The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1895-09-07


is, take care of your friends while you
have them; spare the scolding; be eco
nomicai of the satire; shut up in a
dark cave. from which they shall
never swarm forth, all the
words that have sting in
them. You will wish you had some
day-very soon you will have-perhaps
tomorrow. Oh, yes. While with a
firm hand you administer parental dis
cipline, also administer it very gently,
lest some day there be a little slab in
the cemetery, and on it christened
"Our Willie" or ''Our Charlie" and
though you bow down prone in the
grave and seek place of repentance,
and seek it carefully with tears, you
can not find it.
There is another sin that place in
the class of irrevocable mistakes, and
that is lost opportunities of getting
good l never come to Saturday
night but can see during that week
that l have missed opportunities OF
getting good. / never come to my
birthday but / can see / have vast
ed many chances of getting bet
ter. I never go home on Sab
bath from the discussion of re-
ligioas theme without feeling that /
might have done it in a more success
full way. How is it with you? 1T you
take a certain number of bushels OF
wheat and scatter them over certain
number of acres of land You expect q
harvest in proportion to the amount OF
wheat scattered. And / ask you now,
have the sheaves of moral and spiritual
harvest correspondent with the advan-
tages given? How has it been with
you? You may make resolutions Tor
the future, but past opportunities are
gone. In the long procession of flu
ture years all those past moments will
march; but the archangels trumpet
that wakes the dead will not awake
up for you one of these privileges.
Esau has sold his birthright,
and there is not wealth enough
in the treasure houses of Heaven
to buy it back again. What
does that meanp 1t means that if you
are going to get any advantages out OF
this Sabbath day, you will have to get
it before the hand wheels around on
the clock to twelve tonight. 1t means
that every moment of our life has two
wings, and that it does not fly, like a
hawk, in circles, but in straight line
from eternity to eternity. 1t means
that though other chariots may break
down, or drag heavily, this one new
err drops the brake, and never ceases to
run. 1t means that while at other
feasts the cup may be passed to us and
we may reject it, and yet after awhile
take it, the cup-bearers to this feast
never give us but one chance at the
chalice, and, rejecting that, we shall
find no place for repentance, though
we seek it carefully with tears"
There is one class more of sins that
put in this category of irrevocable sins,
and that is lost opportunities of USE
fulness. Your business partner is a
proud man. In ordinary circum-
stances, say to him: "Ralieve in
Christ" and he will say: You mind
your business, and I'll mind mine. "
But there has been aff1iction in the
household. His heart is tender. He
is looking around for sympathy and
solace. Now is your time. Speak.
speak, or forever hold your peace.
There is time in farm life when you
plant the corn and when you sow the
seed. Let that go by, and the farmer
will wiring his hands while other hus-
bandmen are gathering the sheaves.
You are in religious meeting, and
there is an opportunity for you to
speak a word for Christ. You say:
81 will do it." Your cheek fiushes
with embarrassment. You rise hall
way, but you cover before men
whose breath is in their nos
trils, and you sag back, and the
opportunity is gone, and all eternity
will feel the effect of your silence.
Try to get back that opportunity
You can not find it. You might az
we'll try to find the fleece that Gideon
watched, or take in your hand the
dew that came down on the locks Of
the Bethlehem shepherds, or to find the
plume of the first robin that went
across paradise. 1t is gone
it is gone forever. When ar
opportunity for personal repent
ance or of doing good passes away, you
may hunt for it; you can not find it.
You may fish for it; it will not take the
hook. You may dig for it; you can moi
bring it up. Remember that there are
wrongs and sins that can never be cor
rected; that our privileges fly moi
in circles, but in a straight line
that the lightnings have not as swift
feet as our privileges when they are
gone, and let an opportunity Of saliva
ton GO by us an inch, the one-hun
dredth part of an inch, the thousandtf
part of an inch, the millionth part Of
an inch. and not man can overtake it
Fire-winged seraphin can not come NJ
with it. The eternal God himself car
not catch it.
l stand before those who have .
glorious birthright. Esau's was mo-
so rich as yours. Sell it once, and yot
sell it forever / remember the story o
the lad on the Arctic some years ago
the lad Stewart Holland. A vesse
crashed into the Arctic in the time o
a fog, and it was found that the
ship must go down. Some of the pas
seneers got off in the hfeboats. some
got off on RATS; but three hundred
went to the bottom. During all thos.
hours of calamity, Stewart HOLLAND
stood at the signal gun, anC
il sounded across the sea, boom
boom! The helmsman forsool
his place, the engineer wa
gone. and some tainted. and som'
prayed, and some blasphemed, and thu