The Bossier banner., 1894-05-03


man as he leaves for city life? The
Bible. What shall I find in nine out
of every ten homes in Brooklyn? The
Bible. In nine out of every ten homes
in Christendom? The Bible. Voltaire
wrote the prophecy that the Bible in
the nineteenth century would become
extinct. The century is nearly gone,
and as there have been more Bibles
published in the latter part of the CEN
tury, do you think the Bible will be-
come extinct in the next six years. l
have to tell you that ithe room in
which Voltaire wrote that prophecy
not long ago was crowded from floor
to ceiling with Bibles from Switzer-
land. Suppose the congress of the
| United States should pass a law that
there should be no more Bibles printed
in America, and no more Bibles read.
If there are forty million grown people
in the United States, there would be
forty million people in an army to put
down such law and defend their right
to read the Bible. But suppose the con-
gress of the United States should make
a law against the reading of the pub
lication of any other book, how
many people would go out in such
crusade? Could you get forty million
people to go out and risk their lives in
defense of Shakespeare's tragedies or
Gladstone's tracts of Macauley's His
tory of England? You know that there
are thousand men who would die in
defense of this book. You try to in
| c nj Inv 4oll
the Bible is fading out from the world.
1t is tae most popular book OF the
century. How do know it? / know it
just as l know in regard to other books.
How many volumes of that book are
published? Well, you say, five thou
sand. How many copies of that book
are published? A hundred thousand.
Which is the more popular? Why, of
course, the one that has one hundred
thousand circulation. And if this book
has more copies abroad in the world,
if there are five times as many Bibles
abroad as any other book, does not
that show you that the most popular
book on the planet to-day is the Word
of God?
'Oh," say people, "the church is a
collection of hypocrites, and it is los
ing its power, and it is fading out
from the world Is it? A bishop of
the Methodist church told me that
that denomination averages two new
churches every day of the year There
are at least one thousand five hundred
new churches built in America every
year. Does that look as though the
church was fading out, as though it
were a defunct institution? Which
institution stands nearest the
hearts of the people of America
to-day? l do not care in what
village or in what .ity, or what neigh
borhood you go. Which institution is
it? Is it the post Office? 1t it the hotel?
Is it the lecture hall? All, you know
it is not. You know that the institu-
tion which stands nearest to the hearts
of the American people is the Christian
church. If you have ever seen a church
burn down you have seen thousands of
people standing and looking atit-peo-
pie who never go into church-the
tears raining down their cheeks. The
whole story is told.
You may talk about the church be-
ing a collection of hypocrites, but
when the diphthe-..a sweeps your chill
dren off whom do you send for? The
postmaster? the attorney general? the
hotel-keeper? alderman? No, you
send for a minister of this Bible re-
ligion. And if you have not room in
your house for the obsequies, what
I,,;I Ia ;po. Il ~ ,,o,, So1;o;4o no ryo,, eav.
''Give me the finest room in the hotel?"
Do you say: "Give me that theater?"
Do you say: "Give me a place in that
public building, where l can lay my
dead for little while until we say a
prayer over it?" No; you say:
"Give US the house of God" And if there
is song to be sung at the obsequies
what do you want? What does any
body want? The "Marseillaise" hymn?
"God Save the Queen?" Our own grand
national air? No. They want the
hymn with which they sang their old
Christian mother into her last sleep,
or they want sung the Sabbath-school
hymn which their little girl sang the
last Sabbath afternoon she was out be-
fore she got that awful sickness, which
broke your heart. l appeal to your
common sense. You know the most
endearing institution on earth, the
most popular institution on earth to-
day is the Church of the Lord Jesus
Christ.
The infidels say: "Infdelity shows
it's successes from the fact that it is
everywhere accepted, and it can say
what it will" Why, my friends, inf.
deity is not half so blatant in our day
as it was in the days of our fathers.
Do you know that in the days of ouI
fathers there were pronounced infidels
in public authority and they could gel
any political position? Let a man to
day declare himself antagonistic to the
Christian religion, and what city wants
him for mayor, what state wants hin
, him for governor, what nation wants
him for president or for king? Let {
man openly proclaim himself the enemy
Of our glorious Christianity, and he cal
, not get majority of our votes in an.
state, in any city, in any county, in an.
. ward of America.
~ L.