The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1897-10-07
til the last day; the Lord will divide
the chaff from the wheat.


Oh, that these gales from Heaven
might sweep through all our churches!
Oh, for such days as Richard Baxter
saw in England and Robert McCheyne
saw in Dundee! Oh! for such days as
| Jonathan Edwards saw in Northamp-
ton. | have often heard my father tell
of the fact that in the early part of the
century a revival broke out in Somer
vile, n. j., and some people were very
much agitated about it. They said:
''Oh, you are going to bring too many
people into the church at once" and
they sent down to New Brunswick TO
get John Livingston to stop the re
vival. Well, there was no better soul
in all the world than John Livingston.
He went up; he looked at the revival;
they wanted him to stop it. He stood
in the pulpit on the Sabbath, and
looking over the solemn auditory, he
said: This, brethren, is in reality the
work of God; beware how you try to
stop it." And he was an old man, lean
ing heavily on hisstatf-a very old man.
And he lifted that staff, and took hold
of the small end of the staff, and began
to let it fail very slowly through, be-
tween the finger and the thumb.
and he said: ''Oh, thou inpcui-
tent, thou art falling pow-falling
away from life, falling away from
peace and Heaven, falling as certainl Y as
that cane is falling through my hand
falling certainly, though perhaps fall
ing very slowly" And the cane kept ON
falling through John Liyingston's
band. The religious emotion in the
audience was overpuwering, and men
saw type of their doom as the cane
kept falling aud falling until the knob
of the cane struck Mr.. LivingStOn'S
hand, and he clasped it stoutly and
said, But the grace of God can stop
you as l stopped that cane" and then
there was gladness all through the
house at the fact of pardon and peace
and salvation. swell, said the people
after the service, II guess you had
better send Livingston home; he is
making the revival worse" Oh, for
the gales from Heaven and Christ on
board the ship. The danger of the
church of God is not in revivals.
Again, my subject impresses me with
the fact that Jesus was God and man
in the same being. Here He is in the
back part of the boat. Oh, how tired
He looks; what sad dreams He must
have. Look at His countenance; He
must be thinking of the cross to come.
Look at Him. He is a man-bone of our
bone, flesh of our flesh. Tired, lie falls
asleep; He is man. But then | find
Christ at the PROV of the boat. | hear
Him say: peace, be stiII;" and see
the storm kneeling at His feet, and
the tempests folding their wings
in His presence; He is a God.
If | have sorrow and trouble, and
want sympathy, go and kneel down
at the back part of the boat, and say:
''Oh, Christ. weary one of Genncsaret,
sympathize with all my SORROWS; man
of Nazareth, man of the cross A
man, a man. But if | want to conquer
my spiritual foe; if l want to get the
victory over sin, death and hell, | come
to the front Of the boat, and l kneel
down, and | say: ''Oh, Lord, Jesus
Christ, thou who dust hush the temp
est, hush all my grief; hush all my
temptation, hush all my sim A man,
a man; d God, a God.
learn once more from this subject
that Christ can hush "a tempest. 1t did
seem as if everything must go to ruin
The disciples had given up the idea of
managing the ship; the crew were en-
tirely demoralized; vet Christ rises,
and He puts His foot on the storm, and
it crouches at His feet. Oh, yes. Christ
can hush the tempest.
You have had trouble. Perhaps it
was the little child taken away from
you--the sweetest child of the house
hold; the one who asked the most
curious questions, and stood around
you with the greatest fondness and
the spade cut down through your bleed
ing heart. Perhaps it was an only son,
and your heart has ever since been like
desOlated castle, the owls of the
night hooting among the falling rafters
and the crumbling stairway.
Perhaps it was an aged mother You
always went to her with your troubles.
She was in your home to welcome your
children into life, and when they died
SIG was IueIc W plty NOui tllaG Ola
hand will do you no more kindness;
that white lock of hair you put away
in the casl1et, or in the locltet, did not
look as well as it usually did when she
brushed it away from her wrinkled
brow in the home circle or in the coun-
try church. Or your property gone
you said: Il have SO much bank stock,
l have so many government securities
l have 80 many houses, | have SO many
farms'-all gone, all gone.
Why, all the storms that ever tram
pied with their thunders, all the ship
wrecks, have not been worse than this
you. Yet you have not been COM
pletely overthrow. Why? Christ
hushed the tempest, Your little one
| was taken away. Christ says: Il have
that little one; [ can take care of him
as we'll as you can, better than You
can. bereaved mother" flushing the
tempest. When your property went
away, God said: There are treasures
in Heaven, in banks that never break"
There is one storm info which wa