The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1895-03-07


women with the conservation of Mel.
vile B. Cox, who, embarking for the
missionary work in Africa, said to q
fellow-student: ''If I die in Africa,
come and write my epitaph." what
shall l write for your epitaph?" said
the student. Write" said he, these
words: Let Thousand fall before
Africa be given"
There is another point of the COM
pass that my text includes: s.They
shall come from the west" That means
America redeemed. Everything be-
tween Atlantic and Pacific oceans to
be brought within the circle of holi-
ness and rapture. Will it be done by
worldly reform, or evangelism? Will il
be law, or Gospel? l am glad that
wave of reform has swept across this
land, and all the cities are feeling the
advantage of the mighty Movement.
Let the good work go on until the last
municipal evil is extirpated. About
fifteen years ago the distinguished
editor of a New York daily news
paper said to me in his editorial
room: ''You ministers talk about evils
of which you know nothing. Why don't
you go with the officers of the law and
explore for yourself, SO that when you
preach against sin you can speak from
what you have seen with your own
eyes?" said: II will" And in COM
pany with commissioner of police and
a captain of police, and two elders of
my church, explored the dens and
hiding places of all styles of crime in
New York and preached series of SER
mons warning young men, and setting
forth the work that must be done lest
the judgments of God whelm this
city with more awful submerg-
ment that the volcanic deluge
that buried Herculaneum and Pompeii.
received as nearly as can remember
several hundred columns Of newspaper
abuse for undertaking that explora-
tion. Editorials of Remuneration,
double-leaded, and with captions of
great primer type, entitled "The Fall
of Talmage." or .'Talmage Makes the
Mistake of His Life," or Down with
Talmage," but still live and am in
full sympathy with all movements for
municipal publication. But a move
ment which ends with crime exposed
and law executed stops half way.
Nay, it stops long before 1t gets
half way. The law never yet saved
anybody; never yet changed anybody.
Break up all the houses of iniquity in
this city, and you only send the occu-
pants to other cities. Break down all
the policemen in New York, and while
| it changes their worldly fortunes, it
does not change their heart of life.
The work is not SO difficult as many
suppose. You say: ''There are the
| foreign populations" Yes; but many
of them are Hollanders. and they were
| brought up to love and worship God,
| and it will take but little to persuade
the Hollanders to adopt the religion
of their forefathers. Then there are
among these foreigners so many Of the
Scotch. They or their ancestors heard
| Thomas Chalmers thunder, and Rob
ert McCheyne pray. The breath OF
God SO often swept through the heath
er of the Highlands. and the voice OF
God has so often sounded through the
Trossachs, and they all know how to
| singDundee; so that they will not have
often to be invited to accept the God
| of John Knox and Boutwell,.
Then there are among these foreign
ers so many of the English. They in
herited the same language as we in
herited-the English in which Shake
| speare dramatized, and Milton chimed
his cantos, and Henry Melville gospel
lied, and Oliver Cromwell prorogued
parliament, and Wellington command
ed his eager hosts. Among these for
eigners are the Swiss, and they were
rocked in cradle under the shadow Of
the Alps, that the cathedral Of the
Almighty in which all the elements,
snow, and hail, and tempest, and
hurricane worship. Among these for
aigners are vast host OF Germans,
and they feel centuries afterward the
power of that unparaled spirit who
shook the earth when he trod it, and
the heavens when he prayed-Martin
Luther! From all nations our
] foreign populations have come, and
they are homesick, far away
from the place of their childhood,
and the graves OF their ancestors,
and our glorious religion presented to
them Alright will meet their needs, and
fill their souls, and kindle their enthu-
siasm. They shall come from amid the
wheat sheaves of Dakota, and from the
ore beds of Wyoming, and from the sill
yer mines of Nevada, and from the
| golden gulches of Colorado, and from
the banks of the Platte, and the Ore
gon, and the Sacramento. and the Co
lumbia. ''They shall come fsom the
| west!"
Frederick the Great, notwithstand-
ing the mighty dominion over which
he reigned, was so depressed at times
lie could not speak without crying
and carried small bottle of quick poi
son with which to end his misery wher
he could stand it no longer. But
give you this small vial of Gospe
anodyne. one drop of which, not hurt
ing either body or soul, ought to sootht
all unrest, and put your pulses into Of
eternal calm. They shall come from
the east, and from the west. and from
north, and the south, and shall ST
down"
|