The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1893-06-15
Or pen or hand is inapt, ard more dam

age TO the one who employs IL thdH
| the one against whom it is employed.
| What! A javelin hurled at You and
fallen at your feet, and you not hurl IL
! back again? Yes. l have tried the
| plan. l learned it from my father and
have practiced it all my life, and 1t
works we'll, and by the help Of God ana
| javelins not picked up, 1 have con-
| quered ali my foes, and preached 1u-
neral sermons in honor of most of them
The best thing you can do with jave-
lin hurled at you is to let it lie where II
dropped, or hang it up in your museum
as a curiosity. The deepest wound
made by javelin is not by the sharp
edge, but at the dull end of the handle
to him who yields it. leave it to you
to say which got the best of that fight
in the palace-Saul or David.
See also in my subject the unreason-
able attitute of javeIin toward harp.
What had that harp i'll David's hand
done to the javelin in Sauls handf
Had the vibrating strings of the one
hurt the keen edge of the other? Wac
there an old grudge between the two
families of sweet sound and sharp cut?
!
polished shaft? Why the deadly ann
of the destroying weapon against
the instrument of soothing, calm
ing, healing sound. Well, l will
answer that if you will tell why the
hostility of so many to the Gospel, why
the virulent attacks against Christian
religion, why the angry antipathy OF
so many to the most genial, most IN
viting, most salutary influence under
all the heavens? Why will men give
their lives to writing and speaking
and warning against Christ and
the Gospel? Why the javelin
of the worlds hatred and rage
against the harp of Heavenly love?
You know and l know men who get
, Faithfully red in the face and foaming
at the mouth and use the gesture OF the
{ clenched fist and put down their feet
, with indignant emphasis and invoke
, all sarcasm and irony and vituperatlon
: and scorn and spite at the Christian
religion. What has Christian re-
: ligion done that it should be so as
, sailed? Whom hath it bitten and left
f with hydrophobiac virus in their veins
+ though it were maddened canine?
| To head off and trip up and down and
, corner our religion was the dominant
f thought in the life of David Hume and
= Voltaire and Shaftesbury, and even the
a earl of Rochester until one day in a
, princely house, in which they blasphem-
q ously put God on trial, and the earl Of
2 Rochester was the attorney against
+ God and religion and received the ap-
: plause of the whole company, when
suddenly the earl was struck under
, conviction, and cried: Good God,
4 that a man walks uprightly, who sees
4 the wonderful works of God and has
! the use of his senses and reason should
$ use them in defying his Creator! 1
= wish | had been crawling leper in {
= ditch rather than have acted toward
q God as | have done"
, Javelin of wit, javelin of irony,
y javelin of scurrility, javelin of sophis'
|. try javelin of human and diaholic hos,
n tility, have been flying for hundreds
? of years, and are flying now. But
f aimed at what? At something that
o has come to devastate the world? Al
W thing that would maui and trdmplC
s under foot and excruciate and crush
IS the human race? No, aimed at the Cos
% pei harp. Harp on which prophets
J. played with sublime certainty, anC
% martyrs played with somewhat
" lingering and uncertain fing
" ers, but harp on which apostles played
d while their fingers were on fire. HarI
)" that was dripping with the blood o
o. Christ, out of whose heart strings thu
" harp was chorded and from whose dy
e. ing groan the strings were keyed. Oh
[e Gospel harp. All Thy nerves a-trembl
N with stories of Self-sacrifce. Harl
is thrummed by fingers long ago turned
N to dust Harp that made Heaven lister
10 Sand will vet make all the world hear
he Harp that sounded pardon to m,
lie sinful soul and peace over tn
a graves where my dead sleep. Har]
r that will lead the chant of the blood
at washed throng redeemed around tn
st throne. May javelin Stay me befor
a. l fling javelin at that. Harp whicl
q. it seems almost too sacred for me t.
ne touch, and so l call down from thei
10 thrones those who used to finger it, ant
ed ask them to touch it now. ''Come down
IN William Cowper, and run your finger
I'd over the strings of this harp" He says
rs Il will" and he plays:
" There is q fountain tiled with blood
M Drawn from ImlEanue!'s veins.
g. ''Come down, Charles Wesley, an
To- touch the string" lie says: II will,
at and he plays:
he Jesus lover OF my soul,
|, Let me to Thy bosom fly.
10 ''Come down, Augustus Toplady, an
~ sweep your fingers across the Gospt
w. harp. He says, 81 will" and he plays
II Rock of ages, cleft for me.
- Let me hide myself in Thee.
III ''Come down, Isaac Watts, and tax
III this harp" He says, Il will" and h
- plays
Alas, and did my Saviour bleed,
ID And did my Sovereign die.
ct And now upon our souls let the harr
lrl of Heaven rain music, and as, when tn
ul suns rays fall aslant in Switzerland Z
No. tho of ovap+i1n ao1 ,l,o