The Bossier banner., 1895-04-04

in New York harbor. They had dashed
their life out against the light house
the night before. Poor things! And
the great light house of the Gospel
how many high-soaring thinkers have
beaten all their religious life out
against it, while it was intended for
only one thing, and that to show
all nations the way into the harbor
of Gods mercy, and to the crystal
line wharves of the heavenly city,
where immortals are waiting for new
arrivals. Dead skylarks, when they
might have been flying seraphs.
Here also come. covering up the old
Gospel, some who think they can by
law and exposure of crime save the
world, and from Portland, Me-. across
to San Francisco, and back again to
New Orleans and Savannah, many of
the ministers have gone into the de-
tective business. Worldly reform, by
all means; but unless it be also Gospel
reform, it will be a dead failure. In
New York its chief work has been to
give us change of bosses. We had a
Democratic boss, and now it is to be
Republican boss, but the quarrel is,
who shall be the Republican? Politics
| will have the cities the same day that
satan evangelizes perdition. Here
| comes another class of people who in
| pulpit and outside of it cover up the
| Gospel with the theory that it makes
| no final difference what you believe,
or how you act--you are bound for
Heaven, anyhow. There they sit, side
by side, in Heaven; Garfield, and Gui-
teau, who shot him; Lincoln, and John
| Wilkes Booth, who assassinated him;
Washington, and Thomas Paine, who
! slandered him: Mana Sahib, and the
missionaries, whom he dubbed to
death at Cawnpore; Herod, and the
| children whom he massacred; Paul,
and Nero, who beheaded him. As a
| result of the PRONUNCIATION of such a
mongrel and conglomerate doctrine
there are millions of people in Chris
tendon who expect to go straight to
Heaven from their seraglios, and their
inebriation, and their suicides, when
among the loudest thunders that
break over the basaltic island to which
St. John was expatriated, was the one
in which God announced that 1.-The
abominabIe, and the murderers, and
whoremongers, and sorcerers, and
idolaters, and all liars, shall have
their place in the lake which burneth
with fire and birthstone, which is the
/ second DEATH" correct what said
when I declared the Gospel was buried
| fifty feet deep; it is buried one thou
sand feet deep. Had the glorious Gospel
been given full opportunity, think
before this the world would have
had no need of pulpit, or sermon, or
prayer, or church, but thanksgiving
and hosannahs would have resounded
in the temple to which the mountains
would have been pillars, and the blue
skies the dome, and the river the bap-
tistery, and all nations the worshipers
in the auditorium of the outspread
world. But SO far from that, as re-
marked in the opening sentence of this
sermon, the greatest novelty of our
time is the Gospel. And let me say
to the hundreds and : thousands
of educated and splendid young
men about to enter the Gospel min
istry from the theological seminaries
of all denominations, on this and the
other side of the seas, that there is no
drawing power like the glorious Cos
pei. Him hath God lifted up to draw
all men unto Him." Get your souls
charged and surcharged with this Cos
pei, and you will have large audiences,
and will not have to announce in order
to assemble such audiences, a Sunday
night sacred concert, with brief ad-
dress by the pastor; or the presence Of
"Black Pattis," or Creole minstrels, or
some new exposure of Tammany, or a
sermon accompanied by a magic
lantern, or stereopticon views.
Oh, my text is right when it speaks
of the glorious Gospel. 1t is an invita-
tion from the most radiant being that
ever trod the earth, or ascended the
heavens, to you and me to come and be
made happy, and then take after that
royal castle for everlasting residence,
the angels of God our cup-bearers. The
price was paid for all of this on the
cliff of limestone about as high as this
house, about seven minutes walk from
the wall of Jerusalem, where with an
agony that with one hand tore down
the rocks, and with the other drew
midnight blackness over the heav.
ems, our Lord set us forever free
Making no apology for any one of the
million sins of our life. but confessine
all of them, we can point to that cliff
of limestone and say: There wa.
paid our Indebtedness, and God never
collects bill twice" Glad am / thai
all the Christian poets have exertet
their pen in extolling the matches.
one Of this Gospel. Isaac Watts, how
do you feel concerning Him? Aud h,
writes: II am not ashamed to own my
Lord" Newton, what do you think o
this Gospel? And be writes: 'Amazin,
grace, how sweet the sound" Cow
per, what do you think of Him? AM
I the answer comes: There is
, fountain filed with blood" Charlie.
, Wesley, what do you thinl
of Him? And he answers: "Jesus
) lover of my soul" Horatius Bonar
: what do you think of Him? And b
J responds: II lay my sins on Jesus.
Ray Palmer, what do you think o
uirpC Arl ha rxr;foc. INV 49,