The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1897-04-08
Alexander applsudeA

Garth, and all the oceans, while He has
the stars of heaven for His tiara.
As you take pinch OF salt or powder
between your thumb and two fingers,
SO Isaiah indicates God takes up the
earth. He measures the dust OF the
earth, the original there indicating
that God takes all the dust OF all the
continents between the thumb and two
fingers. You wrap around your hand
blue ribbon five times, ten times. You
say It is five breadths, or 1t is ten hand
breadths. So indicates the prophet GOD
winds the blue ribbon of the sky around
His hand. He meteth out the heav-
ems with a span" You know that
suspended in the middle, with
two basins at the extremity OF
equal heft. In that way what vast heft
has been weighed. But what are all
the balances of earthly manipulation
compared with the balances that Isaiah
saw suspended when he saw God put
ting into the scales the Alps and the
Apprentices and Mount Washington and
the Sierra Nevadas. You see the earth
!
to have too much weight in Europe, or
too much weight in Asia, or too much
weight in Africa, or in Amer
lea; so when God made the
mountains He weighed them. The
Bible distinctly says so. God knows
the weight Of the great ranges that
cross the continents, the tons, the
pounds avoirdupois, the ounces, the
grains, the millegrammes-just how
much they weighed then, and just how
much they weigh now. HE weighed
the mountains in scales and the hills
in balance" Oh, what God to run
! against; oh, what God to disobey;
oh, what God to dishonor; oh, what
God to defy! The brightest, the might
lest angel takes no familiarity with
God. The wings Of reverence are
lifted. with twain he covered the
face"
Another seraphic posture in the text.
The seraph must always stand still.
He must move, and it must be without
clumsiness. There must be celebrity and
beauty in the movement. with twain
he did fly" Correction, exhilaration.
Correction at our slow gait, for we only
crawl in the service when we ought to
fly at the Divine bidding. Exhilaration
in the fact that the soul has wings
as the seraphs have wings. What
is wing? An instrument OF
locomotion. They may not be like
seraph's wing, they may not be
like birds wing, but the soul
has wings. God says SO: ''He shall
mount up On wings as eagles" We are
made in the Divine image, and God has
wings. The Bible says so: Healing
in His wings" "Under the shadow OF
His wings" Under VIII ose wings hast
thou come to trust" The soul with
folded wing now, wounded wing. Aye!
l have it now. Gagged within bars OF
bone and under curtains of flesh, but
one day to be free. l hear the rustic
of pinions in Seagrave's poem which we
sometimes sing:
Rise my soul, and stretch thy wings.
hear the rustic Of pinions in Ales-
ander Popes stanza, where he says:
mount. I fly,
Death. where is thy victory?
A dying Christian not long ago cried
ont: Wings, wings, wingsn The air
is full of them, coming and going, COM
ing and going. You have seen how
the dull, sluggish chrysalid becomes
the bright butterfly; the dull and
the stupid and the lethargic turned
into the alert and the beautiful. Well,
my friends, in this world we are in the
chrysalid state. Death viii unfurl the
wings. Oh, If we could only realize
what grand thing it will be to get
rid of this old clod of the body and
mount the heavens, neither seagull
nor lark nor albatross nor falcon, mol
condor pitching from highest range Of
Andes SO buoyant or SO majestic Of
stroke.
See that eagle in the mountain nest
1t looks SO sick, SO ragged-feathered
so worn out and SO half asleep. Is thai
eagle dying? No. The ornithologist
:, will tell you it is the moulting season
, with that bird. Not dying, but moult
ing. You see that Christian sick ant
weary and worn out and seeming abou
; to expire on what is called his death
bed. The world says he is dying.
, say it is the moulting season for hi
, soul-the body dropping away, thu
r celestial pinions coming on. Not dy
ing, but moulting. Moulting GU
, of darkness and sin and struggl,
into glory and into God. Why do 20,
not shout? Why do you sit shiverinl
at the thought of death and trying t.
a hold back and wishing you could sta.
: here forever, and speak of departure q
| though the subject were filed will
, skeletons and the varnish Of coffins
2 and as though you preferred lame foo
! to swift wing?
Live SO near to Christ that when yo1
= are dead people standing by your life
less body will not soliloquize, saying
What disappointment life was t.
y him; how averse he was to departure
q what pity it was he had to die; wha
a an awful calamity" Rather standin
q there may they see a sign NOR
:. vivid on your still face than tn
p vestiges of pain, something that will
= indicate that it was happy exit-th
n clearance from oppressive quarantine
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