The Bossier banner., 1894-01-18

who ordered them built? No; the plain
! workmen who added stone after stone
and stone after stone. Who built the
dikes of Holland? The government
that ordered the enterprise? No; the
: plain workman who carried the
earth and rung their trowel on
: the wall. Who are those who have
built these vast cities? The capitalists?
No; the carpenters, the masons,
} the plumbers, the plasterers, the tin
, ners, the roofers, dependent on day s
wages for a livelihood. And SO in the
J great work of assuaging human suffer-
ing and enlightening human Ignorance
and halting human iniquity. In that
great work, the chief part is to be
} done by ordinary men, with ordinary
speech, in an ordinary manner, and by
: ordinary means.
} God has a royal family in the world.
Now, if ! should ask: "Who are the
!; royal families of history?" you would
say: House of Hapsburg, house OF
Stuart, house Of Bourbon" They lived
) in palaces and had great equipage. But
who are the Lord royal family? Some
of them may serve you in the house
hold, some of them are in unlighted
garrets, some of them will walk this
afternoon down the street, on their
arm a basket of broken food; some OF
them are in the almshouse, despised
and rejected of men, yet in the last
!; grace day, while it will be found that
some of us who Jared sumptuously
} every day are hurled back into discom'
future, they are the lame that will take
the prey.
1t would take week to count up the
names of those in Heaven who were
on earth worse than you tell me you
are. They went the whole round of
iniquity, they disgraced themselves,
they disgraced their household, they
despaired of return because their repu-
tation was gone, their property was
gone, everything was gone, but in
some hour like this they heard
the voice of God, and they threw them
selves on the Divine compassion, and
they rose up more than conquerors.
And tell you there is the same chance
for you. That is one reason why like
to preach this Gospel, so free Gospel.
him all right.
In a former settlement where I
preached, a member of my congrega-
tion quit the house of God, quit re-
spectacle circles, went into all styles
of sin and was slain of his iniquity.
The day for his burial came, and his
body was brought to the house of God.
Some of his comrades who had de-
stroyed him were overheard along
the street, on their way to the
burial, saying: "Come, let us go and
hear Talmage damn this old sinner"
Oh! l had nothing but tears for the
dead, and l had nothing but invita-
tions for the living. You see 1 could
not do any otherwise. "Christ Jesus
came to seek and save that which was
lost" Christ in His dying prayer said:
Father, forgive them," and that was
prayer for you and a prayer for me.
Oh! start on the road to Heaven to-
day. You are not happy. The thirst
of your soul will never be slaked by
the fountain of sin. You turn every
where but to God for hep. Right
where you are, call on Him. He knows
you, He knowss all about you. He
knows all the odds against which you
have been contending in life. Do not
go to Him with a long rigmarole of
prayer, but just look up to Him and
say; Help! help!
Yet you say: "My hand trembles SC
from my dissipations, I can't even take
hold of hymn book to sing" Do not
worry about that, my brother; will
give out hymn at the close SO familiar
you can sing it without book But
you say: Il have such terrible habits
on me, l cant get rid of them" NV
answer is: Almighty grace can break
up that habit and will break it up.
But you say: 'The wrong l did was to
one dead and in Heaven now, and
can't correct that wrong" You can
correct it. BY the grace of God go in
to the presence of that one, and the
apologies you ought to have made on
earth make in Heaven
"Ohr' says some man, 'if 1 should
try to do right, if | should turn away
from my evil-doing unto the Lord,
would be jostled, l would be driven
back; nobody would have any sympa.
thy for me-" You are mistaken. Here,
in the presence of the church on earth
and in Heaven, give you to-day the
right hand of Christian fellowship.
God sent me here to-day to preach this,
and He sent you here to hear this: ''Let
the wicked forsake his way and the un.
righteous man his thought, and let
him return unto the Lord, who will have
mercy, and unto our God, who will
abundantly pardon" Though you NAV
have been the worst sinner you NAV
become the best saint and in the great
day of Judgment it will be found that
where sin abounded, grace does much
more abound" and while the spoils of
an everlasting kingdom are being
awarded for your pursuit, it will be
found that the lame took the prev.
Blessed be God that we are, this Sab
bath, one week nearer the obliteration
of all the inequalities of this life and
all its disquietudes. Years ago, on a
boat on the North river, the pilot gave
a very sharp ring of the bell for the
| boat to slow m The enuipaar ~