The Bossier banner., 1893-10-12

annoyance, Irritation after irritation;
and after awhile he will be done, and
glad spectacle for angels and men,"
Not by one great stroke, but by ten
thousand little strokes of misfortune
are men fitted for Heaven. You know
that large fortunes can soon be scat
tered by being paid out in small sums
of money, and the largest estate of
Christian character is sometimes en-
tirely lost by these small depletions.
We must bring the religion of Jesus
Christ to help us in these little annoy
ances. Do not say that anything is
too insignificant to affect your charac-
ter. Rats may sink ship. One luci-
fer match may destroy temple.
queen got her death by smelling a
poisoned rose. The scratch of six
penny nail may give you the lockjaw
Columbus by asking for piece of
bread and drink of water at Fran
ciscan convent came to the discovery
of new world. And there is great
connection between trifes and i'm
mensities, between nothiDgs and
everyt hings. Do you not suppose that
God cares for your insignificant sor-
rows? Why, my friends, there is moth
ing insignificant in your life. How
dare you take the responsibility of say
ing that there is? Do you not know
that the whole universe is not ashamed
to take care of one violet? l say:
"What arc you doing down there in the
grass, poor little violet? Nobody
knows you are here. Are you not
afraid nights? You will die with thirst;
nobody cares for you; you will suffer,
you viii perish" No." says star,
"Ill watch over it tonight" No."
say the cloud, ''I'll give it a drink"
NO" says the sun, 'Ill warm it in my
BOSOM" And then the wind rises, and
comes bending down the grain, and
sounding its psalm through the forest,
and say: WHITTIER away, o wind! on
such swift wing?" and it answers: Il
am going to cool the cheek of that vio-
let" And then / see pulleys at work
in the sky, and the clouds are drawing
water, and say: "What are you doing
there, o clouds?" They say: "We are
drawing water for that violet" And
then I look down into the grass,
| and l say: Can it be ~that God
takes care of a poor thing like
you?" and the answer comes up: ''Yes,
yes; God clothes the grass of the field,
and He has never forgotten me, poor
violet" Oh, my friends, if the heavens
bend down to such insignificant minis
try as that, tell you God is willing to
bend down to your case; since He is
| just as careful about the construction
nation of flaming galaxies,
But | remark again: We ought to
| bring the religion of Jesus Christ into
our ordinary blessings. Every autumn
the president of the United States and
the governors make proclamation, and
we are called together in our churches
to give thanks to God for His goodness.
and every day ought to be q thanks
giving day. We take most of the
| blessings of life as a matter of course.
We have had ten thousand blessings
this morning. Before the night comes
we will have thousand more blessings
you will never think of mentioning be-
| fore God.
We must see blind man led along
| grand thing it is to have ones eye
sight. We must see a man with st.
Vitus' dance before we learn what a
grand thing it is to have the use of our
physical energies. We must see some
soldier crippled, limping along on his
crutch, or his empty coat sleeve pinned
up. before we learn what grand
thing it is to have the use of all our
| physical faculties. In other words,
we are so stupid that nothing but the
misfortunes of others can wake us up
to an appreciation of our common bless
ings.
We get on board train and start for
Boston, and come to Norwalk bridge,
| and the draw Is off, and crash goes
the train. Fifty lives dashed out We
escape. We come home in great ex-
eiteihent, and call our friends around
us, and they congra tulate us; and we
all kneel down and thank God for our
| escape while SO many perished. But
Tomorrow morning you get on train
for Boston. You cross that bridge at
Norwalk. You cross all the other
bridges. You get to Boston in safety.
| Then you return home. Not an ac-
cident, not an alarm. No thanks In
other words, you seem to be more
grateful when fifty people lose their
lives and you get off, than you are
grateful to God when you all get off,
and you have no alarm at all Now
you Ought to be thankful when you es-
cape from accident, but more thankful
when they all escape. In the one case
your gratitude is somew hat selfish; in
the other it is more like what it ought
| to be.
Who thinks of thanking God for the
water gushing up in the well, foaming
in the cascade, laughing over the rocks,
pattefihg in the shower, clapping it's
hands in the sea? Who thinks to thank
God for that? Who thinks to thank
God for the air, the fountain of life,
the bridge of sunbeams, the path of
sound, the great fan on hot summer
day? who thiHbs to thank q cd for this
wonderful physical organism, this
| sweep of vision this chime of harmony