The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1897-01-09

lifea recreative day, when the soul is espe-
cially to be fed. 1t is no new fangle notion
OF a Will drained reformer, but aninstitution
established at the beginning. God has made
natural and moral laws SO harmonious that
the body as well as the soul demands this in
stitution. Our bodies are seven day CLOCKS
that must be wound up as often as that or
they will run down. Failure must come
sooner or later to the man who breaks the
Sabbath. Inspiration has called 1t the Lords
day, and he who devotes 1t to the world Is
guilty of robbery. God will not let the sin
go UNPUBLISHED either In this world or the
world TO come.
This is the statement OF man who has
broken this divine enactment: 81 was en-
gagged In manufacturing on the Lehigh
River. On the Sabbath used to rest, but
never regarded God in 1t. One beautiful
Sabbath when the noise was all hushsd, and
the day was ell that loneliness could make
Ii, I sat down on my piazza and went to work
inyenting new shuttle. neither stopped
to eat nor drink till the sun went down. BY
that time I had the invention completed.
The next morning exhibited 1t aud boasted
Of my days work, and was appiauded. The
shuttle was tried and worked well, but that
Sabbath days work cost me $50, 200. We
pIducHeu Oul cuu SutalSou} uut tu2 SHASS
Of heaven was upon me from that day on
ward"
While the divine frown must rest upon
him who tramples upon this statute, Gods
special favor will be upon that young man
who scrupuiously observes 1t. This day,
properly observed, will throw 9 hallowed
influence over all the week. The song and
sermon and sanctuary will hold back from
sins. That young man who
begins the duties OF life with either secret or
open disrespect 10 the holy day, ! venture to
prophecy, will meet with no permanent sue
cesses. Gods curse will fall upon his ship,
his store, his office, bis studio, his body and
his soul. The way Of the wicked He turneth
upside down. In one of the old fables it was
said that q wonderful child was born in Bag
dad, and a magician could hear his footsteps
5000 miles away. But can hear in the foot
step OF that young man on his way to the
house Of worship to-day the step not only of
a lifetime of usefulness. but tbs oncoming
step Of eternal ages OF happiness yet millions
OF years away.
A noble ideal and confident expectation of
approximating to 1t arc an infallible de-
Tense. The artist completes in his mind the
great thought that he wishes to transfer to
the canvas or the marble before he takes up
the crayon or the chisel. The architect
plans oat the entire structure before he
orders the workmen to begin, and, though
there may for long while seem to be MOTH
ing but laundering and rudeness, he has In
his mind every Corinthian wreath and Gothic
arch and Byzantine capital. The poet
arranges the entire plot before he begins to
chime the first canto of tingling rhythms
And yet, strange to say, there are men who
knowing whether in the end it shall be a
rude Tartar's tent or st. Marks OF Venice
men who begin to write the intricate poem
of their lives witholt knowing whether it
shall be Homer's odyssey" or a rhym-
ester's botcb.
Nine hundred and ninety-nine men out OF
q thousand are living without any great life
plot. Booted and spurrei and plumed, and
urging their swift courser In the hottest
haste, ask: 'tHelio, man! Whittier away"
His respones, "Nowhere." Rush into the
busy shop or store of many one and TAX
ing the plane out of the mans hand or lay
ing down the yardstick, say, "What, man, Is
all this about-so much stir and sweat?"
The reply will stumble and break down
between teeth and lips. Every days duty
ought only to be the filling up of the main
plan OF existence. Let men be consistent
II they prefer misdeeds to correct courses of
action, then lot them draw out the design Of
knavery and cruelty and plumber. Let every
as coloring to the picture. Let bloody deeds
red stripe the. picture, and the clouds of 3
wrathful God hang down heavily over the
canvas, ready to break out in clanorous
tempest. Let the waters be edafed and
froth tangled and green with immeas-
urabIe depths. Then take torch of
burning pitch and scorch into the frame
the right name for 1.-THE souls suicide.
II one entering upon sinful direc-
tions would only in his mind or on pa
per draw out in awful reality this dreadful
future, he would reooil from it and say, "Am
Dante that by my own life should write
another sInferno2'" But IL you are resolved
to live life such as God and good men will
approve, do not let it be vague dream, an
indefinite determination, but in your mind
or upon paper sketch it in all its minutim.
You cannot know the changes to which you
may be subject, but you may know what
always will be right and always will be
wrong. Let gentleness and charity and YER
acity and faith stand in the heart Of the
sketch.
On some still brooks bank make lamb
and lion lie down together. Draw two or
three of the trees of life, not frost stricken,
nor ice glazed, nor wind stripped, but with
thick verdue waving like the palms of
heaven. On the darkest cloud place the
rainbow, that pillow Of tho dying storm.
You need not print the title on the frame.
The dullest will catch the design at q
glance and say, THAT is the road 10 heav-
en-" Alb, mel On this sea of life what in
Vulnerable ships. heavily laden and we'll
rugged, yet seem bound for no port Swept
every whittier OF wind and wave, they 70 up
py the mountains, they go down by tina
valleys and are at their wits end. They
sail by no chart, they watch no star, they
long for no harbor. beg every young man
to-day to draw ont a sketch of what. by the
grace of God, he means to be. Think no
excellence SO high that you cannot reach
1t. He who starts out IN life with high
ideal of character and faith in its attain
ment will find himself lncased from a
thousand temptations There are mag
nifleent possibilities before each of you,
young men of the stout heart, and the buoy
ant step and the bounding spirit. would
marshal you for grand achievement. God
now provides for you the field and the
armor and the fertilization. Who is on
the Lords side? A captain in ancient
times, to encourage bis men against the
immense odds on the side of their enemies,
said: "Coms, my men, look these fellows
in the face. They are e00D; you are 800.
Surely the match is even" That speech gave
them the victory, Be not my hearers, dis
mayed at any time by what seems an I'm
mense odds against you. Is fortune, is want
OF education, are men, are devils against you,
though the multitudes of earth and hell con-
front you, stand up to the charge. With
LOCO. 600 against you, the match Is just even
nay, yo1 have decided advantage. II
God be for US. who can be against us? Thus
protected, you need not spend much time in
answering your assalants.
Many years ago word came TO me that two
imposters, a. temperance lecturers, had been
speaking in Ohio IN various places and Civ
ing their experience, and they told their
audience that they hal long been intimate
with me and had become drunkards by din
ing at my table, where always had liquors
of all sorta. INDIGNANT to The, Last deg. 20 I