The Bossier banner., 1893-05-11

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Jupiter on the head, and the goddess OF
wisdom jumped out, illustrating the
truth that wisdom comes by hard
knocks. There was a river of difficulty
between Shakespeare, the boy holding
the horses at the door of the London
theater, and that Shakespeare, the
great dramatist, winning the applause
of all audiences by his tragedies There
was river between Benjamin Frank
lin, with a loaf of bread under his arm,
walking the streets of Philadelphia,
and that same Benjamin Franklin, the
philosopher, just outside of Boston, n.y.
ing a kite in the thunderstorm. An
idlcr was cured of his bad habit by
looking through his window, night
after night, at a man who seemed
sitting at his desk turning off one
sheet of writing after another, until
almost the dawn of the morning.
The man sitting there writing unit!
morning was Industrious Walter Scott;
the man who looked at him through
the window was Locllhart, his illustri-
Gus biographer afterward. Lord Mans
field, pursued by the press and by the
pOpulace because of Il certain line of
duty, went on to discharge the duty,
and while the mob were around him,
demanding the taking of his life, he
shook his fist in the face of the mob
and said: 'Sirs. when ones last end
comes, it can not come to soon if he
falls in defense of law and the liberty
of his country" And so there is, my
friends, a tug, a tussle. a trial, push,
an anxiety, through which every man
must go before he comes to worldly
achievement. You admit it. Now be
wise enough to apply it in religion.
gained by the Jordanic passage; no
man just happened to get good.
Why does that man know so much
about the Scriptures? lie was study
ing the Bible while you were reading a
novel. lie was on fire with the sub
limities of the Bible, while you were
sound asleep. by tug, tussle, pushing
and running in the Christian life that
man got so strong for God; in hum
dred Solferinos he learned how to fight;
in hundred shipwrecks he learned
how to swim. Tears over sin, tears
over lions desolation, tears over the
impenitent, telrs over the graves made,
are the Jordan which that man had
passed. Sorrow pales the check. and
fades the eye, and wrinkles the brow,
and withcrs the hands; there are
mourning garments in the wardrobe,
and there are deaths in every family
record, all around are the relics of the
dead.
The Christian comes down to this
raging torrent, and he knows he must
pass out; and as he comes toward the
time his breath gets shorter; and his
last breath leaves him as he steps into
the stream, and no sooner does he touch
the stream than it is parted, and he
goes through dryshod, while all the
waters wave their plumes, crying: 20,
death, where is thy sting? o, grave,
where is thy victory?" God shall wipe
away all tears from their eyes, and
there shall be no more weeping and
there shall be no more death.
Some of your children have already
gone up the other bank. You let them
N'Sf' II Ci bAi 10 oANtC VI bllC bdhNs lilCS
will be on the other side of the bank to
help you up with supernatural
strength. The other morning at my
table, all my family present, l thought
to myself how pleasant it would be if
| could put all into boat, and then go
in with them, and we could pull across
the river to the next world, and be
there all together. No family parting,
no gloomy obsequies; it wouldn't take
five minutes to go from bank tc bank,
and then in that better world to be to-
gether forever. Wouldn't it be pleas
ant for you to take al your family
into that blessed country if you could
all go together? | remember my moth
er, in her dying hour, said to my IA
ther: Father, wouldn't it be pleasant
if we could all go together?" But we
can not all go together. We must go
one by one, and we must be grateful if
we get there at all. What Heaven it
will be if we have all of our families
there, to look around and see all the
children are present! You would
rather have them all there, and you go
with bare brow forever, than that one
should be missing, to complete the gar~
lands of Heaven for your coronal. The
Lord God of Joshua, give them a safe
Jorianic passage.
Why was there so much JOY in certain
circles in New York when people heard
from friends who were on board that
belated steamer? 1t was feared that
vessel had gone to the bottom of the
sea; and when the friends on this side
heard that the steamer had arrived
safely in Liverpool, had we not right
to congratulate the people n New
York that their friends had got
safely across? And is it not
right this morning that I consratu-
late you that your departed friends are
safe on the shore of Heaven? Would
you have them back again? Would you
have those old parents back again?
You know how hard it WAS sometimes
for them to get their breath in the
stifled atmosphere of the. summer;
would you have them back in this
weather? Didn't they use their brain
long enough! Would you have your
children back again? Would you have