The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1891-12-17

resurrection of nothing, and in the life
that never shall be. Amenw That is
the creed of tens of thousands of PEG"
pie in this day. If you have a mind to
adopt such theory / will not. II be-
lleve in God the Father Almighty, maxi
er of Heaven and earth, and in Jesus
Christ, and in the holy catholic church,
and IN the communion of saints, and in
the everlasting. Amen" Oh, when l
see EleazOr taking such a stout grip OF
the sword in the battle against sin and
for righteousness, / come to the conclu-
sion that we ought to take a stouter
| grip of Gods eternal truth, the sword
of righteousness.
| AS | look at Eleazars hand / also
notice his spirit of self-forgetfulness.
He did not notice that the hilt of his
sword was eating through the palm of
his hand. He did not know it hurt him.
As he went out into the conflict he was
| so anxious for the victory he forgot
himself, and that hilt might go never
| so deeply into the palm of his hand it
could not disturb him. Ills hand clave
unto the sword" O, my brothers ana
sisters, let us go into Christian conflict
with the spirit of self-abnegation. Who
cares whether the world praises us or
denounces us? What do we care for
misrepresentation, or abuse, or perse-
cution in 4 conflict like this? Let us
forget ourselves. That man who is
| afraid of getting his hand hurt will
| never kill a Philistine. Who cares
whether you get hurt or not if you get
the victory? Oh, how many Christians
| there are who are all the time worry
ing about the way the world treats
them. They are so tired, and they are
so abused, and they are SO tempted,
when Eleazer did not think whether he
had Il hand, or an arm, or foot All
he wanted was victory.
We see how men forget themselves
In world achievement. We have often
seen men who in order to achieve
worldly succcs IS will forget all physical
fatigue and all annoyance and all OBJ
stacle. Just after the battle of York
town in the American revolution, a
musician, wounded, was told he must
have his limbs amputated, and they
| were about to fasten him to the sur
yeons table-for it was long before the
| merciful discovery of anasthetics. He
said: mo, don't fasten me to that ia
bic; get me a violin" violin was
brought to him, and he said: Now go
to work as | begin to play" and for
forty minutes, during the awful pangs
of amputation, he moved not a muscle
nor dropped note, while he played
some sweet tune. Oh, is it not strange
that with the music of the Gospel of
Jesus Christ and with this grand march
of the church militant on the way to
become the church triumphant, we can
not forget ourselves and forget all
pang and all sorrow and all persecu-
ton and all perturbation.
We know what men accomplish under
worldly opposition. Men do not shrink
back for antagonism, or for hardship.
You have admired Prescott's Conquest
of Mexico" as brilliant and beautiful
history as was ever written, but some
of you may not know under what dis
advantages it was written-that Con-
quest of Mexico-for Prescott was to-
tally blind, and he had two pieces of
wood fastened parallel to each other, and
with his pen between those pieces of
wood he wrote, the stroke against one
piece of wood telling how far the pen
must go in one way, the stroke against
the other piece of wood telling how far
the pen must go in the other way. Oh,
rT1,1Ol, r
knowledge and for worldly success,
and yot how little we endure for Jesus
Christ How many Christians there
are that go around saying, ''Oh, my
hand, my hand, my hurt hand; don't
you see there is blood on my hand, and
there is blood on the sword?" while
Eleazar, with the hilt imbedded in the
flesh of his right hand, does not know it.
Must be carried to the skies
On ffow'ry beds of ease.
While Others fought to win the prize
Or sailed through bloody seas?
What have we suffered in comparison
with those who expired with suffoca-
ton. or were burned, or were chopped
to pieces for the truths sake? We talk
of the persecution of olden times.
AHClC 10 just DIS nucn persecution 60
ing on now in various ways. In 1S49,
in Madagascar, eighteen men were put
to death for Christ's sake. They were
to be hurled over the rocks, and before
they were hurled over the rocks, in |
order to make their death more dread |
full in anticipation, they were put in
baskets and swung to and fro over the |
precipiee, that they might see how many |
hundred feet they would have to be |
dashed down, and while they were
swinging in these baskets over the |
rocks they sang:
Jesus, lover of my soul,
Let me to Thy bosom fly,
While the pillows near me roll
While the TEMPEST still Is high.
Then they were dashed down to
death. Oh, how much others have en-
dured for Christ, and how little we en-
dure for Christ We want to ride TO |
Heaven in Pullman sleeping-car, our
feet on soft plush, the bed made up
early so that we can sleep all the way,
the black porter of death to wake us
up only in time to enter tho ooldor