The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1897-02-04
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
Human Life Likened Unto a Great
Charge of Cavalry.
GIortes of the Christian Soldier Portrayed
Armed, Booted, Spurred and
Mounted, sweeping Away
the Hosts of Sin.

text:
will deliver thee two thousand horses, if
thou art able on thy part to set riders upon
them.-IL Kings, xviii, %.
Up by the water works, the upper
reservoir of Jerusalem, the general OF
the besieging army and the generals
of Eesieged Jerusalem are in cOnsulta-
ton. Though Gen. Rab-shakeh had
been largely paid to stop the siege, he
kept the money and continued the
siege-the military miscreant! Rab-
shaken derides the capacity of the
city to defend itself, and practically
SAYS: You have not 1000 men who
can manage horses. Produce 1000
cavalrymen, and l viii give you
present of 1000 cavalry horses. You
have not in all your hesieged city Of
Jerusalem 1000 men who can mount,
and by bit and bride control a horse"
Rab-shalleh realized that it is easier
to find horses than skillful riders, and
hence he makes the challenge OF tn e
| text: Il will deliver thee 1000 horses
if thou lie able to set riders upon
them"
Rub-shakeh, like many another bad
| man, said a very suggestive thing.
The world is full of great opportunl-
| ties, but few know how to bride them
and mount them and manage them.
More spirited horses than competent
| riders! The fact is that in the church
Of God we have plenty of fortresses
| well manned, and plenty Of heavy ar
| tillerv, and plenty of solid columns
of brave, Christian soldiery, but what
we most need is cavalry-mounted
troops of God-for sudden charge that
seems almost desperate. If Washing
| ton, if New York, if London are ever
taken for God, it will not be by slow
bonn bardment Of augmentation, or
by regular unlimbering of great theo-
logical guns from the portfolios of
the churches, but by gallop Of sud-
den assault and rush Of holy en-
ergy that will astound and throw
into panic the long lines of drilled
opposition, armed to the teeth. Moth
ing SO scares the forces of sin as re-
vival that comes, they know not
whence, to do that which they can
not tell, to work in a way that they
w
overcome by flank movement. The
church Of God must double up their
right Or left wing. If they expect us
from the north, we will take them
from the south. If they expect us at
IL o'cock at noon, we will come upon
them at IL o'clock at night. The OPP
portunities for this assault are great
and numerous, but where are the
men? Il will deliver thee 1900
horses, if thou be able to set riders
upon them"
The opportunities of saving America
and saving the entire planet were
never so many, never SO urgent, never
SO tremendous as now. lave you not
noticed the Willingness of the printing
press of the country to give the sub
jet of evangelism full swing in col
umn after column? Such work was
formerly confined to tract distribution
and religious journalism. Now the
morning and evening newspapers, by
hundreds and thousands of copies
print all religious intelligence and
print most awakening discourses.
Never since the world has stood has
such force been offered to all en-
gagged in the worlds evangelization.
Of the more than 5000 newspapers on
this continent, l do not know one
that is not alert to catch and distrib-
ute all matters of religious informa-
ton. Oh, now l see mighty sugges
tiveness in the fact that the first book
; OF any importance that was ever
published, after Johann Gutten berg
invented the art of printing, was
the Bible. Well might the poor maj
toll on, polishing stones, and manu-
featuring looking glasses, and max
ing experiments that brought upor
him the charge of insanity, and Dor
rowing money, now from Martin
Brother and now from Johan Faust
until he set ON foot the mightles
power for the evangelization of The
world. The statue in bronze which
Thorw aldsen erected for Gluten berg
in 1887, and the Statue commemorative
, him by David Dangers in 1870, anC
: unveiled amid all the pomp that mill
tary professions and German bands o
best music could give the occasion
were insignificant compared with tn,
fact, to be demonstrated before al
earth and all Heaven, that johann
Gutenberg, under God, inauguratet
} forces which will yet accomplish tn,
worlds redemption. The ncwspape
} press will report Christ's sermons We
to be delivered. and describ,
His personal appearance, if, a.
some think, He shall come again
to reign on earth The newspaper
press may yet publish Christ's procla
nation of the worlds emancipation
from sin and sorrow and death. Ten
of thousands of good men in this ane
other lands have been ordained by tn,
laying on of hands to preach the Cos
pei, but it seems to me that just now
by the laying on of the hands of tn,
Lord God Almighty, the newspape
presses are being ordained for preach
ing the Gospel with wider sweep ant
mightier resound than we have eve
yet imagined, The iron horses of tn.
printing press are all ready for tn,
battle, but where are the men goot
enough and strong enough to noun
them and guide them? II will delive