The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1896-04-23

New Gate prison to shake its obduracy
as the angel came to the prison at
Philippe driving open the doors and
swapping losse the chain, as we'll
as the lives of thousands of fol-
lowers of Jesus, who have devoted
themselves to the mporal and spirit
ual welfare of the race, are mOnu-
ments of the Christian religion that
shall not crumble while the world lasts
A man said to me in the cars: what
is religion? Judging from the charac-
ter of many professors Of religion do
not admire religion" | said: Now,
suppose we went to an artist in the
city of Rome and while in his gallery
asked him, What is the art OF paint
! ing?' would he take us out in low
alley and show us a mere daub of a
pretender at painting? or would he
take us down into the corridors
and show us the Rubens, and
the Baphaels, and the Michael An
gelos? When we asked him: "What is
the art of painting?' he would point
to the works Of these great masters,
and say: That is painting" Now, you
propose to find the mere caricatur of
religion, to see k after that which is
the mere pretension of holy life, and
and you call that religion. | point
You to the splendid men and women
whom this Gospel has blessed and lift
ed and crowned. Look at the master
pieces of Divine grace if you want to
know what religion is"
| We learn also from this story of
Joseph that the result Of persecution
is elevation. Had it not been for his
being sold into Egyptian bondage by
his malicious brothers, and his false
imprisonment, Joseph never would
have become governor. Every body
! accepts the promise: blessed are
they that are perse for righteous
ness. sake, for theirs is the kingdom
of Heaven" but they do not realize
the fact that this principle applies to
worldly as well Us spiritual sue
cess. 1t is true in all depart
ments. Men rise to high official po-
sitions through Misrepresentation
| Public abuse is all that some of our
! public men have to rely upon for their
elevation. 1t has brought to them
what talent and executive force could
not have achieved. Many of those
who are making great effort for place
and power will never succeed, just be-
cause they are not of enough impor-
| lance to be abused. 1t is the nature
of men-that is, Of all generous
and reasonable men-to gather
about those who are prosecuted
and defend them, and they are
apt to forget the fault of those who
are the subjects of attack while at
tempting to drive back the slanderers
Persecution is elevation. Helen Stirk,
the Scotch martyr, standing with her
husband at the place of execution,
said: "liusband, let us rejoice to-day;
we have lived together many happy
years; this is the happiest time of all
our life; You see we are to be happy
together forever. BE brave now, be
brave. | will not say Good night to
you, for we shall soon be in the King
dom of our Father together" Perse-
cution shows the heroes and heroines.
go into another department and
|
Christians which have been most
abused have spread the most rapidly.
NO good man was ever more violently
maltreated than John Wesly-belied,
caricatured and slandered until one
day he stood in pulpit in London and
a man arose in the audience and said,
You were drunk last night and
John Wesley said, Thank God,
the whole catalogue is now COM
plete. have been charged
with everything but that His fol-
lowers were hooted at and maligned
and called by every detesable name
that internal ingenuity could invent,
but the hotter the persecution the
more rapidly they spread, until you
know what great host they have be-
come and what a tremendous force for
good and the truth they are welding
all the world over 1t was persecu-
ton that gave Scotland to Pres
byterlanism. 1t was persecution
that gave our land first to civil lib
erty and afterwards to religious free
dom. Yea, l might go further back
ana say 1T was persecution that gave
the world the great salvation of the
Gospel. The ribald mockery, the
hungering and thirsting, the unjust
charge, the ignominious death, when
all the force of hell's fury was hurled
against the cross, was the introduce
ton of that religion which is vet to
be the earth's deliverance and our
eternal salvation. The state some
times said to the church: Come.
take my hand and l will help YOU"
What was the result? The church
went back and it lost it's estate of holi-
ness, and it became ineffective. At
other times the state said to the
church. Il will crush you" What
has been the result? After the storms
have spent their fury the church, so
far from having lost any of it's force.
has increased and is worth infinitely
more after the assault than before.
Read all ! story and you will find
that true. The church is far more
indebted to the opposition of civil gov
eminent than to its approval. The
tires OF the stake have only been the
torches which Christ hold :, H.;