The Bossier banner., 1894-10-18
NUMBER "a.


asked by many is: "How? how?" And
while answer your question look up
and utter the prayer which Rowland
his sermons: Master, help!" How are
you TO trust in Christ?
just as you trust anyone. You trust
your partner in business with impor-
tant things. If commercial house
gives you note payable three
months hence, you expect the
payment of that note at the
end of three months. You have per-
feet confidence in their ability. Or
again, you go home to-day. You ex-
pect there will be food on the table.
You have confidence in that. Now, I
ask you to have the same confidence in
the Lord Jesus Christ. He says: "You
believe; l take away your SINS" and
they are all taken away. "Whatw
you say, "before I pray any
more? before 1 read my Bible any
more? before l cry over my sins and
more?" Yes, this moment. Believe
with all your heart and you are saved.
Why, Christ is only waiting to get
from you what you give to scores of
people every day. What is that? Con-
fdence. If these people whom you
trust day by day are more worthy than
Christ, if they are more faithful than
Christ, if they have done more than
| Christ ever did, then give them the
preference; but if you really think
| that Christ is as trustworthy as they
are, then deal with Him as fairly.
''Oh, says some one in light way,
II believe that Christ was born in
Bethlehem, and believe that He died
on the cross" Do you believe it with
your head or your heart? will illus
trate the difference. You are in your
own house. In the morning you open
a newspaper and you read how Capt.
Braveheart on the sea risked his life
for the salvation of his passengers.
You say: "What grand fellow he
must have been! His family deserve
very well of the country" You fold
| the newspaper and sit down at the
table, and perhaps do not think of that
incident again. That is historical
faith.
But now you are on the sea, and it is
night, and you are asleep, and you are
awakened by the shrek of 'firep You
rush out ON the deck. You hear, amid
the ringing of the hands and the faint
ing, the cry: "No hope! No hope We
are lost!" The sail puts out its wing
of fire, the ropes make burning ladder
in the night heavens, the spirit of
wrecks Kisses in the wave, and on the
hurricane deck shakes out its banner
of smoke and darkness. Down
with the lifeboats!' cries the captain.
Down with the lifeboats!" Peo-
pie rush into them. The boats are
about full. Room only for one more
man. You are standing on the dock
beside the captain.
Who shall it be? You or the captain?
The captain says: You" You jump
and are saved. He stands there and
dies Now, you believe that Capt.
Braveheart sacrificed himself for his
passengers, but you believe it with love,
with tears, with hot and long-contin-
ued exclamations; with grief at his loss
and joy at your deliverance. That is saw
ing faith. In other words, what you be-
lieve with all the heart, and believe in
regard to yourself. On this hinge turns
my sermon; aye, the salvation of your
immortal soul. You often go across a
bridge you know nothing about. You
do not know who built the
bridge; you do not know what ma
terial it is made of; but you come to it
and walk over it, and ask no ques
tions. And here is an arched bridge
blasted from the Rock of Ages
And built by the Architect o.
the whole universe, spanning
the dark gulf between sin and right
eousness, and all that God asks you il
! to walk across it; and you start, ant
you come to it, and you goa little wa!
= on, and you stop, and you fall back
and you experiment. You say: 'Hov
do | know that bridge will hold me?
, instead of marching ON with firm step
= asking no questions, but feeling tha
= = the strength of the Eternal God is un
= der you.
Some one went in a house wher
; there had been good deal of trouble
and said to the woman there: "Yo
seem to be lonely" "Yes," she said
81 am lonely" How many in tn
: fan,ily?" "Only myself" "Have yo
y any children?" had seve
{ children" ''Where are theyf
!, = .sGone" ''All gomez" GAIL" ga
y y dead?" GAIL" Then she breathed
= long sigh into the loneliness, and sale
: sob, sir, have been good mother
!. the grave"
And so there are hearts here that al
: utterly broken down by the bereav
= ments of life. l point you to-day
:. the eternal balm of Heaven Oh, age
- - men and women, will not your decreE
- - tude change for the leap of ha
y when you come to look face to face upC
= Him whom having not seen you low
: Oh, that will be the Good Shepher
not out in the night and watching
- keep off the wolves, but with the Ian
20 reclining on the sunit hill. That wi
= be the captain of our salvatio
:, not amid the roar and crash and boo
- of battle, but amid His disban
- ed troops keeping victorious festiyit
- That will be the Bridegroom of t
- church coming from afar, the bri