The Bossier banner., 1894-05-31
NUMBER IA.

I can not have it tainted with
the prison" Then brazen creature
rushed up and said: "Yes, I'll take
the child" mo, no." said the mother,
mot you, not you. Is there not some
good mother here who will take this
child?" And then when the officer of
the law in mercy and pity took the
child to carry it away to find home
| for it, the mother kissed it lovingly
good-by and said: "Good-by, my darl-
| ing; it is better you should never see
me again
However worldly and sinful people
are they want their children good.
| How are you going to have them good?
| Buy them a few g5od books? Teach
them a few excellent catechisms?
Bring them to church? That is all
| very well, but of little final result un-
less you do it with the grace of God in
your heart. Do yon not realize that
your children are started Cor eternity?
Are they on the right road? Those lit
tie forms that are now so bright and
beautiful, when they have scattered in
the dust there will be an immortal
spirit living on in a mighty theater of
action, and your faithfulness or your
neglect now is deciding that destiny.
There is contention already among
ministering spirits of salvation and
fallen angels as to who shall have the
mastery of that immortal spirit. Your
children are soon going out in the
world. The temptations of life will
rush upon them. The most rigid reso-
luton will bend in the blast of evil.
| What will be the result? 1t will re-
quire all the restraints of the Gospel,
all the strength of a fathers prayer,
all the influence of a Christian mothers
example to keep them.
You say it is too early to bring them.
Too early to bring them to God! Do
you know how early children were
taken to the ancient passover? The
rule was just as soon as they could
take hold of the fathers hand and
walk up Mount Moriah they should be
! taken to the passover. Your children
are not too young to come to God.
| While you sit here and think of them.
perhaps their forms now so bright and
beautiful, vanish from you, and their
disembodied spirit rises, and you see it
after the life of virtue or crime is past,
and the judgment is gone and eternity
is here.
A Christian minister said that in the
first year of his pastorate he tried to
persuade a young mechanic of the i'm
portance of family worship. Some
time passed, and the mechanic came to
the pastors study and said: 'Do you
remember that girl? That was
my own child; she died this
morning very suddenly; she has
gone to God. / have no doubt,
but if so, she has told Him what tell
you now: that child never heard a
PRAYER in her fathers house--never
heard a prayer from her fathers lips.
Oh! if only had her back again one
day to do my duty!" 1t will be
tremendous thing at the last day if
some one shall say of US: 81 never
heard my father pray; l never heard
my mother pray"
Tyranny and arbitrary decision have
no place in the household. II the par
ents love God, there will be spirit of
self-sacrifce, and a spirit of for
giveness, and kindness which will
throw its charm over the en-
tire household. Christ will come
into that household and will
say: Husbands, love your wives
and be not bitter against them; wives,
see that you reverence your husbands;
children, obey your parents in the
i Lord, servants, be obedient to your
masters" and the family will be like u
garden on summer morning-the
grass plot, and the flowers, and the
vines, and the arch of honeysuckle
standing in the sunlight glittering with
dew.
But then there will be sorrows that
will come to the household. There
are but few families that escape the
stroke of financial misfortune. Finan-
cia1 misfortune comes to a house
where there is no religion. They kick
against Divine allotments; they curse
God for the incoming calamity. they
withdrawn from the world because
they can not hold as high a position in
society as they once did, and they fret
and they scowl and they sorrow and
they die During the past few years
there have been tens of thousands of
men destroyed by their financial dis
tresses.
When queen died her three sons
brought an offering to the grave. One
son brought gold, another brought sill
yer, but the third son came and stood
over the grave and opened one Of his
veins and let the blood drop upon his
mothers tomb and all who saw it
said it was the greatest demon
, stration of affection. My friend.
r what is the grandest gift we can
, bring to the sepulchers of Chris
, tian ancestry? 1t is life all conse-
Grated to the God who made rs and
the Christ who redeemed us. ! can
; not but believe that 1here are hun
I dreds of parents in this house who
r have resolved to do their whole duty,
and at this moment they are passing
a into a better life; and having seen the
= grace of the Gospel in this place to
= dav. are now fully ready to return Il
= YOUR own house and show what greai
things God has done unto you.