The Bossier banner., 1894-01-11
ter finds it hard to be a Christian

|
er, brother and sister making
her the target of ridicule. That young
man finds it hard to be Christian in
the shop, or factory, or store, when his
comrades jeer at him because he will
not go to the gambling-hell or other
places of iniquity. Oh, no; the days of
persecution have not ceased, and will
not until the end of the world. But,
oh! you prosecuted ones, is it not time
that you began to pray for
your prosecutors? They are no
prouder, no fercer, no more set
in ther ways than was this per-
secutor of the text. He fell. They
will fall if Christ from the Heavens
grandly and gloriously look out on
them. God can by His grace make
Renan believe in the Divinity of Jesus
and a Tyndall in the worth of prayer.
Robert Newton stamped the ships
deck in derisive Indignation at Chris
tianity only little while before
he became a Christian. "Out of
my house." said father to his
daughter, 'if you will keep praying;"
yet before many months passed the IA
ther knelt at the same altar with the
child. And the Lord Jesus Christ IS
willing to look out from Heaven upon
that derisive opponent of the Christian
religion and address him not in gilt
tering generalities, but calling him by
name: John! George! Henry!-Saul!
Saul! why persecutest thou me?"
Again, learn from this subject that
there is hope for the worst offenders.
1t was particularly outrageous that
Saul should have gone to Damascus on
that errand. Jesus Christ has been
dead only three years, and the story of
His kindness and His generosity and
His love filled all the air. 1t was
not an old story as it is now.
1t was a new story. Jesus had
only three summers ago been in
these very places, and Saul every day.
in Jerusalem must have met people
: who knew Christ people with good
; eyesight whom Jesus had cured of
blindness, people who were dead, and
who had been resurrected by the Sa-
viour, and people who could tell Paul
all the particulars of the crucifxion-
| just how Jesus looked in the last
5 hour-just how the heavens grew
l black in the face at the torture.
, He heard that recited every day by
people who were acquainted with all
: the circumstances, and yet in the fresh
/ memory of that scene he goes to perse-
: cute Christ's disciples, impatient at the
t time it takes to feed the horses at the
, inn, not pulling at the snaffle, but rid
| ing with loose rein faster and faster.
lo of y
? outbreak of modesty when he said
C that. He was murderer. He
c stood by when Stephen died and
0 helped in the execution of that
good man. When the rabble want
S ed to be unimpeded in their work
r of destroying Stephen, and wanted to
: take off their coats, but did not dare
to lay them down lest they be stolen,
Paul said: "Tll take care of the coats, ~
c and they put them down at the feet OF
. Paul, and he watched the coats. and he
6 watched the horrid mangling of glori-
, GUS Stephen. Is it wonder that when
O he fell from the horse he did not
= break his neck-that his foot did
: not catch somewhere in the trappings
,, of the saddle and he was not
=. dragged and kicked to death. He de.
. served to die miserably, wretchedly and
i forever, notwithstanding all his meta
physics and his eloquence and his logic.
: The steed on which you ride may be
, swifter, and stronger, and higher-met-
tied than that on which the Ciliciar
= prosecutor rode, but Christ can catch
it on the bride, and hurl it back and
=. hurl it down. There is mercy for you
E who say you are too bad to be saved
E You say you have put off the matter sc
Il long. Paul had neglected it a great
q while. You say that the sin yor
have committed has been amidst
" the most aggravating circumstances
> That was so with Panls. You say you
= have eXasperated Christ and coaxeC
:, your own ruin. So did Paul. And yet
he sits to-day on one of the highest OF
the heavenly thrones; and there is
e mercy for you, and good days for you
+ and gladness for you, if you will
Il only take the same Christ which
IL first threw him down anc
81 then raised him up; it Seems
e to me as if can see Paul to-day rising
up from the highway to Damascus anc
OIL GllG uuSG from MS ClOak
'U and wiping the sweat of excitemen
II from his brow, as he turns to US ant
II all the ages, saying: ''This is a faithful
sc saying, and worthy of all acceptation
81 that Jesus Christ came into the worlG
to save sinners, of whom l am chief.
, Once more: l learn from this subject
l. that there is a tremendous reality il
Il religion. fit had been mere optical
u delusion on the road to Damascus, was
u not Paul the man to find it out? If il
{ had been sham and pretense, woulc
he not have pricked the bubble? He wa
p man of facts and arguments, of til,
le most gigantic intellectual nature, anc
II not man of hallucinations Ant
u when l see him fall from the saddle
70 70 blinded and overwhelmed, l say ther,
must have been something in it. And
~ my dear brother, you will find tha
10 there is something in religion some
C where. The only question is, where?
ID There was man who rode from