The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1898-01-20

| TWICE. do HIuCl DIS you Cuu, uuu VAIN
twice as far, and walk twice as long,
will have double account to meet in
the Judgment.
How often is it that you do not find
physical energy indicative of spiritual
power! Ii a clear head is worth more
than one dizzy with perpetual vertigo
If muscles with the play of health in
them are worth more than those drawn
up in chronic ''rheumatics"-if an eye
quick to catch passing objects is better
than one with vision dim and I'M
certain-then God will require of us
efficiency just in proportion to what he
has given us. Physical energy ought
to be type of moral power. We
ought to have as good digestion of
truth as we have capacity to assimilate
food. Our spiritual hearing ought to
be as good as our physical hearing.
Our spiritual taste ought to be as clear
as our tongue. Samsons in body, we
ought to be giants in moral power
| But while you find a great many men
who realize that they ought to use
their money Alright, and use their in
telligence Alright, now few men you
find aware of the fact that they ought
to use their physical organism Alright!
With every thump of the heart there
is something saying: Work, work"
and, lest we should complain that we
have no tools to work with. God gives
us our hands and feet, with every
knuckle, and with every joint, and
with every muscle saying to us: Lay
hold and do something.'
But how often it is that men with
physical strength do not serve Christ!
They are like ship full manned and
full rugged, capable of vast tonnage,
able to endure all stress of weather,
yet swinging idly at the docks, when
these men ought to be crossing and
and reerossing the great ocean of hui
man suffering of sin with Gods sup
plies of mercy. How often it is that
physical strength is used in doing pos
tive damage, Or in luxurious ease,
when, with sleeves rolled up and
bronzed bosom, fearless of the shafts
of opposition, it ought to be laying
hold with all its might, and Juggling
away to lift up this sunken wreck of a
world.
1t is most shameless fact that much
I of the business of the church and of
the world must be done by those COM
paratively invalid. Richard Baxter,
by reason of his diseases, all his days
sitting in the door of the tomb yet
sending out an influence for God that
will endure as long as the Saints
Everlasting Rest" Edward Payson,
never knowing well day, yet how he
preached. and how he wrote, helping
thousands of dying souls like himself
to swim in q sea of gloryw And Rob-
ert McCheyne, walking skeleton, yet
you know what he did in Dundee, and
how he shook Scotland with zeal for
God. Philip Doddridge, advised by
his friends, because of his illness, not
to enter the ministry, yet you know
what he did for the rise and progress
of religion" in the church and in the
world.
| Oh, how often it is that men with
great physical endurance are not so
great in moral and spiritual stature!
While there are achievements for those
who are bent all their days with sick
acknowledgements of patience, achieve
ments Of Christian endurance-I call
upon men of health to-day men of
muscle, men of nerve, men of physical
power, to devote themselves to the
Lord. Giants in body, you ought to
be giants in soul.
| Behold, also, in the story of my text,
illustration of the damage that strength
can do if it be misguided. 1t seems to
me that this man spent great deal of
his time in doing evil-tlis Samson of
my text. TO pay bet which he had
lost by guessing of his riddle he robs
and kills thirty people. He was net
only gigantic in strength, but gigantic
in mischief, and a type of those men in
all ages of the world who, powerful in
body or mind, or any faculty of social
position or wealth, have used their
strength for iniquitous purposes.
| 1t is not the small, weak men of the
day who do the damage. These small
men who 60 swearing and loafng
about your stores and shops and bank
ing houses, assailing Christ and the BIZ
bic and the church-they do not do the
damage. They have no influence.
They are vermin that you crush with
your foot. But it is the giants of the
day, the misguided giants, giants in
physical power, or giants in mental
acumen, or giants in social position, or
giants in wealth, who do the damage.
The men with sharp pens that stab re-
ligion and throw their poison all
through our literature; the men who
use the power of wealth to sanction
iniquity, and bride justice, and make
truth and honor bow to their golden
scepter. Misguided gianls-look out
for them! In the middle and latter
part Of the last century no doubt there
were thousands of men in Paris and
Edinburgh and London who hated
God and blasphemed the name of the
Almighty; but they did but little mis-
chief-they were small men, insignit,-
cant men. Yet they were giants in
those days.
| Oh. men Of stout physical health,
men of great mental stature, men of