The Bossier banner., 1893-08-31

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You felt as if you could not put the
lashes over the bright eyes never tosee
them again sparkle. Oh, if you could
have taken that little one in your arms
and with it leaped into the grave, how
gladly You would have done it! Oh, II
you could have let your property go,
your houses go, your land and your
store-house go, how gladly you would
have allowed them to depart if you
could only have kept that one treasure!
But one day there arose from the
heavens a chill blast that swept over
the bed room, and instantly all the
light went out, and there was darkness
thick, murky, impenetrable, shud-
dering darkness. But God did not
leave you there. Mercy spoke. As you
were about to put up that cup to your
lips, God said, Let it pass" and forth
with, as by the hand of angels, another
cup was in your hands, it WAS the cup
of Gods consolation. And if you have
sometimes lifted the head of wounded
soldier and poured wine into his lips,
$50 God put His left arm under your
head, and with His right hand He pours
into your lips the wine of consolation,
and You looked at the empty cradle
and looked at your broken heart and
| you looked at the Lords chastisement.
and you said: even SO, Father, for so
it seemeth good in Thy sight"
Perhaps your last sorrow was finan-
clal embarrassment. | congratulate
some of you on your lucrative profess
/ or 10 IL
on commodious residence-every-
thing you put your hand to seems to
turn to gold But there are others of
you who are like the ship on which
| Paul sailed where two seas met, and
you are broken by the violence of the
waves. BY an unadvised Endorsement,
or by a conjunction of unforeseen
events, or by fire or storm, or sense
less panic, you have been flung head
long, and where you once dispensed
| great charities now You have hard
work to make the two ends meet.
Have you forgotten to thank God for
your days of prosperity, and that
through your trials some of you have
made investments which will continue
after the last bank of this world has
exploded and the silver and gold are
molten in fires of a burning world?
Have you, amid all your losses and dis
couragements, forgot that there was
bread on your table this morning and
that there shall be a shelter for your
head from the storm, and there is air
for your lungs, and blood for your
heart, and light for your eye, and
glad and glorious and triumphant re-
ligion for your soul?
Perhaps your last trouble was be-
reavement. That heart which in
childhood was your refuge, the parental
heart, and which has been a source of
the quickest sympathy ever since, has
suddenly become silent forever. And
now sometimes. whenever in sudden
annoyance and without deliberation
you say, II will go and tell mother"
| the thought flashes on you: 81 have no
mother Or the father, with voice
less tender, but at heart as earnest and
loving-watchful of all our ways,
exultant over your success without
saying much, although the old people
do talk it over by themselves--is taken
away forever.
Or there was your companion in life,
sharer of your joys and sorrows, taken.
leaving the heart an old ruin, where
the i'll winds blow over n wide wilder
ness of desolation, the sands Of the
desert driving across the place which
once bloomed like the garden of God.
And Abraham mourns for Sarah at the
cave of Machpelah. Going along your
path in life, suddenly, right before you
was an open grave.
People looked down, and they @aw
that it was only few feet deep and
few feet wide, but to you it was chasm
down which went all your hopes and
all your expectations.
But cheer up in the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ, the Comforter. He is not
going to forsalze yoR. Did the Lord
take that child out of your arms? Why
He is going to shelter it better than
you could. He is going to array it in
white robe, and give it palm branch,
and have it all ready to greet you at
your coming home. Blessed the broken
heart that Jesus heals. Blessed the
importunate cry that Jesus compassion
ates. Blessed the weeping eye from
which the soft hand of Jesus wipes
away the tear.
But these "reminiscences reach onlv
to this morning. There is one more
point of tremendous "Reminiscences, and
that is the last hour of life, when we
have to look over all our past ex-
istence. What moment that will be!
| place Napoleon's dying remi-
niscence on st. Helena beside
Mrs. Judson's dying reminiscence
in the harbor of st. Helena, the
same island, twenty years after
Napoleon's dying reminiscence was one
of delirium-as he exclaimed: Head
of the army Mrs. Judson's dying
reminiscence, as she came home from
her missionary toll and her life of self
sacrifice for God, diving in the cabin of
the ship in the harbor of st. Helena,
was: Il always did love the Lord Jesus
Christ" And then, the historian saws.
she fell into sound sleep for an hour,
and woke amid the songs of angels,