The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1896-04-30

| minable. You have often tried to measure
| the other pangs of Christ, but you have
| never tried to measure the magnitude and
ponderosity Of a Saviour's Inconsistencies.
! l take a step farther and tell you that
| Christ was in an exile which He knew would
end in assassination. Holman Hunt. the
| master painter. has a picture In which he
represents Jesus Christ in the NaZarene car
penter shop. Around Him are the saws. the
| hammers, the axes, the drills of carpentry.
The picture represents Christ as rising from
the carpenters working bench and YEARLY
stretching out His arms as one will after be-
| ing in contracted or uncomfortable posture,
and the light Of that picture is 50 arranged
that the arms Of Christ, YEARLY stretched
forth. together with His body. throw on the
wall the shadow of the cross OH my
| friends, that shadow was on everything in
Christ's lifetime. Shadow of a cross on the
Bethlehem sWaddling clothes. Shadow of a
cross on the road over which the three fugi-
tives fed into Egypt. Shadow of cross on
Lake Galilee as Christ walked is mosaic
floor Of opal and emerald and crystal.
| Shadow of a cross on the road to Emmaus
| Shadow of cross on the brook Hebron. and
on the temple, and on the side Of Olivet.
| Shadow of cross on sunrise and sunset
Constantine, marching with his army, saw
just once cross in the sky, but Christ saw
! the cross all the time.
lector at Salem, went homo in despair. His
wife touched him on the shoulder and said,
! "Now is the time to write your book" and
| his famous "Scarlet Letter. was the brill
| liant consequence. Worldly good sometimes
comes from worldly evil. Then be not IN
believing when I tell you that from the
greatest crime OF all eternity and of the
whole universe. the murder of the Son Of
| God, there shall come results which shall
eclipse all the trandeurs of eternity past and
eternity to come. Christ. an exile from
| heaven opening the way for the deportation
toward heaven and to heaven of all those
who will accept the proffer. Atonement, a
| ship large enough to take all the passengers
| that will come aboardit.
| For this royal exile bespeak the love and
service Of all the eXiles here present and in
one sense or the other that includes all of
US. The gates OF this continent have been so
| widely opened that there are here MANY vol
untary exiles from other lands. Some of
| You are Scotchmen. I see it in your high
cheek bones and in the color that illumines
your face when I mention the land of your
nativity. Bonny Scotland! Deai old kirk?
Some Of your ancestors sleeping in Grey
friars churchyar,l, or by the deep Ioch5 filled
out of the pitchers Of heaven, or under tho
| heather, sometimes so deep of color it makes
one think of the blood OF the Covenanters
VITO signed their names for Christ, dipping
their pens into the veins Of their own arms
opened for that purpose. How every
| fiber of your nature thrills as l mention
| the names Of Robert Bruce and the Camp
bells and Cochrane! l bespeak for this royal
! exile of my text the love and service of all
| Scotch eXiles. Some OF you are Engishmen.
/ Your ancestry served the Lord. Have | not
read Of the 5utfe.ings Of the Hayma-ket, and
| have mot seen in Oxford the very spot where
Ridley AID Latimer mounted the red char
| lot? Some OF your ancestors heard George
Whitefeld thunder, or heard Charles Wes-
ley sin, or heard John Bunyan tell his dream
of the celestial city, and the cathalrals un-
der the shadow Of which some Of you We're
| born had in their grandeSt organ roll the
name of the Messiah.
l bespeak for the royal exile Of nv sermon
the love and the service Of all English ex-
! lies Yes, some OF you came from the island
OF distress over which hunger, on throne of
| human skeletons. sat queen. All efforts ut
| ameliOratiOn halted by massacre. Process
sion of famines, procession of martyrdoms
| marching from northern Channel to Cape
| Clear and from the Irish Sea across to the
| Atlantic. An island not bounded as ge0gra-
pliers tell US, but, as every philanthropist
knows, bounded on the north and the south
and tho east and the west by woe which no
human politics can alleviate and only Al
| mighty God can asSuaCc. Land OF Gold
smiths rhythm. and Sheriaan's wit, and
| O'Connell's eloqucnce, and Edmund Burkes
| craftsmanship, and O'Brien's sacrifice,
Another Patmos with its apocalypse OF
blood. Yet you cannot think OF ii to-day
without having your eyes blinded with emo
| ton, for there your ancestors sleep in graves,
some Of which they entered for lack OF
| bread. For this royal exile Of nv sermon |
baspeak the love and the service of all Irish
eyiles Yes, some of You are from Germany,
the land of Luther, and some of you are
from Italy, the land Of Garibaldi, and some
| Of you are from France. the land of John
| Calvin. one Of the three mighties of the
glorious reformation. Some OF you are de-
scendants Of the Puritans, and they were
eXiles, and some of You descendants Of the
| HuguenO,s. and they were exiles. and some
OF you are descendants OF the Holland refu-
| gees. and they were eXiIes.
! Some Of you were born On the banks Ofthn
lazoo or the Savannah, and You are now liv-
ing in this latitude. Some Of you on the
banks of the Kennebec. or ct the foot of the
Green Mountains, and you are here now
Some of you on the prairics Of the West, or
the tahleands. and you are here now. On,
how many OF us far away from hOma All
of Us eXiles. This is not our home. Heaven
is our home. Oh. I an SO glad
when the royal exile went back He
left the gate aiar. or left it wide
open. "Going homer That is the dying
| exclamation OF the ma Orty Of Christians
| have seen many Christians die. l think
nine out OF ten Of them in the last moment
say, "GOing home" Going home out OF
punishment and sin and sorrow and sad
ness. Going home to join in the hilaritie5 OF
cur parents and our dear children who have
already departed. Going home to Christ
Going homo to God. Going home to stay
Where IRE your loved ones that died in
Christ? You pity them. All. they ought tc
pity you! You are an exile far from home
They are home! Oh, what time it will be
| for you when the E,atckeeper of heaven shall
say: Take off that rough sandal. the jour
ney's ended. Put down that saber, the bat
ties won. Put off that iron coat of mai
and put on the robe Of conqueror." At that
gate of triumph I leave you to-day. only
reading three tender cantos translated from
the Italian. If you ever heard anything
| sweeter. l never did. although I canno
adopt all its theology:
Twas whispered one morning in heaven
How the little child angel May,
In the shade Of the great white portal,
Sat Borrowing night and day;
How she said to the stately warden,
He Of the key and bar
"Oh, angel, sweet angel, pray you
Set the beautiful gates aar,
Only little. pray you.
Set the beautiful gates aiar