The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1897-12-30
NO. A..


Was hington or New York or Boston
which would be passabe on the Sab
bath day, if there were a church on it;
for all the people would press to that
asylum of mercy, that great house of
comfort and consolation.
A mother with a dead babe in her
arms came to the god Veda, and asked
to have her child restored to life. The
god Veda said to her: you go and
get handful of mustard seed from a
house in which there has been no sor-
row, and in which there has been no
death, and l will restore your child to
life" So the mother went out, and
she went from house to house, and
from home to home looking for place
where there had been no sorrow and
where there had been no death, but
she found none. She went back to
the god Veda, and said: "My mission
Is failure; you see l haven't
brought the mustard seed; | can't find
place where there has been no sor-
row and no death. "Oh," says the god
Veda, understand, your sorrows are
no worse than the sorrows of others;
we all have our griefs and all have our
heartbreaks.
Yes, l have to tell you the sermon OF
tile future will be a reported sermon.
If you have any idea that printing was
invented simply to print secular books,
and stenography and photography
were contrived merely to set forth
secular ideas you are mistaken. The
printing press is to be the great agency
of gospel proclamation. 1t is high
time that good men, instead OF de-
nouncing the press, employ it to
scatter forth the gospel of Jesus
Christ. The vast majority of people in
our cities do not come to church, and
nothing but the printed sermon can
reach them and call them to pardon
| and life and peace and Heaven.
So can not understand the nervous
ness of some of my brethren of the
ministry. When they see newspaper
man coming in they say: ALAS! there
is a reporter" Every added reporter
is 1,OJ0 or $4,000 or 100000 immortal
souls added to the auditory. The
time will come when all the village,
town, and city newspapers will repro
duce the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and
sermons preached on the Sabbath will
reverberate all around the world; and
some by type and some by voice, all
nations will be evangelical.
| The practical bearing of this is upon
those who are engaged in Christian
work, not only upon theological stu.
dents and young ministers, but upon
all who preach the Gospel, and that is
all of you, if you are doing your duty.
Do you exhort in prayer meeting? Be
short and be spirited. Doyou teach i'll
Bible class? Though you have to
study every night, be interesting. Do
you accost people on the subject of re-
ligion in their homes or in public
places? Study adroitness and use COM
mon sense. The most graceful, the
most beautiful thing ON earth is the re-
ligion of Jesus Christ, and if you awk-
wardly present it, it is defamation. We
must do our work rapidly and
we must do it effectively. Soon
our time for work will be gone.
A dying Christian took out his
watch, and gave it to friend and said: /:
Take that watch, | have no more use
for it; time is ended for me and eternity
begins" Oh my friends when our
, watch has ticl1ed away for us for the
last moment, and our clock has struck
, for US the last hour, may it be found
, we did our work we'll, that we did
= it in the very best way; and
whether we preached the Cos
pei in puipits, or taught Sab
bath classes, or administered to the
sick as physicians, or bargained as mer-
E or were busy as artisans, or as hus-
: bandmen, or as mechanics, or were like
t Martha called to give Il meal to hun
5 CRY Christ, or like Hannah to make a
t coat for prophet, or like Deborah to
, rouse the courage of some timed Barals
] in the Lords conflict, we did our work
t in such way that it will stand the
| test of the Judgment And in the
e long procession of the redeemed that
e march round the throne, may it be
d found there are many there brought te
!, God through our instumentality anc
t in whose rescue we are exultant. But
S o you unsaved! wait not for the com
e ing sermon. 1t may come after you
d obsequies. 1t may come after III,
$ stonecutter has chiseled our name or
e the slab so years before. Do not wait fol
IT a great steamer of the Cunard or White
1t Star line to take you off the wreck, bu
e hail the first craft, with however low
S, mast, and however poor a rudder
II and however weak captain. Better
disabled schooner that comes up il
e time than full-rigged brig that come.
g up after you have sunken. Instead o
'e waiting for that sermon-it may be 20
s. so years off-take this pl ain invitatio
a, of a man who, to have given yo
L spiritual eyesight, would be glad to b
,r called the spittle by the hand of Chris
lg put on the eyes of blind man, an
ty who would consider the highest com
m pliment of this service, if at th
ID close 500 men should start fror
III these doors, saying: ''Whethe
y he be sinner or not, l kno,
n not This one thing l know
lr- whereas l was blind now l see