The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1893-09-07

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as quick as you can think of it. ut is
Christ that died" Why then bring up
to us the sins of our past life? What
have we to do with those obsolete
things? You know how hard it is for
wrecker to bring up anything that is
lost nea~ the shore of the
sea; but suppose something be
lost half way between Liv-
erpool and New York; it can not be
found, it can not be fetched up. Now, u
says God, "your sins l have cast into
the depths of the sea-" Midatlantic!
All the machinery ever fashioned in
the foundries of darkness, and launched
from the doors of eternal death, work
ing for ten thousand years, Can not
bring up one of our sins forgiven and
forgotten and sunken into the depths
of the sea. When a sin is pardoned it
is gone-it is gone out of the books, it
is gone out of the memory, it is gone
out of existence. "Their sins and their
iniquities will l remember no more"
From other tragedies men have come
away exhausted and nervous and sleep
less; but there is one tragedy that
soothes and Gains and saves. Calvary
was the stage on which it was enacted,
the curtain of the night falling at mid
noon was the drop scene, the thunder
of falling rocks the orchestra,
angels in the galleries and devils
in the pit the spectators, the
tragedy crucifixion. ut is Christ
that died" Oh, triumphant thought!
If you go through the picture gal
leries of Versailles you will find great
change there. l said to friend who
had been through those galleries: Are
they as they were before the French
WARP" and / was told there was great
change there; that all that multitude
of pictures which repres nted Napo-
leonic triumphs had been taken away,
and in the frames were other pictures
representative of Germanic success and
victory. Oh, that all the scenes of Sa-
tanic triumph in our world might be
blotted out, and that the whole world
might be picture gallery represent
ing the triumphant Jesus! Down with
the monarchy of transgression! Up
with the monarchy of our King! HALL
Jesus, hail!
But 1 must give you the second cause
of Pauls exhilaration. If Christ had
staid in that grave we never
would have gotten out of it.
The grave would have been as
dark and dismal as the con-
ciergerie during the Reign of Terror,
where the carts came up only to take
the victims out to the scaffold. | do
not wonder that the ancients tried by
embalmment of the body to resist the
dissolution of death.
The grave is the darkest, deepest,
| ghastliest chasm that was ever opened
if there be no light from the resurrec-
ton throne streaming into it; but
| Christ staid in the tomb all Friday
night and all Saturday, all Sat-
urday night and part of Sunday morn
ing. He staid so long in the tomb that
He might fit it for us when we go there
He tarried two whole nights in the
grave,so that He saw how important it
was to have plenty of light, and He
has flooded it with His own glory.
1t is early Sunday morning, and we
start up to find the grave of Christ
We find the morning sun gliding the
dew, and the shrubs are sweet as the
foot brushes them. What a beautiful
place to be buried in! Wonder they
did not treat Christ as well when He
was alive as they do now that He is
dead. Give the military salute to- the
soldiers who stand guarding the dead.
But bark to the crash! An earthquake!
| The soldiers fall back as though they
were dead, and the stone at the door of
| Christ's tomb spins down the HILL flung
by the arm of an angel. Come forth,
| o Jesus! from the darkness into the
sunlight. Come forth, and breathe the
perfume of Joseph's garden.
Christ comes forth radiant. and as He
steps out of the excavation of the rock
| look down into the excavation, and
in the distance l see others coming
hand-in-hand, and troop after troop,
and find it is long procession of the
| precious dead. Among them are our
own loved ones-father, mother,
brother, sister, companion, children,
coming up out of the excavation of the
rock until the last One has stepped out
Into CHe lgnC, ana am DeWlldered,
and / can not understand the scene
until 1 see Christ wave His hand over
the advancing procession from the
rock, and hear Him cry: 81 am the
resurrection and the life; he who be-
lieveth in Me, though he were dead,
yet shall he live" And then | notice
that the long dirge of the worlds woe
suddenly stops at the archangelic shout
of "Come forth!'
Oh! my friend, if Christ had not
broken out of the grave you and l
would never come out of it. It would
have been another case of Charlotte
Corday attempting to slay a tryant,
herself slain. 1t would have been an
other case of John Brown attempting
to free the slaves, himself hung. It
would have been Death and Christ in a
grapple, and Death the victor. The
black flag would have foated on all
graves and mausoleums of the dead.
and hell would have conquered the
forces of Heaven and captured the
ramparts of God, and Satan would have