The Bossier banner., 1894-12-06

WOI1I dIC W UC SWOpG nCdSCh-
born hallelujahs. Someone asked
Haydn, the celebrated musician. why
he always composed such cheerful mu-
sic. ''Why," he said, 81 can't do other
wise, When l think of God my soul is
so full of joy that the notes leap and
dance from my PEN" wish we might
all exult melodiously before the Lord.
With God for our Father, and Christ
for our Saviour, and Heaven for our
home, and angels for future compan-
ions, and eternity for lifetime, we
should strike all the notes of joy. Go
ing though the wilderness of this
world, let us remember that we are on
the way to the summery cline of Heav-
en-, and from the migratory populations
flying through this amtumnal air learn
always to keep singing.
Children of the heavenly King,
Asye journey, sweetly sing;
Sing your Saviours worthy praise,
Glorious in His works and ways.
Ye are travelling home to God;
In the way your fathers trod;
They are happy now, and we
Soon their happiness shall see
d
triumphant church until it becomes
singing church.
l go further, and remark that the
birds of the air are wiser than we, in
the fact that IN their migration they
fly very high. During the summer,
when they are in the fields, they often
come within reach of the gun; but
when they start for the annual fight
southwark they take their places mid
heaven and go straight as a mark.
The longest rife that was ever
brought to shoulder could not reach
them. Would to God that we
| were as wise as the stork and
crane in their fight heavenward! We
| fly so low that we are within easy
range of the world, the flesh and the
devil. We are brought down by
temptations that ought not to come
within a mile of reaching us. Oh, for
some of the faith of George Muller, of
England, and Alfred Cookman, once of
| the church militant, now of the church
| triumphant! So poor is the type of
piety in the church of God now that
men actually caricature the idea that
there is any such thing as a higher life.
Moles never did believe in eagles. But,
my brethren, because we have not
reached these heights ourselves shall
we deride the fact that there are
any such heights? A man was
once talking to Brunei, the famous
engineer, about the length of the ra il
road from London to Bristol. The en-
| gineer said: 1T is not very great. We
shall have, after awhile, a steamer run
ming from Lon don to New York" They
laughed him to scorn; but we have
gone so far now that we have ceased to
laugh at anything impossible for hui
man achievement. Then, / ask, is any
thing impossible for the Lord? do not
believe that God exhausted all His
grace in Paul, and Latimer and Ed
ward Payson. believe there are high
er points of Christian alta inment to be
| reached in the future ages of the
Christ tian world. You tell me that
Paul went up to the tiptop OF
the Alps of Christian attainment. Their
1 tell you that the stork and crane have
found above the Alps plenty of room
for free flying. We go out and we con
quer our temptations by the grace O.
God and lie down. On the morrow
those temptations rally themselves ant
attack us, and by the grace of God WI
defeat them again; but, staying all th'
time in the old encampment, we hav,
the same old battles to fight over
Why not whip out our temptations, ant
then forward march, making one rait
through the enemy's country, stopping
not until we break ranks after the las
victory. Do, my brethren, let us hav
some novelty of combat, at any rate
by changing, by going on, by making
advancement, tracing off our stall
prayers about sins we ought to hav
quit long ago, going on towart
higher state of Christian char
) acter, and routing our sins tha
| we have never thought of yet
: The fact is, if the church of God
: if we, as individuals made rapid ad
5 vancement in the Christian life, thes
stereotyed prayers we have been max
5 ing for ten or fifteen years would b
, inappropriate to US as the shoes, an
E fifteen years ago. Oh, for highe
e fight in the Christian life, the stor
S and the crane in their migration teacl
4 ing us the lesson!
Dear Lord, and shall we ever live,
4 At this poor dying rate
: Our love so faint, so cold to Thee,
4 And Thine to US so great?
n Again, l remark, that the birds
r the air are wiser than we, becaus
s they know when to start. If yo
# should GO out now and shout: "Sto
4 storks and cranes, don't be in
e hurry!" they would say: mo, we ca
i not stop; last night we heard the roa
;. ing in the woods bidding us away, an
n the shril1 flute of the north wind h;
sounded the retreat. We must g
a We must go" So they gather ther
n selves into companies, and turnir
is not aside for storm or mountai
n top, or shock of musketry, over lar
na1 caa ct.ofrbf ag on arr0uy IN ri