The Bossier banner., 1894-09-27
BENTON, LOUISIANA, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1894.

Chalmers, the theologi,sr, and held
universities spellbound while he told
them the story of what he had seen of
God in the old red sandstone.
That man did more than any being
that ever lived to show that the God
of the hills is the God of the Bible
and he struck his tuning fork on the
rocks of Cromarty until he brought gc-
ology and theology accordant with di
vine worship. His two books, entitled
Footprints of the Creator" and the
''Testamony of the Rocks, proclaimed
the banns of an everlasting marriage
between genuine science and revela-
tion. On this latter book he toiled
day and night, through love of nature
and love of God, until he could not
sleep, and his brain gave way, and he
was found dead with revolver by his
side, the cruel instrument having had
| two bullets-one for him and the other
for the gunsmith who, at the coron-
er's inquest was examining it and fell
dead. Have you any doubt of the be-
atifcation of Hugh Miller, after his
hot brain had ceased throbbing that
winter night in his study at Porto
bello? Among the mightiest of earth,
among the mightiest of Heaven.
No one ever doubted the piety of
| William Cowper, the author of those
three great hymns, ''Oh, For a Closer
Walk With God" ''What Various
Hindrances We Meet" "There is a
Fountain Filled With Blood" Will
liam Cowper, who shares with Isaac
Watts and Charles Wesley the chief
| honors of Christian hymnology. In
| hypochondria he resolved to take his
own life, and rode to the River
Thames, but found man seated on
some goods at the very point from
which he expected to spring, and rode
| back to his home, and that night
threw himself upon his own. knife,
but the blade broke, and then he
hanged himself to the ceiling, but the
rope parted. No wonder that when
| God mercitully delivered him from
| that awful dementia he sat down and
wrote that other hymn just as memor-
able:
God moves in a mysterious way
| His wonders to perform;
He plants his footsteps in the sea, q.
And rides upon the storm.
Blind unbelief is sure to err
And scan his work in vain;
God is his own interpreter
| And He will make it plain.
While we make this merciful and
righteous allowance in regard to those
who were plunged into mental inco-
herence, / declare that the man who in
the use of his reason, by his own act,
snaps the bond between his body and
his soul, goes straight into perdition
Shall l prove it? Revelation xxi, s.
''Murderers shall have their part in the
lake which burneth with fire and brim-
stone" Revelation xii, Is: t'With-
out are dogs, and sorcerers, and whore
mongers, and murders" You do not
believe the New Testament? Then
perhaps you believe the Ten Com
mandments. ''Thou shalt not kill.
Do you say all these passages refer to
the taking of the life of others? Then
l ask you if you are not respon
sible for your own life as fol
the life of others? God gave you
a special trust in your life. He
made you the custodian of your life
as He made you the custodian of nc
other life. He gave you as weapons
with which to defend it two arms te
| strike back assailants, two eyes tc
| watch for invasion, and a natural love
of life which ought ever to be on the
alert. Assassination of others is milo
crime compared with the assassination
| of yourself, because in the latter cast
it is treachery to an especial trust, i
is the surrender of castle you were
Especially appointed to keep, it is trea
son to a natural law and it is treason tx
God added to ordinary murder.
To show how God in the Bible looked
| upon this crime, / point you to tn,
rogues' picture gallery in some parts @
the Bible, the pictures of the peopl,
who have committed this unnatura
crime. Here is the headless trunk o
Saul on the walls of Bathshan. Herr
is the man who chased little David
ten feet in stature chasing four. Her
is the man who consulted a clairvoyant
witch of Endor. Here is man who
whipped in battle, instead of surrender
ing his sword with dignity, as many
man has done, asks his servant to sla,
him; and when the servant declines
then the. giant plants the hilt of th'
sword in the earth, the sharp poin
sticking upward, and he throws hi
body on it and expires, the coward, tn
suicide Here is Ahithophel, III
MachiaVell of olden times, betrayin
his best friend David in order that h
may become prime minister of Abss
: lom, and joining that fellow in his a
tempt at parricade.. Not getting wha
he wanted by change of politics, h
: takes a short cut out of disgrace
/ life into suicides eternity. There h
, is, the migrate.
All the good men and women of tn
{ Bible left to God the decision of the
: earthly terminus, and they could hav
said with Job, who had right to con
: NIT suicide if any man ever had-wha
f with his destroyed property, and h
E body all afame with insufferable ca
: buncles, and everything gone from h
home except the chief curse of it,
: pestiferous wife, and four garrulot
!, neonle Melting him with comfOrtle,