The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1893-07-20

OF temple aquake with harmon1es
would not catch up one melody. From
the time that the first birds throat
was fashioned on the banks of the
Gihon and Hiddekel until to-day on the
Hudson or Rhine the winged creature
has learned nothing from the human
race in the way Of carol or anthem.
The feathered songsters learned all
their music direct from God. He gave
them the art in nest of straw or
moss or sticks, and taught them how
to lift that song into the higher heav-
ems and sprinkle the earth with its dull
Get entertainments. God-fashioned, God
tuned, God-launched, God-lifted mu-
sic! And there is kind of music that
the Lord only can impart to you, my
nearer. There have been depraved, rep
rebate and blasphemous souls which
could sign till great auditoriums were
in raptures. There have been soloists
and bassos, and barytones and sopranos
whose brilliancy in concert halls has
not been more famous than their de-
baucheries. But Their is king of
song, which, like the song of birds, is
Divinely fashioned. Songs of pardon.
Songs of Divine comfort. Songs of
worship. 'Songs in the night" like
| those which David and Job men
toned. Song full of faith and tender
ness and prayer, like those which the
Christian mother sings over the sick
cradle. Songs of a broken heart
being healed, Songs of the dy-
ing flashed upon by opening por-
tails of amethyst. Songs like that
which Paul commended to the Colos-
slams, when he said: "Admonish one
another in psalms, and hymns, and
spiritual songs, singing, with grace in
| your hearts, to the Lord" Songs like
Moses sang after the tragedy of the
Red sea. Songs like Deborah and Ba-
rak sang at the overthrow of Sisera.
Songs like Isaiah heard the redeemed
sing as they came to Zion. Oh, God,
teach us that kind of song which Thou
canst teach, and help us to sing it on
earth and sing it in Heaven. 1t was
the highest result of sweet sound when
under the playing of Paganini one au-
ditor exclaimed reverently: "Oh,
God!' and another sobbed out: "Oh
Christi"
Further, I remark in regard to the
song of birds, that it is trustful, and
without any fear of what may yet
come. VIII you tell me how it is posi-
BILE for that wren, that sparrow, that
chlckadee, to sing so sweetly when
they may at any time be bounced on by
hawk and torn wing from wing.
There are cruel beaks in thicket and
sky ready to Stay the song birds. Her
DDS on the wing. Modocs of the sky.
Assassins armed with iron claw Muir
derers of song floating up and down
the heavens. How can the birds sing
! amid such perils? Beside that, how is
the bird sure to get it's food? Millions
of birds have been starved. Yet it
sings in the dawn without any certainty
of breakfast or dinner or supper. Would
it not be better to gather it's food for the
day before vocalizing? Besides that
the hunters are abroad. Bang! goes
gun in one direction. Bang goes a
gun in another direction. The song
will attract the shot and add to the
peril. Beside that, yonder is thun-
der-cloud and there may be hurricane
and hail to be let loose and what then
will become of you, the poor warbler?
Besides that, winter will come. and it
may be smitten down before it gets to
the tropics. Have you never seen the
snow strewn with the birds belated in
their migration? The titmouse min
giles its voice with the snow storms as
Emerson describes the little thing he
found in tempestuous January:
Here was this atom in full breath
Hurting defiance at vast death:
This scrap of valor just for play
Fronts the north wind in waistcot gray.
For every bird, a thousand perils and
disasters lowering and sweeping round
and round. Yet, there it sings. and it
is truthful song. The bird that has
it the hardest, sings the sweetest. The
lark from the shape of her claws NAV
not perch on tree. In the grass her
nest is exposed to every hoof that
passes One of the poorest shelters of
all the earth Is the lafk's nest. If she
sing at all, you will expect her to sur
FENDER the sdddest of thre nodes. No,
no, She sings exultingly an hour with
out pause and mounting three thou
sand feet without losing a note. Would
God we all might learn the lesson.
Whatever perils, whatever bereave-
ments, whatever trials are vet to
come, sing, sing with ali your
heart and sing with all younr lungs.
1t you wait until all the hawks of
trouble have folded their wings and
all the hunters of hate have unloaded
their guns and all the hurricanes of
disaster have spent their fury, YOU will
never sing at all. David, the pursued
OF Absalom, and the betrayed of Ahith-
ophel, and the depleted of "scores that
ran in the night" presents us the best
songs of the Billie. John Milton. not
able to see his hand before his faea,
sings for us the famous poem of ali
literature, and SOME of the most cheer
full people l have ever met have been
Christian people under physical, or do
mestic, or puplic torment. The songs
of Charles Wesley, which we now calm
ly sing in church, were composed bv
him between mobs.
Further, in the sky galleries, there