The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1894-03-22


dead, and become the frstfruits of
them that slept.-L Corinthians, xv.,
20.
Next Sunday, in all Christian coun-
tries, will be celebrated the festival
of the Resurrection of the Saviour
The Resurrection is the corner stone
of religion.
The Master predicted his own
death, then added the startling state
ment that on the third day He would
rise again. If Christ did rise, then
we became partakers OF His resurrec,
ton; if He did not rise, then let us
eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.
In other words, the belief in another
life moulds our motives in this life.
With future we can afford to bear,
to work, to sacrifice, to suffer; with
no future the incentive to high deeds
shrivels and disappears. If there is
certainly a tomorrow, the work of
to-day becomes important; with an
uncertainty about the morrow, to-day
is simply tickle hour in which it is
folly to discuss motives; with the be-
lief in no tomorrow, to-day is bur-
den of desperation and recklessnesa
That is the philosophy on which
our civilization rests as a great cathe-
dral on the bed rock at its foundation.
1t is better to be honest at any cost,
since illgotten gains entail conse-
quences that follow surely on their
heels. You can afford to be cheerful
under the direst affection because it
is the discipline that fits you for heav-
en-. When the ties of family are
broken and the mounds in the church
yard increase, you can look up with q
sense of proprietorship in the man
sion not made with hands.
There is something gorgeous, al
Turing, transforming in such hopes.
If they were only dream they would
be better than the dull and dispiriting
realities of infdelity. If the sceptic
is right and the Christian wrong, we
must still say that the right cannot
produce as noble type of man as the
wrong. But if it be true that the
greatprocession which is daily march
ing into the valley of shadows will
find the sunlit hills of immortality on
the other side, then we do well to
greet next Sunday morning with &C.
CARNATIONS, to decorate our churches
with flowers and fill the air with
music.
One cannot contemplate the events
in that last week of Christ's life with.
out awe. They brought the thirty.
three years of His earthly career and
the three years of His public ministry
to tragic close. For three times
twelve months He preached in cities,
in Hamlets, by the country side and
on the shore of Galilee. It was a
short ministry, and yet its effects are
felt after twenty centuries have pass
ed. The record of what He said
would at best ell only a few pages,
and yet the homes in every cline and
age have been warned and warmed
thereby. There was no eloquence in
His speech except the eloquence of
truth, and the multitude had so little
patience with that truth that He was
brought to criminals death at last,
but still His words are ''the light of
the world" Omnipotence sent forth
the command, "Let there be light"
and Christ came.
On Friday of that week the inevita-
BILE happened, and on Sunday the I'm
possible was achieved. Before the
darkness gathered on Friday after.
noon the Nazarene was sorrowfully
laid in the tomb. Before the sun had
risen above the hilltops on Sunday
morning it was discovered that the
tomb was empty. It had been guard
ed, but still it was empty. Roman
soldiers had jealously watched, and
1t was death for a Roman soldier nm