The Bossier banner., 1892-05-05

much and had her antlclpat1OnS raised
so high, the half-the half was not told
her.
So religion is always a surprise to
anyone that gets it. The story of grace
an old story. Apostles of grace-an
old story. Apostles preached it with
rattle of chain; martyrs declared it with
arm of fire; death-beds have affirmed it
with visions of glory; and ministers OF
religion have sounded it through the
lanes, and the highways and the chapels
and the cathedrals 1t has been cut
into stone with chisel and spread on
the canvas with pencil; and it has been
recited IN the doxology of great con-
gregations. And yet when man first
comes to look on the palace of Gods
mercy, and to see the royalty of Christ,
and the wealth of this banquet, and the
luXuriance of His attendants, and the
loneliness of His face, and the Joy of
His service, he exclaims with prayers,
with tears, with sighs, with triumphs:
''The half-the half was not told me!''
appeal to those in this house who
are Christians Compare the idea you had
of the joy of the Christian life before
you became Christian with the appre-
citation of that joy you have now, since
you have become a Christian, and you
are willing to attest before angels and
men that you never in the days of your
spiritual bondage had any appreciation
of what was to come. You are ready
to-day to answer, and if l give you an
opportunity in the midst of this assem-
blage, you would speak out and say in
regard to the discoveries you have
made of the mercy and the grace and
the goodness of God: THE half-the
half was not told me!''
Well, we hear good deal about the
good time that is coming in this world,
when it is to be girded with salvation.
Holiness on the bells of the horses.
The lions name patted by the hand of
a babe. Ships of Tarshish bringing
cargoes for Jesus, and the hard, dry,
barren, winter bleached, storm-scarred,
thunder-split rock, breaking into floods
| OF bright water. Deserts into which
dromedaries thrust their nostrils be-
cause they were afraid of the simoom-
deserts blooming into carnation roses
and silver-tipped lilies.
1t is the old story. Every ybody tells
it. Isaiah told it, John told it, Paul
told it, Ezekiel told it, Luther told it,
Calvin told it, John told it-everybody
tells it; and yet-and yet when the
midnight shall fly the hills, and Christ
shall marshall His great army, and
China, dashing her idols into the dust,
shall hear the voice of God
and wheel into line, and India
destroying her Juggernaut and
snatching up her little children
from the Ganges, shall hear the voice
of God, and wheel into line, and vine
covered Italy, and all the nations of
the earth shall hear the voice of God,
and fall into line; then the church
which has been toiling and struggling
through the centuries robed and gar
| landed like n bride adorned for her
husband, shall put aside her veil and
look up into the face of her Lord and
King, and say: 1.-The half-the half
was not told mer'
Well, there is coming a greater sur
prise to every Christian-a greater sur
prise than anything l have depicted.
Heaven is an old story. Every body
talks about it. There is hardly hymn
in the hymn book that does not refer to
it. Children read about it in their Sab
bath school book. Aged men put on their
spectacles to study it. We say it is a
harbor from the storm. We call it our
home. We say it is the house of many
mansions. We weave together all
sweet, beautiful, delicate, exhilarant
words; we weave them into letters,
and then we spell it out in rose and
lily and amaranth. And yet that
to the most intelligent Christian. Like
the queen of Sheba, the report has
come to us from the far country, and
many of us have started 1t is desert
march, but we urge on the camels
What though our feet be blistered with
the way? We are Fastening to the pal
ace We take all our loves, and hopes
and Christian ambitions as franklin
:ense, and myrrh, and cassia, to the great
King. We must not rest. We must not
halt. The night is coming on, and it is
not safe out here in the desert. Urge
on the camels. see the domes against
the sky, and the houses of Lebanon.
and the temples and the gardens See
the fountains dance in the sun, and the
gates flash, as they open to let in the
poor pilgrims.
Send the word to the palace that we
are coming, and that we are weary of
the march of the desert. The King will
come out and say: welcome to the
palace; battle in these waters, recline
on these banks. Take this cinnamon.
and frakincese, and myrrh, and put it
upon a censer, and swing it
before the altar" And vet, nv
friends, when Heaven bursts upon
us it will be a greater surprise
than that-Jesus on the throne, and we
made like Him! All our Christian
friends surrounding us in glory! ALI
our sorrows and tears and sins gone bv
forever! The thousands of thousands,
the one hundred and forty-and-four
thousand, the great multitude that no |
man can number, will cry world with
out end: THE half-the half was not |