The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1898-03-03
BENTON. LOUISIANA, THURSDAY, MARCH 3, 1885,

snd there was no room for the liquid,
and by that time it was said the in.
ebriate would be cured. Whether any.
one ever was cured in that way know
not, but by long experiment it is found
that the only way is to stop short off,
and when man does that he need
God to help him. And there have been
more cases than you can count when
God has SO helped the man that he left
off the drink forever; and l could
count score of them, some of them
pillars in the house of God.
Furthermore, the gamester's indul-
gence must be put in the list of temp
tations delicious but destructive. You
who have crossed the ocean many
times have noticed that always one Of
the best rooms has, from morning
until late at night, been given up to
gambling practices. l heard of men
who went on board with enough for q
European excursion who landed with
out money to get their baggage up to
the hotel Or railroad station. To many
there is complete fascination in
games of hazard Or the risking
of money on possibilities. 1t seems as
natural for them to bet as to eat. In
deed, the hunger for food is often over
powered by the hunger for wagers.
1t is absurd for those of us who have
never felt the fascination of the wager
to speak slightingly of the temptation.
1t has slain multitude Of intellectual
and moral giants, men and women
stronger than you or l. Down under
its power went glorious Olive Gold
smith, and Gibbon, the famous his
torian. and Charles Fox, the re.
moved statesman, and in olden times,
senators of the United States. who
used to be as regularly at the gambling
house all night as they were in the
halls of legislation by day. Oh, the
tragedies of the faro table! I know
persons who began with slight stake
in ladies' parlor, and ended with the
suicides pistol at Monte Carlo. They
played with the So uare pieces of bone
with black marks on them, not know
ing that Satan was playing for their
bones at the same time, and was sure
to sweep all the stakes off on his side
OF the table. State legislatures have
again and again sanctioned the mighty
evil by passing laws in defense of race
tracks, and many young men have
lost all their wages at such SO.
called meetings" Every man who
voted for such infamous bills has on
his hands and forehead the blood of
these souls.
The best Eoney is not like that which
Jonathan took on the end of the rod
and brought to his lips, but that which
God puts on the banqueting table of
mercy, at which we are all invited to
sit. l was reading of boy among the
mountains Of Switzerland ascending a
dangerous place with his father and
the guide. The boy stopped on the
edge OF the cliff and said:
''There is flower mean to
get" Come away from there
said the father; you will fall off !"
mo" said he; Il must get that beau
t;ful flow er." Aud the guides rushed
toward him to pull him back, when,
just as they heard him say, II almost
have it," he fell 1900 feet. Birds of
prey were seen few days later circ-
ling through the air and lowering
gradually to the place where the corpse
lay. Why seek flowers off the
edge of precipice when you can walk
knee-deep amid the full blooms OF
the very paradise of God? When
a man may sit at the Kings ban quet
why will lie go down the steps and
contend for the refuse and bones of a
hounds kennel? "Sweeter than honey
and honeycomb," says David, is the
truth of God. with honey out of the
, rock would | have satisf ed thee" saws
God to the recreaut. Here is honey
gathered from the blossoms of trees u
life, and with u rod male out of the
wood of the cross 1 dip it up for all
your souls.
: The poet Hesiod tells of an ambrosi,
and q nectar, the drinking of which
would make men live forever, and on,
, sip Of the honey from the Eternal RocL
, will give you eternal life with God
{ Come off the malarial levels Of a sinfu
| life. Come and live on the uplands o
, grace, where the vineyards sun them
| SVASCSs VIZ Gtto GC oAu sec tudt tL6 AOE(
. is graciousw BE happy now and happ,
, forever. For those who take differ
, ent course the honey will turn to gall
. For many things have admired Perc'
9 Shelley, the great English poet, but
! depIore the fact that it seemed a grea
sweetness to him to dishonor God. Tn
/ poem Queen Nab" has in it the ma
= ligning of the Diety. Shelley was i'm
pious enough to ask for Rowland Hilr
= Surrey Chapel that he might denounc
y the Christian religion. He was in grea
= glee against God and the truth. Blu
+ his visited Italy, aud one day on tn
e Mediterranean with two friends in
: boat which was "a feet long he wa
J. coming toward shore when an hour
e squall struck the water. A gentlema,
:: standing on the shore through glas
d saw many boats tossed in this squall
= but all outrode the storm excep
O one, in which Shelly and hi
v two friends were sailing. The
never came ashore, but the bodit
81 70 xvor