The Bossier banner., 1893-11-23

disciples. Societies in the United States
and England and other lands have been
esta blished for the PRONUNCIATION of The
osophy. Instead of needing the revela-
tion of Bible, you can have these spir-
its from a cave in central Asia to tell
you all you ought to know, and after
you leave this life you may become a
prima donna or a robin, or ga
zelle, or sort of prize-fghter,
or q Herod. or Jezebel; and
SO be enabled to have great
variety of experience, rotating
through the universe, now rising, now
falling, now shot out in straight line,
and now describing a parabola, and on
and on, and up and up, and down and
down, and round and round. Don't you
see? Now, that Theosophic lifeboat
has been launched. 1t proposes to take
you off the rough sea of doubt into
everlasting quietude. How do you like
that lifeboat? My opinion is you had
and cut off the ropes of that boat and
let her fall off.
Another lifeboat tempting US to en-
ter is made up of many planks of good
works. 1t is really beautiful boat
alms-giving, practical sYmpathies for
human suffering, righteous words and
righteous deeds. l must admit | like
the looks of the PROV and of the row
locks and of the paddles and of the
stearing gear and of many who are
thinking to trust themselves on her
benches. But the trouble about that
lifebOat is it leaks. | never knew a
man yet good enough to earn Heaven
by his virtues or generosities. If
there be one person here present on
this blessed Sabbath all of whose
thoughts have been always right,
all of whose actions have always been
right, and all of whose words have
always been right, let him stand up,
or if already standing, let him lift his
hand, and | will know that he lies.
Paul had it about right when he said:
"By the deeds of the law shall no flesh
living be justified" David had it
about right when he said: "There is
none that doeth good, no not one"
The Old Book had it about right when
it said: "All have sinned and come
short of the glory of God" Let man
get off that little steamer called
''The Maid of the Mist" which
sails up to the foot of Niagara
falls, and then climb to the top of the
falls on the descending floods, for he
can do it easier than any man ever will
be able to climb to Heaven by his good
works. If your thoughts have always
been exactly right, and your deeds al
ways exactly right, you can go up to
the gate of Heaven, and you need not
even knock for admittance, but open
it yourself, and push the angels out of
your way, and go up and take one of
the front seats. But you would be so
unlike anyone else that has gone
up from this world that you
would be curiosity in Heaven, and
more fit for heavenly museum than
for place where the inhabitants could
look at you free of charge. No, sir, I
admire your good works, and that life
boat you are thinking of trusting in is
handsomer than any yawl or pinnace
or yacht or cutter that ever sped out of
a boathouse or hoisted sail for race
But she leaks. Trust your soul in
that, and you will go to the bottom.
She leaks. So l initiate the mariners
of the text, and with a cutlass strike
the ropes Of the boat and let her fall
off.
Another lifeboat is Christian Incon-
sistencies. The planl1s of this boat are
composed of the split planks of ship
wrecks. That PROV is made out of
hypocrisy from the life of n man who
professed one thing and really was an
other. One oar of this lifeboat was
the falsehood of a church mem Der, and
the other was the wickedness of some
minister of the Gospel, whose iniquities
were not for a long while found Not
one plank from the oak of Gods eternal
truth in all that lifeboat. All the planks,
by universal admission, are decayed and
crumbling, and fallen apart and rotten
and ready to sink. "Wen, we'll" YOU
say; mo one will want to get into that
.ifeboat." Oh, my friend, you are mis-
taken. That is the most popular life
boat ever constructed. That is the
most popular Gfeboat ever launched.
Millions of people want to get into it.
They jostle each other to get the best
seat in the boat. You could not keep
them back though you stood at the
gunwhales with club, as on our ship
Greece" in a hurricane, and the steer
age passengers We're determined to
come up on deck, where they would
have been washed off, and the officers
stood at the top of the stairs clubbing
them back. Even by such violence as
that you could not keep people from
jumping into the most popular life
boat, made of church-member incon-
sistencies. In times of revival, when
sinners flock into the inquiry room, the
most of them are kept from deciding
Alright because they know so many
Christians who are bad. The inquiry
room becomes n worlds fair for ex-
of all the frailties of church
members, so that if you believe
all is there told you, you would
be afraid to enter a church
lest you get your pockets picked or
get knocked down. This is the way
thew tall tsT was cheated ont Of fra