The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1897-11-25
NO.. 80.

gov pdSI Ine tnree LaVernS unuamaged,
and stepped ito Rome all ready for the
tremendous ordeal to which he was
subjected. Oh! How many mighty
men feeling that they must brace up
after extraordinary service, and pre-
pare themselves for other service, have
called on the spirit of wine for inspira-
ton, and in few years have been sac
rifced on the altar of Moloch, who
sits on throne of human carcasses. 1t
would not be wise, or kind, or Chris
tian, to call their names in public, but
you call them out of your own memory.
Oh! how many splendid men could not
get past the three taverns.
Notice that a profound mystery is
attached to these Italian hostelries.
No hotel register tells the names of
those who stopped at those taverns;
there is no old account book as to how
many drank there; there is no broken
chalice or jug to suggest what was the
style of liquid which these customers
consumed. So an awful mystery hangs
about the bar rooms of the modern
taverns. Oh! if they would only keep
book upon the counter, or a scroll
that could be unrolled from the wall,
telling how many homesteads they
have desolated, and how many immor,
tai souls they have blasted. You say
that would spoil your business
Well, suppose it would, but a
business that can not plainly
tell it's effects upon it's customers.
is business that ought to be spoiled.
Ah! you mysterious bar rooms, speak
out and tell how many suicides went
out from you to halter, or pistol, or
knife. or deadly leap from fourth-story
window; Iow many young men,
started well in life, were halted by
you and turned on the wrong road,
dragging after them bleeding parental
hearts; how many people who prom
ised at the marriage altar fidelity un-
til death did them part, were brought
by you to an early and ghastly separa-
ton; how many mad houses have you
filed with maniacs; how many graves
have you dug and filled in the ceme-
teries; how many ragged and hun
CRY children have you beg
CARED through the fathers whom
you destroyed. If the skeletons
of those whom you have slain
were piled up on top of each other,
how high would the mou1t tain be? II
the tears of all the orphanage and
widowhood that you have pressed out
were gathered together how wide
would be the lake, or how long the
river? All! they make no answer. On
this ject the modern taverns are as
silent as the oriental three taverns, but
there are millions of hearts that throb
with most vehement condemnation,
and many of them would go as far as
the mother in Oxford, Mass,
whose son had been long
absent from home and was returning,
and at the tavern on the way he was
persuaded to drink, and that one drink
aroused former habit, and again apd
again he drank, and he was found next
morning dead in the barn of the tavern.
The owner of the tavern, who gave
HIM the rum, helped carry his body
home, and his broken-hearted mother,
afterwards telling about it, said: ut
was wrong, but l cursed him; l did it.
Heaven forgive him and me-
not so mighty as the invisible. The
Gospel campaign began with the super
natural-the midnight chant that
woke the shepherds, the hushed sea, the
eyesight given where the patient had
been without the optic nerve, the sun
obliterated from the monday heavens,
the law of gravitation loosing its grip
as Christ ascended, and as the Gospel
, campaign began with the supernatural,
it will close with the supernatural; and
, the winds and the waves and the light
nings and the earthquakes will come
in on the right side and against the
wrong side; and our ascended cham
pions will return, whether the world
sees them or does not see them. l dc
not think that those great souls depart
ed are going to do nothing hearafter
but sing psalms, and play harps, and
breathe frankincense, and walk seas
of glass mingled with fire. The mis-
, sion they fulfilled while in the body
: will be eclipsed by their post-mortem
mission, with faculties quickened and
| velocities multiplied; and it may have
, been to that our dying reformer re
t ferred when he said: II long to bs
e freew There may be bigger world;
[ than this to be redeemed, and more
: gigantic denominations to be over
: thrown than this world ever saw
+ and the discipline gotten here
+ may only be preliminary drill for 1
|, campaign in some other world, ant
= perhaps some other constellation. Blu
It the crowned heroes and heroines, be
l. cause of their grander achievements
l. in greater spheres, will not forget thi
Y old world where they prayed and sui
IS fered and triumphed. Church militan
is and church triumphant but two divi
e sions of the same army-right win.
e and left wing.
~ One army Of the living God,
At His command we bow.
- Part Of the host have crossed tae flood,
n And part are crossing now.
IL Power of Prayer.
le PRAYER defines relations. Meditatic
Is NAV become mystical, pantheisti