The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1897-12-09


of Shimei, and the destruction of his
family at Ziklag, and. above all, he
would have escaped the two great ca
lamities of his life, the great sins of
uncleanness and mu rder. David lived
to be of vast use to the church and the
world, but SO far as his own happiness
was concerned, does it not seem to you
that it would have been better for him
to have gone early?
Now, this, my friends, explains some
things that to you have been inexpli-
cable. This shows you why when God
| takes little children from household,
He is very apt to take the brightest,
the most genial, the most sympathetic,
the most talented. Why? 1t is be-
cause that kind of nature suffers the
most when it does suffer, and is most
| liable to temptation. God saw the
tempest sweeping up from the Carrib-
bean, and he put the delicate craft into
the first harbor. Taken away from
| the evil to come"
Again, my friends, there is blessing
in an abbreviated earthly existence in
the fact that it puts one sooner in the
center of things. All astronomers, in
| tidels as we'll as Christian, agree in be-
lieving that the universe swings around
some great center. Anyone who has
studied the earth and studied the
| heavens knows that Gods iavorite
figure in geometry is circle. When
God put forth His hand to create the
universe He did not strike that hand at
irh lac hrf la
circle, and kept on waving in circle
until systems and consultations and
galaXies and worlds took that motion.
Our planet swinging around the sun,
other planets swinging around other
suns, but somewhere a great hub,
around which the great wheel of the
universe turns. Now the center is
Heaven. That is the capital of the
universe. That is the great metropolis
Of immensely.
Does not our common sense teach us
that, in matters of study it is better
for us to move out from the center
toward the circumference, rather than
to be on the circumference, where our
world now is? We are like those who
study the American continent while
standing on the Atlantic beach. The
way to study the continent is to cross
it, or to go to the heart of it. Our
standpoint in this world is defective.
We are at the wrong end of the tele-
scope. The best way to study piece
Of machinery is, not to stand on
the door step and try to look in, but
to 60 in with the engineer
and take our place right amid
the saws and the cylinders. We
wear our eyes out and our
brain out, from the fact that we are
studying under such great disadvan-
tage. Millions of dollars for observa-
tories to study things about the moon,
about the sun, about the rings of Sat-
urn, about transits and occultations
and eclipses, simply because our stu
dio our observatory is poorly situated.
We are down in the cellar trying to
study the palace of the universe, while
our departed Christian friends have
gone upstairs amid the skylights to
study. Now, when one can sooner get
to the center of things, is he not to be
congratulated? Who wants to be al
ways in the freshman class? We
study God in this world by the Bibli-
cal photograph Of Him; but we all
know we can, in five minutes of inter-
view with a friend, get more accurate
idea of him than we can by studying
him SO years through pictures or
words. The little child that died last
night knows more of God than all An
dover and all Princeton, and all New
Brunswick, and all Edin burgh, and all
the theological institutes in Christen-
dom. Is it not better to go up to the
very headquarters of knowledge?
Does not our common sense teach us
that it is better to be at the center
than to be clear out on the rim of the
wheel, holding nervously fast to the
tire lest we be suddenly hurled into
light and eternal felicity? Through
all kinds of optical instruments trying
to peer in through the cracks and the
keyholes of Heaven-afraid that both
doors of the celestial mansion will be
swung wide open before our entranced
vision - rushing about among the
apothecary shops of this world, won
dering if this is good for rheumatism,
and that is good for neuralgia. and
something else is good for bad cough,
lest we be suddenly ushered into a
land of everlasting health. where the
inhabitant never says: Il am sick"
What fools we all are to prefer the
circumference to the center. What a
dreadful thing it would be if we should
be suddenly ushered from this wintry
world into the May-time orchards of
Heaven, and if our pauperism of sin
and sorrow should be suddenly broken
up by presentation of an emperor's
castle surrounded by parks with spring.
ing fountains, and paths up and down
which angels of God walk two and
two. We are like persons standing
on the cold steps of the national pic
ture gallery in London. under
umbrella in the rain, afraid to go in
amid the Turner's, and the Titians.
and the Raphaels. come to them and
say: "Why don't you go inside the
gallery?' oh" they say. I'VE don't
known whether we can get in." say: