The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1896-06-25

miles. her sculptures presenting in 1guras or |
warrior and chariot the victories with when |
the now forgotten kings of Egypt shook the
nations. her obeIisks and columns. Carnac
and Luxor, the stupendOus temples Of her
pridei Who can imagine the greatness or
Thebes in those days when the hippodrome
rang with her sports and foreign royalty |
bowed at her shrine and her avenues roared
with the wheels of professions in the wake
of returning cOnquerOrs? What dashed
down the vision Of charots and temples and
thrones? What hands pulled upon the
columns of her glory? What ruthlessuess
defaced her sculptured wall and broke OBJ
llsls and left her indescribabe temples great
skeletons of granite? What spirit of de-
structiOn spread the lair Of wild beasts in
her royal sepuchers. and taught the miser
| able cottagers of to-day to build huts in the
courts of her temples. and sent desOlatiOn
and ruin skulking behind the obelisks. and
| lodging among the sarcophagi. and leaning
against the columns and stopping under the
arches. and weeping in the waters which 90
| mOurnfulIy by as though they were carrying
the tears of all ages? Let the mummies
break their long silence and come up 10
shiver in the deSOlation and point to fallen
gates and shattered statues and defaced
sculpture. responding: "Thebes built not one
| temple of God. Thebes hated righteousness
and loved sin. Thebes was star, but she
turned to wOrmwOOd and has tallen.'
| Babylon, with her $50 towers and her
brazen gates and her embattled walls. the
| splendOr of the earth gathered within her
palaces. her hanging gardens built by
| Nebuchadnezzar to please his bride, Amytis.
who hal been brought up in a mountainous
| country and could not endure the fat coun-
try round Babylon-these hanging gardens
built, terrace above terrace. till at the height
| of 400 feet there were woods waving and
| fountains playing. the verdure. the foliage,
the glory looking as If a mountain We're on
the wing. On the tiptop a king walking with
| hisqueen. among statues snowy white, look
ing up at birds brought from distant lands,
and drinking out Of tankards Of solid gold
or looking off over rivers and lakes upon ma
| tiOns subduef and tributary, crying, SIS not
this great Babylon which have built?'
What battering ram slnote the walls? What
plowshare upturned the gardens? What
| army shattered the brazen gates? What
| long. fierce blast of storm put out this light
which illumined the world? What crash OF
discord drove down the music that poured
from palace window and garden grove and
called the banqueters to their revel and the
| dancers to their feet? | walk upon the
scene of desOation to find an answer and
pick up pieces of bitumen and brick and
| broken pottery, the remains OF Babylon, and
rs in the silence of the night hear the surg
over the scene, I hear the wild waves say
Ing: Babylon was proud. Babylon was
| impure. Babylon was a star, but by sin she
TUNED to NORWOOD aud has fallen"
From the prosecutions of the pilgrim
fathers and the Huguenots in other lands
| God set upon these shores a nation. The
council fires of the aborigines went out in
the greater light of a free government. The
sound of the warwhoop was exchanged for
the thousand wheels of enterprise and prog
rrSs. The mild winters the fruitful sum-
mars, the healthful skies, charmed from
| other lands a race of hardy men who loved
God and wanted to be free. Before the
Woodlands AK forests fell and rose again in
to ships masts and churches pillars. Cities
on thebanks of lakes begin to rival cities by
the sea. The land quakes with the rush of
the rail car and the waters arc churned
| white with the steamers wheel. Fabulous
bushels Of western wheat meet on the way fab
| u!Ous tons ofeastern coal. Furs from the north
pass on the river fruits from the south. And
trading In the same market is Maine lumber
man and South Carolina rice merchant and
Ohio farmer and Alaska fur dealer. And
churches and schools and asytums scatter
light and love and mercy and salvation upon
60, 900, 900 of people.
pray that our Lation may not copy the
crimes of the nations that have persisted and
our cup of blessing turn to NORWOOD, and
like them we go down. | am by nature and
by grace an optimist. and expect that this
country will continue to advance until Christ
shall como again. But be not deceived.
Oar orly safety is in righteousness toward
God and justice toward man. If we forget
the goodness of the Lord to this land and
break His Sabbaths, and improve not by the
dire disasters that have again and again
come to us as nation. and we learn saving
lesson neither from civil war nor raging cpl
lnr, l., 1rl, ,C,l,t
of locust and grasshopper nor cyclone nor
earthquakes; if the political corruption which
has poisoned the fountains of public virtue
and Deslimed the high places OF authority,
making free government at times a Kissing
and a byword in all the earth; if the drunk
enness and RIGHTEOUSNESS that stagger and
b!aspheme in the streets of our great cities
the fame of Cyrinth and a
Sodom are not repented Of. we will
vet see the smoke of our nations
ruin; the pillars of our national anL state
capitols will fall more disastrously than
when Samson pulled down DagOn, and
future historians will record upon the page
believed with generous tears the story that
the free nation of the west arose in splendor
which made the world stare. 1t had
magnificent possibilities. 1t forgot God. II
hated justice. 1t Rugged its crime. I,
halted on its high march. 1t reeled under
the blow of calamity. 1t fell. And as it was
going down all the despotisms of earth from
the top of bloody thrones began to shout
"Aha, SO would we have itr' while struggins
and oppressed people looked out from
dungeon bars with tears and groans ant
cries Of untold agony. the scorn of those
and the woe of these uniting in the exclama
ton. "Look yonder! There fell a grea
star from heaven. burning as it were a lamp
and it fell upon the third part OF the river
and upon the fountains of waters. and TIT
name of the star is called Wormwoodn'
AN AMERICAN PLANT IN RUSSIA.