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

he could ever go into such an outrage"
The fact is, the great temptation Of
life sometimes come far on in midlife,
or in old age.
The first time | crossed the Atlantic
ocean, it was as smooth as a mill pond,
and thought the sea captains and
voyagers had slandered the old ocean,
and wrote home an essay for maya
zine on THE Smile of the Sea-" but l
never afterward could have written
that thing, for before we got home, we
got a terrible shaking up. The first
voyage of life may be very smooth; the
! last may be a eurOclydou. Many who
start life in great prosperity do not end
it in prosperity.
The great pressure of temptation
comes sometimes in this direction; at
about As years of age mans nervous
system changes, and some one tells
him he must take stimulants to keep
himself up. and he takes stimulants to
keep himself up until the stimulants
keep him down; or a man has been 60
ing along for 30 or 40 wears in uusuc-
cessful business, and here is an OPEN
ing where by one dishonorable action
he can lift himself and lift his family
from all financial embarrassment. He
attempts to leap the chasm and he falls
into it.
Then it IS in after life that the great
temptation of success comes. Ii man
makes fortune before 80 years of age,
he generally loses it before 49, The
solid and permanent fortunes for the
most part do not come to their climax
until in mid-life, or in old age. The
most of the bank presidents have white
hair. Many of those who have been
largely successful have been flung of
arrogance or worldliness or dissipation
in old age. They may not have lost
their integrity, but they have become
SO worldly and SO selfish under the in
| tiuence of large success that it is evil
| dent to everybody that their success
has been a temporal calamity and an
eternal damage. Concerning many
| people, it may be said it seems as if it
would have been better if they could
| have embarked from this life at 20 or
| 30 years of age.
Do you know the reason why the
vast majority of people die before 80?
| 1t is because they have not the moral
endurance for that which is beyond
the 30, and a m,.rciful God will not al
low them to be put to the fearful strain.
Again: There is a blessing in an
! abbreviated earthly existence in the
fact that one is the sooner taken off the
defensive. AS soon as one is old enough
to take care of himself he is put on his
guard. Bolts on the doors to keep out
the robbers. Fireproof safes to keep
off the flames. Life insurance and fire
insurance against accident. Receipts
lest you have to pay debt twice.
Lifeboat against shipwreck. Westing-
house air-bralle against railroad col
lision, and hundreds of hands ready to
overreach you and take all you have
Defense against cold, defense against
heat, defense against sickness, defense
against the worlds abuse, defense
all the way down to the grave, and
even the tOmbStOneS sometimes is not
a sufficient barricade.
If a soldier who has been on guard,
shivering and stung with the cold,
pacing up and down the parapet with
shouldered musket, is glad when some
one comes to relieve guard and he can
go inside the fortress, ought not that
man to shout for joy who can put
down his weapon of earthly defense
and go into the Kings castle? Who is
the more unfortunate, the soldier who
has to stand guard twelve hours or the
man who has to stand guard six hours?
We have common sense about every
thing but religion, common sense
about everything but transference
from this world.
Again: There is blessing in an ab
breviated earthly existence in the fact
that one escapes so many bereave-
ments. The longer we live the more
attachments and the more kindred,
the more chords to be wounded Or
rasped Or sundered. If man live on
to 70 or so years of age, how many
graves are cleft at his feet! In that
long reach of time father and mother
60, brothers and sisters go, children
go, grandchildren go, personal friends
outside the family circle whom they
had loved with love like that of Da-
vid and Jonathan. Besides that,
some men have natural trepi-
dation about dissolution, and ever
and anon during forty or fifty
or sixty years, this horror
of their dissolution shudders through
soul and body. Now, suppose the lad
goes at 16 years of age? lie escapes 80
funerals, 50 caskets, 80 obsequies, so
awful wrenchings of the heart. 1t is
hard enough for US to bear their depar-
ture, but is it not easier for us to bear
| their departure than for them to stay
and bear SO departures? Shall we not
by the grace of God rouse ourselves
into generosity of bereavementw which
will practically say: 1T is hard
enough for me to go through this be-
reavement, but how glad | am that he
will never have to go through it." So
| reason with myself, and SO you will
find it helpful to reason with your
selves. David lost his son. Though
David was king, he lay ON the
earth mourning and inconsolable for
some time. At this distance of time.