The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1896-09-03

soul that 80 often drives back the gospel
! from a mans heart. 1t is so hard to make
avarice charitable, and fraud honest, and
pride humble, and skepticism Christian.
| The sword Of Gods truth seems to glance
off from those mailed warriors, and the
helmet seems battle proof against Gods
| battleax. But childhood-how suscepti-
BILE to example and to instruction.! You
are not surprised at the record, abraham
| begat Isaac, and Isaac begat Jacob" for
when religion starts in q family it is apt to
go all through. JeZebel q murderess, you
are not surprised to find her son Jehoram
attempting assassination. Oh, what q re-
sponsibility upon the parent and the teach
er! The musician touches the keys and
the response Of those keys is away off amid
| the pipes and the chords, and you wonder
at tho distance between the key and the
chord. And so it is in iife-if you touch
child the result will come back from man.
| hood or old age telling just the tune play
ed, whether the dirge Of great sorrow or
| the anthem Of great joy. The word that
the Sabbath school teacher will this after
| noon whisper in the ear of the class will
be echoed back from everlasting ages Of
light or darkness. Tho home and the
school decide the republic or the despotism,
the barbarism or the civilization, the up
building of an empire or the overthrowing
of it. Higher than parliament or congress
| are the school and the family and the
sound of child's foot may mean more
than the tramp of host What, then, are
you doing for the purpose Of bringing your
children into the kingdom of God? If they
are SO susceptible, and if this is the very
best time to ct upon their eternal inter-
ests, what are you doing by way Of right
impulsion?
There were some harvesters in the fields
OF Scotland one hot day, and Hannah Le-
| mond was helping them gather tho hay.
She laid her babe under tree. While she
was busy in the field there was tiutter OF
wings in the air, and a golden eagle
clutched the swaddling band of the babe
and flew away with it to the mountain
eyrie. All the har, esters and Hannah Lee
mond started for the cliffs. 1t was two
miles before they came to the foot of the
cliffs. Getting there, who dared to mount
the cliff? No human foot had ever trod it.
There were sailors there who had gone up
the mast in the day of terrible tempest.
They did not dare risk it. Hannah Le-
| mond sat there for awhile and looked up
and saw the eagle in the eyrie, and then
! she laaped to her feet, and she started up
where no human foot had ever trod, crag
above crag, catching hold of this root or
| that root until she reached the eyrie and
caught her babe, the eagle swooping in
f1erceness all around about her. Fasten-
| ing the child to her back, she started for
her friends and for home. Oh, what dizzy
descent, sliding from this crag to that
crag, catching by that vine and by that
! root, coming down farther and farther
to the most dangerous pass, where she
found a goat and some kids. She said:
"Now III follow tie goat The goat will
| know just which is the safest way down"
! And she was led by the animal down to the
plain. When she got there, all the people
cried, "Thank God, thank Godp' her
strength not giving way until the rescue
was effected. And they cried: "Stand
back, now. Give her air!'' Oh, if woman
will do that for the physical life of her
child, what will you do for the eternal life
OF your boy and your girl? Let it not be
told in the great day of eternity that Han
nah Lemond put forth more oxertion for
the saving of the physical life Of her child
than you, 0 parent, have ever put forth
! for the eternal life of your little one. God
help you!
pass on to consider the power which a
child Yields over the parental heart. We
often talk about the influence Of parents
upon children. never hear anything said
about the influence Of children upon their
parents. You go to school to them. You
no more educate them than they educate
you. With their little hands they have
caught hold Of your entire nature, and you
cannot wrench yourself away from their
:;
from what you were before they gave you
the first lesson. They have revolutionized
your soul. There are fountains Of joy in
your heart which never would have been
discovered had they not discovered them.
Life Is to you mere stupendous thing
than it was before those little feet started
On the pathway to eternity. Oh, how many
hopes, how many joys, how many solicit
tudes that little one has created in your
soul! You go to school every day, q
school Of self denial, school Of patience,
in which you IRE getting wiser day by day,
and that inhaence of the child over you
will increase and increase and, though
your children may die, from the very
throns of God they will reach down an in
fiuence to your soul, leading you on and
leading you up until you mingle with their
voices and sit beside their thrones.
The grasp which the child has over the
parents heart Is seen in what the parent
will do for the child. Storm and darkness
and heat and cold are nothing to you if
they stand between you and your child 8
welfare. A great lawyer, when yet I'M
known, one day stood in the courtroom
and made an eloquent plea before some
men of great legal attachments, and gen.
tleman said to him afterward, "How could
you be so calm standing in that august
presence cob" said Erskine, 81 felt
my children pulling at my skirts crying
for bread" What stream will you not
swim, what cavern will you not enter,
what battle will you not fight what
hunger will you not endure for your chill
drenS Your children must have bread
! though you starve Your children must be
we'll clothed though you go in rags. You
say, My children shall be educated, though
I never had arv chance
What to you are weary limbs and aching
head and hands hardened and callous If
only the welfare of your children can be
wrought out by it? Their sorrow is your
sorrow, their joy your joy, their advance
ment your victory. And oh, when the