The Bossier banner., 1894-06-21
md Cevlon. and India. [ want to

whether the heather religions are
really as tolerable and as commend
able as they were represented by their
adherents in the parliament of religions
at Chicago. l want to see whether Mo-
hammedanism or Buddhism would be
good things for transplantation
in America, as it has again and again
been argued. / want to hear the Brah-
minis pray. / want to test whether the
Poetic ocean treats its guests any bet
ter than does the Atlantic. l want to
see the wondrous architecture of
India, and the Delhi and Gavin
pore where Christ was crucified in the
massacre of His modern disciples, and
the disabled Juggernaut unwheeled
by Christianity; and to see if Tai
which the Emperor Shah Jehan built
in honor of his empress, really means
any more than the plain slab we put
above our dear departed. | want to see
the fields where Havelock and Sir
Colin Campbell won the day against
the Sepoys. l want to see the world
from all sides;how much of it is in dark
ness, how much of it is in light; what
the Bible means by the lends of the
earth,'' and get myself ready to appre-
ciate the extent of the present to be
made to Christ as spoken of in the
Psalms: "Ask of me, and shall give
thee the heather for thine inheritance,
and the uttermOst parts Of the earth
for they possession" And SO l
shall be ready to celebrate in Heaven
the victories of Christ in more rap
turous song than | could have rem
derei had | never seen the heather
denominations before they were ccn-
quered. And SO l hope to come back
| refreshed, re-enforced and better
equipped, and to do in ten years more
effectual work than l have done in the
last twenty-five.
And now in this twenty-ffth ami
versary sermon l propose to do two
things: first, to put a garland on the
grave of the generation that has just
| passed off, and then to put palm
branch in the hand of the generation
| just now coming on the field of ac-
| tion. For my text is true:
zone generation passeth away,
and another generation cometh."
| honored, and loved in the last genera
tion that quit the earth. Tears fell at
the time of their going, and dirges were
sounded, and signals of mourning were
| put on; but neither tears, nor dirge,
nor somber veil told the half we felt.
Their going left vacancy in our
| souls that has never been filed
up. We never get used to their alb
sence. There are times when the sight
of something with which they were as
sOciated-a picture, or book, or gar
ment, or a staff-breaks US down with
emotion, but we bear it simply because
we have to bear it. Oh, how snowy
white their hair got, and how the
wrinkles multiplied, and the sight grew
more dim, and the hearing less alert,
and the step more fral, and one day
| they were gone out of the chair by the
| freside, and from the plate at the
| meal, and from the end of the church
pew, where they worshiped with us.
Oh, my soul, how we miss them! But
| let us console each other with the
| thought that we shall meet them again
in the land of salutation and reunion.
And now | twist garland for that
| departed generation. 1t need not be
costly, perhaps just a handful of clover
blossoms from the field through which
! they used to walk, or as many violets
as you could hold between the thumb
and the forefinger, pluclzed out of the
| garden where they used to walk in the
cool of the day. Put these old-fash-
| nH Il 4
never again will ache, and the arm
| that has forever ceased to toll. Peace,
father! Peace, mother! Everlasting
peace! All that for the generation
| gone.
But what shall we do with the palm
branch? That we will put in the hand
of the generation coming on. Yours is
| to be the generation for victories The
| last and the present generation have
| been perfecting the steam-power, and
| the electric light and the electric
forces. To these will be added trans
portation. 1t will be your mission to
use all these forces. Everything is
ready now for you to march
right up and take this world for
| God and Heaven. Get your heart
right by repentance and the pardon
ing grace of the Lord Jesus, and your
mind right by elevating books and pic
lures, and your body right by gym
nasium and field exercises and plenty
of ozone, and by looking as often as
you can upon the. face of mountain and
| of sea. Then start! In Gods name,
start! And here is the palm branch
From conquest to conquest, move
right on and right up. You
| will soon have the whole field
for yourself. Before another twenty
five years have gone we will be out of
the pulpits, and the Offices, and the
! factories, and the benevolent institu-
| tons, and you will be at the front.
Forward into the battle! If God be for
you, who can be against you? "He
| that spared not His own Son, but de-
livered Him up for us all, how shall He
not with Him also freely give us all
| things?"
| And as for US who are now at the
front, having put the garland on the
| grave Of the last generation, and hav-
/ ING Dut the D9lm hI-an in 4ha bopd