The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1898-12-29

streets and see the agonized physiogo-
mics. Your high officials, your bank
ers, your insurance men, your import
ers, your wholesalers and your retail
ers as class-as a class, are they
happy? No. Care dogs their steps and
making no appeal to God for help or
comfort many of them are tossed every
whittier. How has it been with you, my
hearero Are you more contented in
the house of IA rooms than you were in
the two rooms you had in a house when
you started? Have you not had more
care and worrment since you won that
$4,000 than you did before? Some Of
the poorest men have ever known have
been those of great fortune. A man Of
small means may be put in great bust
hess straits. but the ghastliest of all
embarrassments is that of the man who
has large estates. The men who COM
NIT suicide because of monetary losses
| are those who cannot bear the burden
any more because they have only $780,
900 left
On Bowling Green, New York, there
is house where Tallcyrand used to 60
| He was favored man. All the world
knew him. and he had wealth almost
unlimited. Yet at the close of his life
he says: "Behold, So years have passed
without any practical result, save IA
tigue Of body and fatigue of mind, great
discouragement for the future and
great disgust for the past" Oh, my
| t,-,D 1o,,
and Il slopes off toward deserts
of sorrows, and the prayer which
Achsah made to her father Ca
| leb we make this day to our
Father God: Thou hast given me a
south land; give me also springs of
water. And he gave her the upper
springs and the neither springs"
Blessed be God. we have more ad-
vantages given us than we can really
appreciate! We have spiritual bless
| ings offered us in this world which
shall call the neither springs and glories
ir the world to come which l shall call
the upper springs.
Where shall l find words enough
threaded with light to set forth the
pleasures of religion? David, unable to
describe it in words, played it on a
harp. Mrs. Hemans, not finding enough
power in prose. sings that praise in a
canto. Christopher Wren, unable to de-
scribe it in language, sprung it into the
srches of ST. Paul's. John Bunyan, un-
able to present it in ordinary phrase
ology, takes all the fascination of ale
cory. Handel, with ordinary music un-
able to reach the height of the theme,
rouses it up in an oratorio. Oh, there is
10 life on earth so happy as really
Christian life! l do not mean sham
Christian life, but real Christian life.
Where there is thorn there is whole
garland of roses. Where there is one
eroan there are three doxologies
Where there is one day Of cloud there is
a whole season of sunshine. Take the
humblest Christian man that you know
angels of God canopy him with their
white wings; the lightnings of Heaven
are his armed allies; the Lord is his
Shepherd, picking out for him green
pastures by still waters. If he wall,
forth, Heaven is his bodyguard. If he
lie down to sleep, ladders of light, angel
hlossoming, are let into his dreams. II
lie be thirsty, the potentates of Heaven
are his cupbearers. If he sit down tc
food, his plain table blooms into the
Kings banquet. Men say: Look at
that odd fellow with the wornout
coat" The angels of God cry: Lift W
your heads, ye everlasting gates, ano
let him come I'M" Fastidious people
cry: Get off my front steps!" The
doorkeepers of Heaven cry: "Come, ye
Blessed of my Father inherit the King
Gom!" When he comes to die, though
he may be carried out in pine box tt
the potter's field, to that potter's fielt
the chariots of Christ will come down
and the cavalcade will crowd all thu
boulevards of Heaven.
bless Christ for the present satisfac
ton of religion. 1t makes man al
right with reference to the past; i
makes a man all right with reference t.
the future. Oh, these neither springs o
comfort! They are perennial. Th'
foundation of God standeth sure having
this seal: "The Lord knoweth then
that are His" ''.The mountains shall
depart, and the hills be removed, bu
my kindness shall not depart from thee
neither shall the covenant of my peac'
he removed, saith the Lord, who hatl
mercy upon thee" Oh, cluster of dia
monds set in FURNISHED gold! oh
neither springs of comfort bursting
through all the valleys of trial and trib
ulation! When you see, you of tn
world, what satisfaction there is o,
earth in religion, do you not thirst afte
it as the daughter of Caleb thirste'
after the water springs? 1t is no stag
nant pond, scummed over with ma
laria, but springs of water leapinl
from the Rock Of Ages! Take up on
cup of that spring water and across tn
top of the chalice will float the delicat
shadows of the Heavenly wall, the yel
low of jasper, the green of emerald, tn
blue of sardonyx, the fire of jacinth.
wish l could make you understan
, the JOY religion is to some of US.
, makes a man happy while he lives an