The Bossier banner., 1892-08-18
THE CHRISTIAN ARMOR.
Rev. r. Dewitt Talmage Gives
Counsel to Young Christians.
Keep the Armor Bright and the Weapons
Keen, and be Always Ready to
Do Battle Against the Foes
of Christ.

rope Rev. L. Dewitt Ialmage delivered
the following sermon to young and un-
experienced Christians; taking for his
text:
Put on the whole prmor of God.-Ephesians
vi, Ii.
There is in this text a great rattle of
shields and helmets and swords Sol
diers are getting ready for battle. We
have had recently in this church new
enlistments, and shall address myself
to those in this and other churches who
are putting on the armor of God, and
who may feel themselveS to be as yet
only raw recruits. ''Masterly retreat"
Is term often used in military circles,
but in religion there is no such thing.
1t is either glorious advance or dis
graceful and ignominious falling back.
1t would be strange thing if all our
anxiety about men ceased the moment
they were converted. You would al
most doubt the sanity of that farmer
who, having planted the corn and seen
1t just sprout above ground, should
say: ''My work is all done. I have no
more anxiety for the field" No. There
is work for the plow and the hoe, and
there must be careful keeping up of
the fences. and there must be fright
ening away of the bird that would pill
lage the field. And l say the entrance
upon Christian life is only the explain
tation of grace in the heart. There is
earnest, hard work yet to be done, and
perhaps many years of anxiety before
there shall be heard the glorious shout
of Harvest home" The beginning to
be Christian is only putting down the
foundation; but after that there are
years OF hammering, polishing, carving,
lifting, before the structure is COM
pleted. 1t takes five years to make
Christian character; it takes twenty
years; it takes forty years; it takes
seventy years, if man shall live so long.
In other words, a man dying after half
century of Christian experience feels
that he has only learned the "a B Cs"
of glorious alphabet. The next year
will decide a great deal in your history,
young Christian man. 1t will decide
whether you are to be burning and
shining light of the church or a spark
of grace covered up in barn el of
ashes. 1t will decide whether you are
to be strong man in Christ Jesus,
with gigantic blows striking the iron
mail of darkness, or bedwarfed,
whining, grumbling soldier, that ought
to be drummed out of the Lords camp
with the "Rogues' March," You have
only just been launched; the voyage is
to be made. Earth and Heaven and
he'll are watching to see how fast YOU
will sail, how well you weather the
tempest, and whether at last amid the
shouting of the angels, you shall come
into the harbor, May God help me
this morning to give you three or four
words of Christian counsel, as I ad-
dress myself more especially to those
who have just now entered the Chris
tian life
My first word of counsel is, hold be-
fore your soul a very high model Do
not say: 81 wish l could pray like that
man, or speak like this man, or have
the conservation of this one" Say:
Here is the Lord Jesus Christ, perfect
pattern. BY that / mean, with Gods
grace, to shape all my life" In other
words, you will never be any more a
Christian than you strive to be. If you
build foundation twenty by thirty
feet you will only have small house.
II you build a foundation one hundred
by one hundred feet you will have a
large house. If you resolve to be only
mlddling Christian you will only be a
middling Christian. If you have no
high aspiration IN a worldly direction
you will never succeed in business. If
you have no high aspiration in religious
things you will never succeed in reli-
gion. You have right to aspire to the
very highest style of Christian charac
ter. From your feet there reaches out
path of Christian attainment which
you may take, and l deliberately saw
that you may be a better man than was
Paul, or David, or Summerfeld, or Dod-
drldge-a better woman than Hannah
More or Charlotte Elizabeth Why not?
Did they have monopoly of Christian
grace? Did they have private kew of
the store-house of Gods mercyp Does
God shut You out from the gladness to
which they were introduced. Oh. no
You have just Che same promises. inst
the same Christ, just the same Holv
Ghost, just the same offers of present
and everlasting love, and if you fall
short of what they were-ave. if Won
do not come up to the point which they
reached and go beyond tit is not be-
cause Christ has shut you out from anv
point of moral and spiritual elevation
but because you deliberately refuse to
take it. | admit that man can not he
come Christian like that without
struggle; but what do you get without
fighting for it? The fortresses of darl-
ness are to be taken by storm. You
may by acute strategy flank the hosts
of temptation; but there are temnta-
tions, there are evils, in the wav that
you will have to meet face to face. and
it will be shot for shot, gun for gun.
grip for grip, slaughter for slaughter.
The APOSTLE Paul over and over again
represents the Christian life as a COM
bat.
When the war vessel of Christ's
church comes into glory bringing its
crew and its passengers, it will not
come in like North river yacht, beau
tifully painted and adorned, swinging
int ho hoo Al Of