The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1894-07-07

IHdt Is, d large ldihiiy CuOiO soohSiSN
around fireplace. For many years
we had felt that an amphitheater was
the only proper shape for an audience
room The prominent architects OF
the country said: ut can not be done.
You need a churchly building" And
so we had plan after plan of churchly
buildings presented; but in due time
God sent man who grasped our idea
and executed it. So far from being
failure, it satisfied our want, and all
our three churches were built on the
amphitheatrical plan, and scores OF
churches all over The country have
adopted the same plan. >
And, my brethren and sisters, we
fail in our worI; just in proportion as
we try to be like other churches, like
every man, to be individual, gathering
up all its peculiarities and idiosyncra-
cies, and hurting them toward some
good and grand object. In other words,
no two churches ought ever to be just
alike. Here is church, for in
stance, whose object it is to
prepare philosophers and artists
and critics for Heaven. God speed
them in the difficult work! Here is
church, on the other hand, that pro-
pose to bring only the poor into the
Kingdom Of Jesus Christ, looking not
after the rich. God speed such church
in it's undertaking. But there is
larger idea that church may take
bringing in the rich and the poor. the
wise and the ignorant, the high and
and the low; so that kneeling beside
each other shall be the man faring
sumptuously every day, and the man
who could not get his breakfast. God
speed such church.
Oh! my friends, we need to break
away from slavery to ecclesiastical
| customs. We dare not sing if any body
hear us. We dare not preach unless
we have rounded off our sentences to
suit the criticism of the world. We
dare not dress for church until we
| have examined the fashion-plates, and
we would rather stay at home than
appear with a coat or hat not sane
| toned by custom. When will the day
of deliverance come to the church of
God, when, instead of dead religion,
laid out in state of catafalque of pomp
and insincerity, we shall have a liv-
ing, bounding, sympathetic. glowing
Christianity?
remark, further. that we have tried
here to build and to conduct cheerful
church. While, as you know, we have
not held back the terrors of the law
and the sterner doctrines of the Cos
pei, we have tried in this house to
present to this people the idea that
the gladdest, brightest, happiest thing
in the universe is the Christian re-
| ligion. There is SO much trouble in
| the world; business men have SO
many anxieties; toiling men have SO
many fatigues; orphans have so many
/ desolations-for Gods sake, if there
be any bright place on earth, show it
to them. Let the church of Jesus
/ Christ be the most cheerful spot on
earth. Let me say that do not want
anybody to come whining around me
about the Christian religion. / have
no faith in religion made up of equal
parts of NORWOOD, vinegar and red
pepper If She religion that is pre-
sented to us be depression, we
will get along better without it.
If it be a joy, let it shine out
from your face and from your CONVEX
sation. If a man comes to my house
to talk of religion with a lugubrious
countenance and manner full of sniff
fie and dolorousness, feel like saying
to my wife: ''You had better lock uT
the silver before he steals something.
have found it an in variable rule thai
men who profess faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ, priding themselves at the
same time on their sanctimoniousness
always turn out badly. I never knew
an exception. While those who are
the most consistent. the most useful
and the most consecrated have per
fume in their conversation and HEAVIER
in their face.
The happiest Christians that hav'
ever known have been persons from
sixty to eighty years of age. BY tina
time people get over the shams and pre-
lenses of society, and have no longe
any patience with anything like i'm
!, posture in religion. o Christian! hov
dare you be gloomy? Is not God you
Father? Is not Jesus Christ you
Saviour? Has not your path all through
|, life been strewn with mercies? AR
you insensible to the fact that Their
, are glories awaiting you in the bette
. land-doxologies of celestial worship
, eternal chorals. fearless eyes, songs tina
, resound under arches of strength an
hosannas that clap their hands at tn
foot of the throne? Is it nothing t
YOU that all the hills of Heaven ar
radiant with the faces of. those VIII
have gone up from you. and who ar
: waiting for your coming. ready to kee
, with you eternal holiday? Is there moth
ing in songs that never cease, IN heart
that never ache. in splendors that neve
die, to make you glad? Then take n
more mercy at the hand of thy Coz
! Give back the marriage ring of log
! that Jesus put on your finger in tn
!. day of your espousal! Plant no NOR
of the flowers of Heaven where Their
!, ought to be nothing but nettles an
! Isnightshade!
( We try to make. this church chez
. full church. A man, on Saturday aftel
noon, stands in his store and say
+ How shall meet these obligations
4 How can / endure this new disasts
: that is coming upon me?' He goo
i home. Sabbath morning finds him
! the house of God. Through the SOM