The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1897-03-11

Orion was the warning prophet o1 tuo
winter.
Oh, now get the best view Of God |
ever had! Thsre are two sermons
never want to preach-the one that
presents God so kind, so indulgent, so
lenient. SO imbecile that men may do
what they will against Him, and frac'
ture His every law, and put the pry OF
their impertnence and rebellion under
His throne, and while they are splitting
in His face and stabbing at His heart,
He takes them up In His arms and
kisses their Infatuated brow and cheek,
saying: ''Of such is the Kingdom OF
| Heaven" The other kind of sermon l
never want to preach is the one that
represents God as all fire and torture
and thunder cloud, and with red-hot
pitchforh tossing the human race into
paroxysms of infinite agony. The SER
mon that am now preaching believes
in God of loving, kindly warning,
the God of spring and winter, the God
of the Pleiades and Orion.
You must remember that the winter
is just as important as the spring. Let
one winter pass without frost to kill
|
and snow to enrich our fields, and then
you will have to enlarge our hospitals
and your cemeteries. "A green Christ
mas makes a fat graveyard' was the
old proverb. Storms to purify the air.
Thermometer at three degrees below
zero to tone up the system. December
and January just as important as May
and June. l tell YOU we need tho
storms of life as much as we do thu
sunshine. There are more men ruined
by prosperity than by adversely. If we
we would have been approximations
of selfshness and wordliness and dis
gushing sin, and pulled up until We
would have been like Julius Caesar.
who was made by sycophants to be-
lieve that he was divine, and the
freckles on his face were said to be as
the stars of the armament
When read, I'm my Fathers house
are many mansions" do not know
but that each world is a room, and as
many rooms as there are worlds,
stellar stairs, stellar galleries, stellar
Railways, stellar windows, stellar
|
must pity us shut up in these
cramped apartments, tired if we
walk fifteen miles, when they
some mornings by one stroke of
wing, can make circuit of the whole
stellar system and be back in time for
mathis! Perhaps yonder twinkling
constellation is the residence of the
martyrs; that group Of twelve lumi-
naries may be the celestial home of
the apostles. Perhaps that steep of
light is the dwelling place of angels
cherubic, seraphic. archangelic. A
mansion with as many rooms as worlds,
and all their windows illuminated for
, festivity.
Oh, how this widens and lifts and
stimulates our expectation! How little
it makes the present, and how stupen-
dous it makes the future! How it con-
soles us about our pious dead, that in
stead of being boxed up and under the
ground have the range of as
many rooms as there are worlds,
and welcome everywhere, for it
is the Fathers house, in which
there are many mansions! Oh, Lord
> God of the Seven Stars and Orion,
how can l endure the transport, the
ecstasy, of such a vision! l must obey
my text and seek Him. l will seek
Him. seek Him now, for l ca IL to
mind that it is not the material uni
verse that is most valuable, but the
spiritual, and that each of us has a
soul worth more than all the worlds
which the inspired herdsmen sa W from
e his booth on the hills of Tekoa.
had studied it before, but the ca
: thedral of Cologne, Germany, never
impressed me as it did one summer.
: 1t is admittedly the grandest Gothic
: structure in the world, its foundation
: laid in 124s, only a few years ago com
I pleted. More than 600 years in build
! ing. All Europe taxed for it's con.
5 struction. Its chapel of the Magi
with precious stones enough tc
o purchase a kingdom Its chape
y of st. Agnes with masterpiece.
Of painting. Its spire springine
5l1 feet into the heavens. Its stained
glass the chorus of all rich colors
= circling all. Statues above statues
, untll sculpture can 40 no more, Du
"a =. faints and falls back against carvet
~ stalls and down on pavements owe
- which the kings and queens of tn,
. earth have walked to confessional
Il Nave and aisles and transept ant
y portals combining the splendors 0
sunrise and sunset. Interlaced, inter
- foliated, intercolumned grandeur A
l stood outside, looking at the dou bl
:, range of flying buttresses and tn
=. forest of pinnacles, higher and highe
- and higher, until almost reeled from
dizziness; l exclaimed: Great dox
~ ology in stone! Frozen prayer o
\ many nationsr'
y But while standing there l saw
poor man enter and put down his pa Ct
- and kneel beside his burden on tn
II hard floor of that cathedral. And tear
=. of deep emotion came into my ewes, a
a. l said to myself: There is a soy
p, worth more than all the material sur
:. roundings. That man will live afte
~, the last pinnacle has fallen