The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1891-12-03

/ sCcuu Jne nit WHICH 0en. dOrUdnG LllS
great English explorer and arbiter,
first made a clay model Of 1t is hard
climbing for our Chieftain, for He has
not only two heavy timbers to carry on
! His back, the upright and horizontal
pieces of the cross, but He is suffering
from exhaustion caused by lack of
food, mountain chills, desert heats,
whippings with elmwood rods and
years of maltreatment,
1t took our party in 1880 only fifteen
minutes to climb to the top of the hill
and reach that limestone rock in Wonder
wall, which rolled down from the apex
of Mount Calvary. But l think our
Chieftain must have taken long time
for the ascent, for He had all earth and
all Heaven and all hell on His back as
He climbed from base to summit, and
there endured what William Cowper,
and John Milton, and Charles Wesley,
and Isaac Watts, and James Montgom-
cry, and all other sacred poets have at
tempted toput in verse; and Angelo, and
Raphael, and Titan, and Leonardo da
VlncL and all the great Italian and
German and Spanish and French artists
have attempted to paint; and Bossuet
and MassillOn and George Whitefeld
and Thomas Chalmers have attempted
to preach. Something of its over
whelming awfulness you may estimate
from the fact that the sun which shines
in the heavens could not endure it,
the sun which unfiinching looked upon
the deluge that drowned the world,
which without blinking looked upon
the ruins of earthquakes which swol-
lowed Lisbon and Caracas, and has
looked unblanched on the battle-fields
OF Arbela, Blenheim, Megiddo and
Esdraelon, and all the scenes of car
mage that have ever scalded
and drenched the earth with human
gore-that sun could not look upon the
scene. The sun dropped over it's face
veil of cloud. 1t withdrew. 1t hid
itself. 1t said to the midnight: 81
resign to thee this spectacle upon which
L have no strength to gaze; thou art
blind, oh, midnight! and for that rea-
son l commit to thee this tragedy"
Then the night-hawk and the bat flew
by. and the jackal howled in the
ravineS.
Now we follow our Chieftain as they
carry His limp and lacerated form amid
the flowers and trees of garden, the
gladioluses, the oleanders, the lilies,
the geraniums, the mandralIes, down
i've or SIX steps to an aisle of granite,
where He sleeps. But only a little
while He sleeps there, for there is an
earthquake in all that region, leaving
the rocks to this day in their aslant
and ruptured state, declarative of the
fact that something extraordinary there
happened. And we see our Chieftain
arouse from His brief slumber and
wrestle down the ruffian Death, who
would keep Him imprisoned in that cav
ern, and put both heels on the monster,
and coming forth with cry that will
not cease to be echoed until on the
great resurrection day the door of the
last sepulcher shall be unhinged and
flung changing into the debris of de-
mOlished cemeteries.
Now we follow our Chieftain to the
shoulder of Mount Olivet, and without
wings He rises, the disciples clutching
for His robes too late to reach them.
and across the great CULTS of space with
one bound He gains that world which
for thirty-three years had been denied
His companionship, and all Heaven lift
ed shout OF welcome as He entered,
and OF coronation as up the mediatorial
throne He mounted. 1t was the great
est day Heaven had ever seen. They
had HIM back again from tears, from
wounds, from ills, from 4 world that
never appreciated Him to world in
which He was the chief delight. In all
the hbrettO of celestial music it was
hard to find an anthem enough coniu-
bilant to celebrate the joy sanity ser
phic, archangelic, deific.
But still we follow our Chieftain in
His march through the centuries, for in
vlsibly He still walks the earth, and by
the eye of faith we still follow Him.
You can tell where He walks by the
churches and hospitals and reformatorv
Institutions, and houses of mercy that
spring up along the way. l hear His
tread in the sick room, and in the
abodes of bereavement. He marches
IN, and the nations are gathering
around Him. The islands of the sea |
ire hearing His voice. The continents
Ire feeling His power. America will |
De His! Europe will be His! Asia will |
De His! Africa will be His! Australia |
will be His! New Zealand will be Hist
All the earth will be His! Do yor
'ealize that until now it was impossible
or the world to be converted? Not
Until very recently has the world been
ound. The Bible talks about the ends
If the earth and the ''uttermost parts
If the world as being saved but not
Until now have the ''uttermost parts
# the world" been revealed. The
navigator did his work, the explorer
lid his work, the scientist did his
work., and now for the fiji st time since
he world has been created has the
world been known, measured off and
the last hidden and I'm.
inown tract has been mapped out, and
low the work of evangelization will be
'egun with an earnestness and velocity
S yet unimagined. The steamships
re ready, the lightning express trains
re ready, the printing-presses are