The Bossier banner., 1892-07-28

slipped and he fell. helped him up as
well as 1 could, gathered up the fragA
ments Of the package as well as could,
put them under one arm and the crutch |
under the other; but when saw the
blood run down his pale cheek was
completely overcome: Fifty essays about
the suffering of the poor could not
touch one like that little drama of acci-
dent and suffering.
Oh! we want in all our different de-
partments of usefulness-andI | address
hundreds of people who are trying to
do good-we want more of the dramatic
element and less of the didactic. The
tendency in this day is to drone religion,
to whine religion, to cant religion, to
moan religion, to croak religion, to
sepulchrize religion, when we ought to
present it in animated and spectacular
MANNER.
Sabbath morning by Sabbath MORN
ing address many theological students
who are preparing for the ministry:
They come IN here from the different
Institutions | say to them this morn;
ing: If you will go home and look over
the history of the church you will fnd
that those men have brought most souls
to Christ who have been dramatic: Row.
land Hill, dramatic; Thomas Chalmers,
dramatic; Thomas Guthrie, dramatic;
John Knox, dramatic; Robert Nc
Cheyne, dramatic; Christmas Evans, dra-
matte; George Whitfield, dramatic;
Robert Hall, dramatic; Robert South,
dramatic; Fene1on, dramatic; John
Mason, dramatic; DR.. Knott, dramatic.
When you get into the ministry, If
you attempt to culture that element,
and try to WELD it for God, you will
meet with mighty rebuff and carica-
ture, and ecclesiastical council will take
your case in charge, and they will try
to put you down; but the God who
starts you will help you through, and
great will be the eternal for the assidu-
Gus and the plucl1y.
What we want, ministers and lay
men, is to get our sermons and our ex-
hortations and our prayers out of the
old rut. | see a great deal of discus
sion in the religious papers about why
people do not come to church They
do not come because they are not inter
ested. The hackneyed religious phrases
that come moving down through the
centuries will never arrest the masses.
What we want to-day, you in your
sphere and in my sphere, is to freshen
up. People do not want in their
sermons the sham flowers bought at
the millinery shop, but the ja-
ponicas wet with the morning dew;
nor the heavy bones of extinct mega
theriuth of past ages, but the living
reindeer caught last August at the edge
of Schroon lake. We want to drive out
the drowsy, and the prosaic, and the
, tedious, and the humdrum, and intro
duce the brightness and vivacity, and
, the holy sarcasm, and the sanctified
, wit, and. the epigramatic power. and the
blood-red earnestness, and the fire OF
religious zeal, and do not know of any
way of doing it as well as through the
dramatic. Attention.! Behold! Harzl
Selahi
! Next 1 speak of the Selah of perpe.
/. tuity. The Targum, which is the Bible
in Chaldee, renders this word of my
q text forever" Many writers agree III
/. believing and stating that one,ineaning
! of this word is forever - in this very
2 verse from which take my text Selah
means not only poetic. significance and
q intermission and emphasis, but itmeans
o eternal rberation-forever! Gods
q government forever, Gods goodnes:
4 forever, the gladness of the righteou:
7 forever. Of course, you and
a have not surveyors chain with enough
+ links to measure that domain of mean
: ing In this world we must build every
+ thing on a small scale. A hundred
= years are great while. A tower five
4 hundred feet is a. great height. A jour
o ney of four thousand miles is.very long
C But eternity! if the archangel has no
V strength Of wing to fly across it, bu
IS futters and drops like wounded Sc;
# gull, there is no need of our trying il
% the small shallow of human thought t,
o. voyage across it.
e A skeptic desiring to show his con
l. tempt for the passing years, and to shov
l. that he could build enduringly, had hi
e own sepulcher made of the finest ant
It the hardest marble, ami then he ha,
e put on the door the words: For tim
q anu lCI CGSI IhICy. OuC IL 81 Itdpptlc'
n that the seed of a tree somehow got int,
Ie an unseen crevice of the marble. Tha
% seed grew and enlarged until it becam
n tree, and split the marble to pieces
is There can be no eternalization of any
It thing earthly. But forever! viii yo1
" and l live as long as that? We ar
" apt to think of the grave as tn
terminus. We are apt to think O
the hearse as our last vehicle
We are apt to think of seventy o
eighty or ninety years, and then ces
sation. Instead of that we find tn
marble slab of the tomb is only mile
stone marking the first mile, and tina
the great journey is beyond. We hav
only time enough in this world to pu
on the sandals and to clasp our girdl
and to pick up our staff. We take on
first step from cradle to grave, and the
4 we open the door and start-great God
a whittier? The clock strikes the passin
he away of time, but not the passing ava
1t of eternity. Measureless! Measure
re less! This Selah of perpetuity make
re earthly inequalities so insignificant, tn
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