
pull on the bits of fire, you drive up
toward God, and not down toward the
Dead Sea. When Latimer and Ridley
died at the stake, they went up in
chariot of fire. When my friend P. P.
Bliss. the Gospel singer, was consumed
with the rail-train at Ashtabula bridge,
and then took flame, l said: Another
Elijah gone up in charter of fire?"
But this river is a river of baptisms
Christ was here baptised, and John bap-
tised many thousands Whether on
these occasions the candidate for bap-
tism and the officer of religion went
into this river, and then, while both
were standing the water was dipped in
the hand of one and sprinkled upon the
forehead of the other, or whether the
entire form of the one baptized disap-
peared for moment beneath the sur
face of the flood, do not now declare.
While l can not think without deep
emotion of the fact that my parents
held me in infancy, to the baptismal
font in the old meeting house at Somer-
vile, and assumed vows on my behalf,
l must tell you now of another mode of
| baptism observed in the River Jordan.
on that afternoon in last December the
particulars of which l now for the first
time relate.
1t was a scene Of unimaginables olem-
nifty. A comrade in our Holy Land
journey rode up by my side that day and
told that young man, who is now
studying for the Gospel ministry, would
like to be baptised by me in the River
Jordan. 1 got all the facts could con-
corning his earnestness and faith, and,
| through personal examinat ton, made
myself confident he was worthy can
didate. There were among our Arab at.
tendants two robes not unlike those
| uSeu LOT AnSfICdH tapestries, anu
these we obtained. As we were
to have a large group of diff
erent nationalities present, 1 die
tated to my daughter few verses, and
had copies enough made to allow all
to sing. Our dragoman had man ia
miliar with the river wade through and
across to show the depth and the swift
ness of the stream, and the most appro.
pirate place for the ceremony. Then
| read from the Bible the accounts
of baptism in that sacred stream
and implored the presence of the Chris
on whose head the dove descended at
the Jordan. Then, as the candidate
and myself stepped into the waters the
people on the banks sang in full and re.
sounding voice:
On Jordan's stormy banks stand,
And east a wistful eye
To Canaan's fair and happy land,
Where my possessions lie.
Oh, the transporting. rapturous scene
That rises to my sight:
Sweet fields arrayed in living green,
And iYers of delight.
BY this time we had reached the mid
die of the river. AS the candidate sank
under the floods and rose again under a