The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1892-11-12

because he could not be . high priests
What II the humming-bird should re.
fuse to sing its song into the ear Of
the honey-suckle because it can not,
like the eagle, dash its wings into the
sun? What if the rain-drop should re-
fuse to descend because it is not q
Niagara? What if the spider of the
text should refuse to move its shuttle
because it can not weave Solomon's
robe? Away with such folly. If you
are lazy with the one talent, you would
be lazy with the ten talents. If Milo
can not lift the calf he never will have
strength to lift the OK. In the Lords
army there is order for promotion; but
you can not be general until you
| have been captain, a lieutenant and
colonel. 1t is step by step. it is inch
| by inch, it is stroke by stroke that our
Christian character is builded. There
fore be content to do what God COM
mands you to do. God is not
ashamed to do small things He is not
ashamed to be found chiseling a
grain of sand, or helping a honey bee
to construct its cell with mathematical
accuracy, or tinging bell in the surf,
| or shaping the bill of q chaffinch.
What you do, do well, be it great
work or small work. If ten talents.
employ all the ten. If five talents, en-
ploy all the five. II one talent, employ
the one. If only the thousandth part
of a talent, employ that. BE thou
faithful unto death, and I will give
thee the crown of life" I tell you if
you are not faithful to God In a small
sphere, you would be indolent and ig-
significant in a large sphere.
Again, my next text teaches me that
responsiveness and loathsomeness will
sometimes climb up into very elevated
places. You would have tried to have
killed the spider that Solomon saw.
You would have said: ''This is NO
place for it. If that spider is deter
mined to weave . web, let it do so
down in the cellar of this palace, or in
some dark dungeon" All! the spider
of the text could not be discouraged.
1t clalnbered on, and climbed up higher
and higher and higher. until after
awhile it reached the kings vision. and
hesaid: THE spider talxeth hold with
her hands and is in kings palaces"
And SO it often is now that things that
are loathsome AID repulsive get up in
to very elevated places
The Church of Christ. for instance, is
palace. The King of Heaven and
earth lives in it According to the
Bible, her beams are of cedar, and
her rafters of fir, and her windows of
agate, and the fountains of salvation
dash rain of light 1t is glorious
palace-the Church of God is; and yet,
sometimes, unseemly and loathsome
things creep up into it-evil-speaking
rancor, and SANDER. and backbiting,
and abuse, crawling up on the walls of
the church, spinning a web from arch
to arch, and from the top of one COM
munion tankard to the top of another
communion tankard. Glorious palace
in which there ought only to be light,
and love, and pardon, and grace; yet a
spider in the palace.
Home ought to be castle. It ought
to be the residence of everything royal
Kindness, love, peace, patience and
forbearance ought to be the princes
residing there; and yet sometimes dis
sipation crawls up into that home, and
the jealous eye comes up, and the scene
of peace and plenty becomes the scene
of domestic jargon and dissonance.
You say: "What is the matter with the
homer" 1 will tell You what is the
matter with it. A spider in the palace.
A well-developed Christian character
is q grand thing to look at You see
some man with great intellectual and
spiritual proportions. You say: How
useful that man must ber' But you
find, amid all his splendor of faculties,
there is some prejudice, some within,
some evil habit that a great many peo-
pie do not notice, but that you have
happened to notice, and it is gradually
spelling that mans character-it is
gradually going to injure his entire in
iuence. Others may not see it. but you
are anxious in regard to his welfare,
and now you discover it. A dead fly
in the ointment. A spider in the pal
ace.
Again, my text teaches me that per-
severance will mount into the kings
palace. 1t must have seemed long
distance for that spider to climb into
Sclomon's splendid residence, but it
started at the very foot of the wall and
went up over the panels of Lebanon
cedar, higher and higher, until 1t stood
higher than the highest throne in all
the nations-the throne of Solomon.
And SO God has decreed it that many of
those who are down in the dust of sin
and dishonor shall gradually attain to
the Kings palace. We see it in worldly
things. Who is that banker in Phila-
delphia? Why, he used to be the boy
that held the horses of Stephen
6rard while the millionaire went in
to collect his dividends Arkwright
tolls on up from BARRIERS shop
until he gets into the palace of inven-
ton. Sextus v tolls on up from the
Office of swineheard until he gets into
the palace of Rome. Fletcher tolls on
up from the most insignificant family
position until he gets into the palace of
the Christian eloquence. Hogarth, en-
craving pewter pots for q living, tolls
on up until he reaches the palace of
art And God hath
decided that, though you may be weak
Of arm, and slow of tongue, and be
struck through with a great many |
mental and moral deficits, by His Al |
mighty grace you shall yet arrive in |