The Bossier banner., 1894-09-06
NUMBER %.

SlCy W CnooSe Ut REJECT, TO reJOlce or 10
suffer, to love or to hate. Plato says it
is immortal, Seneca says it is immortal,
Confucius says it is immortal. An old
book among the family relics-a book
with leathern cover almost worn out,
and pages almost obliterated by oft
perusal, joins the other books in saying
l am immortal. have eighty years
for lifetime, sixty years yet to
live. l may not live an hour, but
then must lay out my plans intelli-
gently and for a long life. Sixty years
added to the twenty I have already
lived, that will bring me to eighty. I
must remember that these eighty years
are only brief preface to the five hum
dred thousand millions of quintillions
of years which will be my chief resi-
dence and existence. Now / under
stand my opportunities and my re-
sponsibilities.
all wise and all benefcent who can
help man in such a juncture, want
him. The old book found among the
family relics tells me there is God,
and that for the sake of His Son, one
Jesus, He will give help to man. To
Him 1 appeal. God help me! Here I
have yet sixty years to do for myself
and to do for others. l must develop
this body by all industries, by
all gymnastics, by all sunshine,
by all fresh air, by all good
habits. And this soul / must have
swept, and garnished and illumined,
and glorified by all that can do for
it and all that l can get God to do for
it. 1t shall be Luxembourg of fine
pictures. 1t shall be an orchestra of
grand harmonies. 1t shall be palace
for God and Righteousness to reign in.
l wonder how many kind words l can
utter in the next sixty years? l will
try. l wonder how many good deeds
can do in the next sixty years? / will
try. God help me!'
That young man enters life He is
buffeted, he is tried, he is perplexed.
A grave opens on this side and grave
opens on that side. He falls, but he
rises again. He gets into hard bat
tie, but he gets the victory. The main
course of his life is in the right direc-
tion. He blesses everybody he comes
in contact with. God forgives his mis-
takes, and makes everlasting record of
his holy endeavors, and at the close of
it God says to him: "Weu done, good
and faithful servant; enter into the
joys of thy Lord" My brother, my
sister, do not care whether that man
dies at thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, seven
ty or eighty years of age; you can
chisel right under his name on the
tombstone these words: ''His life was
worth living"
Iwould not find it hard to persuade
you that the poor lad, Peter Cooper,
making glue for living, and then
amassing a great fortune until he could
build philanthropy which has had it's
echo in ten thousand philanthropies all
over the country--I would not find it hard
to persuade you that his life was worth
living. Neither would find it hard to
persuade you that the life of Susan
nah Wesley was worth living. She
sent out one son to organize Meth
odism and the other son to ring his
anthems all through the ages. ! would
not find it hard to persuade you that
the life of Frances Leere was worth
living, as she established in En-
gland a school for the scientific
nursing of the sick, and when
the war broke out between
France and Germany, went to the
front, and with her own hands scraped
the mud off the bodies of the soldiers
dying in the trenches with her weak
arm-standing one night in the hos
pital--pushing back a German soldier
to his couch, as, all frenzied with his
wounds, he rushed toward the door
and said: Let me go, let me go to
my 1iebe mutter.'" Maior-generals
standing back to let pass this angel of
mercy.
Neither would l have hard work to
persuade you that Grace Darling lived
life worth living-the heroine of the
lifeboat. You are not wondering that
the duchess of Northumberland came
to see her. and that people of all lands
asked for her lighthouse, and that tho
proprietor of the Adelphi theater in
London offered her one hundred dollars
a night just to sit in the lifeboat while
some shipwreck scene was being en-
acted
But know the thoughts in the minds
of hundreds who read this. You say:
''While l know all these lived lives
worth living, don't think my life
amounts to much" All! my friends,
whether you live life conspicuous
or inconspicuous, it is worth liv-
ing, if you live Alright. And I
want my next sentence to go
down into the depths of all your
souls. You are to be rewarded, not ac-
cording to the greatness Of your work,
but according to the holy industries
with which you employed the talents
you really possessed. The majority of
the crowns of Heaven will not be given
| to people with ten talents. for most of
them were tempted only to serve
themselves. The vast majority of
| the crowns of Heaven will be Civ en- to
people who had one talent, but ga We it
all to God. And remember that our
life here is Introductory to another.
1t is the vestibule to a palace; bat who
| despises the door of the Madeline
because there are grander glories
! xvifbipo yo,,r Itfa ~ ,.t,<bf1ry II ,ad