The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1898-08-18

and held universities spel!bound while
he told them the story of what he ha
seen of God in the Old Red Sand
stone That man did more than any
! other being that ever lived to show
that the God Of the hills is the
God of the Bible, and he struck his
! tuningfork on the rocks of Cromartv
until he brought geology and theology
, accordart in divine worship. His two
books. entitled "Footprints OF the
Creator and The Testimony of the
Rocks. proclaimed the banns of an
everlasting marriage between genuine
science and revelation. On this latter
i box he toilcd day and night.
through love of nature and love of
God. until he could not sleep and
his brain gave way, and he was
found dead with revolver by his side,
the cruel instruments having had two
bu,iets-one for him and the other for
the gunsnith, WHO at the cOrOner's in
quest was examining it and fell dead.
Have you any doubt of the beatitica-
ticn of Hugh Miller after his hot brain
had ceased throbbing that winter night
| in his study at Portohcllo? Among the
mightiest of the earth, among the
mightiest of Heaven.
No one doubted the piety of William
Cow1cr. the author of those three
great hymns: oh for Closer Walk
with God. "What Various Hindrances
We Meet. ''There Is a Fountain Filled
with B!oold "-Wiiiam Cowper. who
shares with Isaac Watts and Charles
! Wesley the chief honors of Christian
hymnology. In hypochondria he re-
solved to take his own life and rode to
the River Thames, but found a
man seated on some goods at the very
point from which he expected to
spring, and rode back to his home, and
| that night threw himself upon his own
knife. bat the blade broke: and then
he hanged himself to the ceiling but
the rope broke. No wonder that when
God n,ercifully delivered him from
that awful dementia he sat down and
| wrote that other hymn just as memoir
able:
God moves in a mysterious way.
His wonders to perform
He piant' his footsteps in the sea-
And rides upon the storm.
Blind unbelef is sure to err,
Anl sean his work in vain;
God Is His own Interpreter.
And He will make it plain.
While we make this merCiful and
righteous allowance in regard to those
| who were plunged into mental inco-
herence, declare that the man who,
! in the use of his reason. by his own
act, snaps the string between MS body
and his SOU, goes straight into per-
dltion. Shall prove it: Revelations
Xxi. 5: "Murdercrs shall have their
part in the lake which burneth with
fire and brimstone." Revelations xxi.
10 "Wjthout are dogs and sorcerers
and horemongers and murdcrers. =
You do not believe the New Testament?
Then. perhaps. you believe the ten
commandments: Thou shalt not kill. =
Do YOU say that all these passages
refer to the taking of the life Of
others? Then | ask you if You are
not as responsible for your own life as
for the life of others? God gave YOU a
special trust i'll life, au1 made you the
custodian of your life, and He made
you the custodian of no other life He
gave you as weapons with which to de-
fend it two arm, to strike back assaii-
ants, two eyes to watch for invasion and
natural love of life which ought ever
| to be on the alert. Assassination of
others is a mild crime compared with
the assassination of yourself, because
in the latter case it is trcachery to an
especial trust: it is the surrender of a
castle you were especially appointed to
keep; 1t IS treason to natural law. and
it is treason to God added to ordinary
murder.
TO show how God in the Bible look ed
upon this crime, point You to the
roguess picture gallery in some parts
of the Bible. the pictures of the people
who have committed this unnatural
crime. Here is the hcadless trunk of
Saul on the walls OF Blthshan. Here
is the man who chas>d little David-ten
feet in stature chasing four. Here
is the man who consulted a
clairvoyant, Witch of Endor. Here
is man who. whipped in bat
tie, instead of su;rendering his
sword with dignity, as many man has
done, asks his servant to slay him, and
when that servant declined, then the
giant plants the hilt of his sword in
the earth, the sharp point sticking up
ward. and he throws his body on y and
expires the cow1rd, the suicide: Here
is Abitophel, the Macliaveli of olden
times, bctraying his best friend, David.
in order that he may become prime
minister of Absalom, and joining that
fellow in his attempt at parricide. Not
getting what he wanted by change of
politics, he takes a short cut out of a
dlsgraceful life into t.ic suicides etcrn
ity. There h2is, She migrate.
But the hero of this group is Judas
1scariot DR.. Donne says he was a
martyr, and we have in our day apollo.
gist for him. AMI WI at wonder, ir
this day when we have book reveal
ing Aaron Burr as a pattern of virtue
and this day when we uncover a statue
of George Sand as the bcncfactress 0
literature, and in this day when ther,
are betrayais of Christ on the part o
some Of His pretended apostlcs-a be
trayal SO black it makes the infamy o