The Bossier banner., 1891-02-05

looking in amazement and wonder.
Then he cried out in tones so pitt
full and sorrowful: oh, thou God that
heard Solomon in the night when he
prayed for wisdom, hear me! can not
lead this people, 1 can not guide the
affairs of this Nation without Thy help.
l am poor and weak and sinful. Oh
God, who didst hear Solomon when he
cried for wisdom, hear me and save the
Nation" You see, we don't need to go
back to Bible times for evidence that
prayer is heard and answered.
But" says some one, why was it
that Chnst coming to save the world,
should spend so much of His time on
and around so solitary place as Lake
Galfee? There is only one city of any
size on its beach, and both the western
and eastern shores are solitude, broken
only by the sounds coming from the
mud novels of the degraded Why did
not Christ begin at Babylon the
m ghty, at Athens the learned, at
Cairo the historic, ut Thebes the hun
dred-gated, at Rome the triumphant?
If Christ was going to save the
world, why not go where the world )
people dwell? Would man, wishing to
reyolutionize for good the American
continent, pass his time amid the fish
ing huts on the shores of Newfound-
land?" My friends, Galilee was the
hub of the wheel Of civilization and art,
and the center of population that
staggers realization. On the shore of
the lake we sail to-day stood nine great
cities, Scythopolis, Tarich@, Hippos,
Gamala, Chorazin, Capernaum, Beth
saida, Magdala. Tiberias-and many
villages, the smallest of which had
fifteen thousand inhabitants, according
to oJosephus. and reaching from the beach
back into the country in all directions.
Palaces, temples, coliseums gym
nasiums, amphitheaters, towers, gar
dens terraced on the hiIlsides, fount-
aims, bewildering with sunlight, baths,
upon whose mosaic floors Kings trod;
while this lake from where the Jordan
enters it to where the Jordan leaves it,
was beautiful with all styles of shallop,
or dreadful with all kinds of war gall
leon. Four thousand ships, history
says, were at one time upon these
waters. Battles were fought there.
which shocked all nations with their
consequences.
Here mingling blood with pure and spark
ling foam,
In her last throes JudBa fought with Rome.
Upon those sea-fights looked Vespa-
sian, and Titus and Trajan, and whole
empires. From one of these naval en-
counters so many of the dead floated to
the beach, they could net soon enough be
en- tombed, and plague was threatened
Twenty hundred soldiers escaping from
these vessels were one day mass&cred
| in the amphitheater at Tiberias. For
three hundred years that almost con-
tinous city encircling Lake Gallilee was
the metropolis of our planet. 1t was to
the very heart of the world that Jesus
came to soothe its sorrows, and pardo,
its sins, and heal its sick, and emanci
/ pate it's enslaved, and reanimate its
dead.
And let the Church and the worlc
take the suggestion. While the soli-
tary places are net to be neglected. we
must strike for the great cities, if this
! world is ever to be taken for Christ
Evange1ize all the earth except the
cities, and in one year the cities would
corrupt the earth. But bring the cities,
and all the world will come
Bring London, and England will
come. Bring Paris, and France
will come. Bring Berlin, and Ger
many will come. Bring St. Petersburg
and Russia will come. Bring Vienna
and Austria will come. Bring Cairo
and Egypt will come. Bring the neal
three million people in this cluster o
cities on the Atlantic coast, and al
America will soon see the salvation o
God. Ministers of religion! let US in
tensify our evangelism. Editors AMI pub
fishers! purify your printing presses
Asylums of mercy! enlarge your plan
of endeavor. And instead of this alb
surdand belittling and wicked rivalry
among our cities as to which happen,
to have the most men and women ant
children, not realizing that the mort
useless and bad people city has tht
worse it is off, and that ci ty whicl
has ten thousand good people is more
to be admired than city with ont
undred thousand bad people; let u,
take moral census and see how man'
good men and good women are leading
forth how large q generation of gooC
children who viii consecrate them
selves and consecrate the round worlC
to holiness and to God. Oh, thol
blessed Christ who didst come to tn,
mighty cities encircling Lake Galilee
come in mercy to all our great cities o
to-day. Thou who didst put Thy han(
on the white name of the foaming bill
lows of Gennesaret, and make them lii
down at Thy feet, hush all the ragin.
passions of the world! Oh thor
blessed Christ, who on the nigh
when the disciples were trying
to cross this lake and 1.-The winl
was contrary" after nine hour
of rowing had made only three miles
didst come stepping on water that a
the touch of Thy foot hardened int,
crystal, meet all our shipping, whethe
on placid or stormy seas, and say to al
Thy people, now by whatever style 0
tempest tossed or driven, as Thou dds
to the dreuched disciples in the cy
clone: HISe of good cheer. It is I R