The Bossier banner., 1894-01-25

/ you hardly know whether the life has
gone or not Indeed, you can not tell
when she goes away, she goes away SO
calmly. Perhaps it is four o'clock in
! the morning, and you have the bed
wheeled around to the window, and
/ the dying one looks out into the night
/ sky, and she sees something that at
tracts her attention, and you wonder
what it is.
Why, it is star. 1t is a star that
out of its silver rim is pouring a super
natural light into that dying expert
ence. And you say, What is it that
you are looking at?' She says, ''It is
a star" You say, "What star is it that
/ seems SO well to please you?" oh"
/ she says, that is the morning star
| Jesus!' / would like to have my death
bed under that evangelistic start
would like to have my eye on that star,
so l could be assured of the morning.
Then the dash of the surf of the sea of
death would only be the billowing up
of the promise. when thou passeth
through the waters, I will Ee with
thee, and the rivers, they shall not
/ overflow thee" All other lights vii!
fail-the light that falls from the scroll
of fame, the light that flashes from the
gem in the beautiful apparel, the light
! that flames from the burning lamps of
a banquet-but this light burns on and
burns on. Paul kept his eye on that
morning star, until he could say: Il
am now ready to be offered, and the
time of my departure is at hand l have
fought the good fight. have finished
my course. | have kept the faith.
Edward Payson kept his eye on that
star until he could say The breezes of
Heaven fan me-" Dr. Goodwin kept
his eye on that evangelistic star until
he could say, Il am swallowed up in
God" John Tenant kept his eye on
that evangelistic star until he could
say, welcome, sweet Lord Jesus
welcome, eternity" No other star
ever pointed a mariner into SO safe
harbor. No other star ever sunk it's
silvered anchor into the waters No
other star ever pierced such accumu-
lated cloud, or beckoned with such
holy luster.
With lanterns and torches and
guide, we went down in the Nam
moth cave of Kentucky. You may
walk fourteen miles and see no sun
light 1t is a stupendous place. Some
places the roof of the cave a hundred
feet high. The grottoes filled with
wierd echoes, cascades falling from in
visible height to invisible depth. Stall
agmites rising up from the floor of the
cave-stalactites descending from the
roof of the cave, joining each other,
and making pillars of the Almighty's
sculpturing. There are rosettes of
amethyst in halls of gypsum. AS
the guide carries his lantern ahead of
you, the shadows have an appearance
supernatural and spectral. The dark
ness is fearful. Two people, getting
lost from their guide only for few
hours, years ago, were demented, and
for years sat in their insanity. You
feel like holding your breath as you
walk across the bridges that seem to
span the bottomless abyss The guide
throws his calcium light down into the
caverns, and the light rolls and tosses
from rock to rock and from depth to
depth, making at every plunge new
revelation of the awful power that
could have made such place as that.
A sense of suffocation comes upor
you as you think that you are two hun
dred and fifty feet in straight line
from the sunlit surface of the earth.
The guide after awhile takes YOU into
what is called the ''Star Chamber" and
then he says to you, "Sit here" and
then he takes the lantern and goes
down under the rocks, and it gets
darker and darker. until the night is SO
thick that the hand an inch from the
eye is undesirable. And then, by
kindling one of the lanterns and
placing it. in a cleft of the rock
there is a reflection cast on the
dome of the cave, and there are stars
coming out in constellations-a bril-
liant night heavens-and you involun-
tarily eXclaim: beautiful! beautiful"
Then he takes the lantern down in
other depths of the cavern, and wan
ders on, and wanders off, until
he comes up from behind the
rocks gradually, and it seems
like the dawn of the morning, and it
gets brighter and brighter. The guide
is a skilled ventriloquist, and he imi.
tates the voices of the morning, and
soon the gloom is all gone, and you
stand congratulating yourself over the
wonderful spectacle. Well, there are a
great many people who look down into
the grave as a great cavern. They
think it is thousand miles subterrane-
Gus, and all the echoes seem to be the
voices of despair, and the cascades
seem to be the falling tears that alway
fall, and the gloom of earth seems com
ing up in stalagmite, and the gloom OF
the eternal world seems descending il
stalactite, making pillars of indescrib-
able horror. The grave is no such
place as that to me, thank God.
Our divine Guide takes us down into
the great caverns, and we have the
lamp to our feet and the light to our
path, and all the echoes il. the riffs of
the rock are anthems, and all the fall
ing waters are fountains of salvation,
and after awhile we look up and, be-
hold! the cavern of the tomb has be-
come a kings star chamber. And while