The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1894-02-22
by the suffering victims of this holo-

|
all those whom strong drink has en-
dungeoned, we might perhaps realize
the appalling desolation. But no, no,
the sight would forever blast our vi
sion; the sound would forever stun our
souls. Go on with your temperance
literature; go on with your temper
| ance platforms; go on with your tenn
perance laws. But we are all hoping
for something from above, and while
| the bare arm of suffering, and the
bare arm of invalidism, and the bare
arm of poverty, and the bare arm OF
domestic desolation, from which rum
| hath torn the sleeve, are lifted up in beg
gary and supp1ication and despair, let
the bare arm of God strike the brew
cries. and the liquor stores, and the
corrupt politics, and the license laws,
and the whole inferno of grog-shops all
around the world. Down, thou ac-
cursed bottle, from the throne! Into
the dust, thou king of the demijohnl
Parched be thy lips, thou wine cup,
with fires that shall never be quenched.
| But l have no time to specify the
manifold evils that challenge Chris
tianity. And l think l have seen in
some Christians, and read in some
newspapers, and heard from some pull
pit, disheartenment, as though Chris
tianity were so worsted that it is hard
ly worth while to attempt to win this
world for God, and that all Christian
work would collapse, and that it is
no use for you to teach a Sabbath
| Sfr.ih 70 fra afS
prayer meetings, or preach in pull
pit, as Satan is gaining ground. To re-
Duke that pessimism, the gospel of
smashup, preach this sermon, show
ing that you are on the winning side.
Go ahead! Fight on! What want to
make out to-day is that our ammuni-
ton is not exhausted; that all which
has been accomplished has been only
the skirmishing before the great Ar
mageddon; that not more than one of
the one thousand fountains of beauty
in the Kings park has begun to
play; that not more than one brig
ade of the innumerable hosts to be
marshaled by the Rider On the White
Horse has yet taken the field; that
what God has done yet has been with
arm folded in flowing robe; but that
the time is coming when He will rise
from His throne, and throw off that
robe, and come out of the palaces of
eternity, and come down the stairs of
Heaven with all-conquering step, and
halt in the presence of expectant ma
tions, and flashing His omniscient
eyes across the work to be done, will
put back the sleeve of His right
arm to the shoulder, and roll it up
there, and for the worlds final and
complete rescue make bare His arm.
| Who can doubt the result when, ac-
cording to my text, Jehovah does His
best; when the last reserve force of
Omnipotence takes the field; when the
last sword of eternal might leaps from
its scabbord. Do you know what de-
cided the battle of Sedan? The hills
one thousand feet high. Eleven
hundred cannon on the hills. Artil-
lery on the heights of Givonne, and
twelve German batteries on the heights
of La Moncello. The Crown Prince of
Saxony watched the scene from the
heights of Marry. Between quarter
|
o'clock in the afternoon of September
2, 1871, the hills dropped the shells
that shattered the French host in the
valley. The French emperor and the
eighty-six thousand of his army cap
tured by the hills.
81 So in this conflict now raging be-
tween holiness and sin "our eyes are
unto the hills" Down here in the val
leys of earth we must be valiant SOL
diers of the cross, but the commander
of our host walks the heights, and
views the scene far better than
we can in the valleys, and at
the right day and the right hour all
Heaven will open its batteries on our
side, and the commander of the hosts
of unrighteousness with all his follow.
ers will surrender, and it will take
eternity to fully celebrate the univer.
sal victory through our Lord Jesus
Christ. Our eyes are unto the hills. ,
1t is so certain to be accomplished
that Isaiah in my text looks
down through the field-glass of proph.
ecy and speaks of it as already
accomplished, and 1 take my stand
where the prophet took his stand and
look at it as all done. "Halleluiah
it's done" See Those cities without a
tear! Look! Those continents without
pang! Behold! Those hemispheres
without a sin! Why, those deserts
Arabian desert, American desert
and Great Sahara desert, are ali
irrigated into gardens, where
God walks in the cool of the day. The
atmosphere that encircles our globe
floating not one groan. All the rivers
, and lakes and oceans dimpled with
not one falling tear. The climates OF
the earth have dropped out of them
the rigors of the cold and the blasts Of
the heat, and it is universal spring!
Let us change the old worlds name
Let it no more be called the
earth, as when it was reek
ing with everything pestiferous and
malevolent, scarleted with battle
5 fields and gashed with graves, but now
so changed, SO aromatic with gardens
and SO resonant with song, and sc
rubescent with beauty, let US call i