The Bossier banner., 1894-06-28
NUMBER 18.

|
way across the church. Her ear is so
imperfect that she can only catch occa-
sionally a note of the psalm or word
of the preacher. Someone sitting next
to her gives her a book and finds the
place for her. She says: ''Thank you,
miss, thank your She holds the book
close up to her eyes, and, with voice
all full of tremors, sings:
Jesus, lover of my soul,
Let me to Thy bosom fly
| Whilethe billows near me roll,
While the tempest still is high;
| Hide me, o. my Saviour hide,
| Till the storm of life Is past.
| Safe into the haven guide
| Oh! receive my soul at last
And Jesus says to her: Mother, are
you weary?" and she says: Eyes,
Jesus, i am very tired" Jesus says:
Mother, are you poor!' And she says:
"Yes, am very poor. l can not sew
any more. | can not knit any more.
am very poor" Jesus says to her:
Mother, would you like to rest?" She
says: ''Yes, Lord, that is what want
rest" " Courage, mother" says Jesus,
II will see thee through" She goes
home. The next morning, in the tene-
ment house, some one dwelling on
another floor comes to her room and
knocks. No answer. The door is
| opened. She is dead! The night be-
fore the chariots of God halted at that
pillow of straw, and Jesus kept His
promise. He said that He would give
her rest, and He has given her rest
Glory be to God for the height, the
depth, the length, and the breadth
of such Christian comfort! Oh!
| that we might have such JOY
as that which inspired the men at
the battle of Leuthen. They were
singing Christian song as they went
into battle. A general said to the
king: ''Shall stop those people sing
ing?" NO. said the king; ''men that
can sing like that can fight" l would
that we had singing church, a joyful
church, jubilant church, comfort
ing church, for then we would have a
| triumphant church.
l remark, further, that we have
here tried to build church abreast of
the times 1t is all folly for us to try
to do things the way they did fifty or
| hundred years ago. We might as
we'll be plowing with Elijah's crooked
| stick, or go into battle with Saul's
armor, or prefer a canal boat to
an express train, as to be cling
ing to old things What we most
need now is a wide-awake church
| People who are out in the
| world all the week, jostled against this
| ioh4 ~, fal
church on the Sabbath, and go right to
sleep, unless they have a spirited serv-
ice. Men engaged in literary callings
all the week, reading pungent, sharp
writings, can not be expected to
come and hear our ecclesiastical hum
drum. If a man stays at home
on Sundays and reads the news
papers, it is because the newspapers
are more interesting. We need, my
brethren, to rouse up, and stop hunt
ing with blank cartridges. The
church of God ought to be the leader,
the interpreter, the inspirer of the
age. 1t is all folly for us to be dis
cussing old issues-arraigning Nero,
hanging Absalom, striking the Philis-
tines with Shamgar's ox-goad when
all around about us are iniquities to be
slain.
remark, further, that we have tried
here, IN the love and fear of God, to-
build church that would be charac-
terized by conversions. / have heard
of very good people who could preach
on for fifteen or twenty years, and see
no conversions, but yet have faith. 1t
takes very good man to do that.
| do not know how man can keep his
| faith up if souls are not brought to
| the Lord Jesus Christ That church
| that does not bring men and women
| to the feet of the Saviour is failure.
| care not how fine the building or
how sweet the music, or how eloquent
the preaching, or how elegant thessur-
roundings-it is failure. The church
of God was made for just one thing
to get men out of the world into the
kingdom of Heaven. The tendency in
| churches is to spend their time in Civ
| ing fine touches to Christians already
polished. We keep our religion too
much indoors, and under shelter, ,whenit
ought to be climbing the rocks of hew-
| ing In the forests. Then it would be a
stalwart religion, robust religion, a
religion able to digest the strong meat
of the Word, instead of being kept on
the pap and Cruel of spiritual invalid
ism 1t is high time that we threw off
the Sunday clothes of sickly sentimen-
tality and put on the workday dress of
an earnest, active Christianity.
l thank you for all your kindness,
for all your sympathy, for all your
prayers for me as pastor. 1t is a sor-
row to me that l am to be absent,
| even for few months. Ihave worked
to the full extent of physical, mental
and spiritual endurance for this church.
My closing prayer this morning is
that God will have mercy on the dying
population of our great cities, and that
the whole earth will put on bridal
array for the coming of her Lord.
Ride on! King of Jesus! Ride on!
Blessed be the Lord God of Israel. from
everlasting to everlasting, and lei the
whole earth be filed with His glory!
Amen! and AmenI