The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1898-03-10
SOD APPOINTED WORK.
Rev. DR.. Talmage Recalls Chris
tians to their Duty.
Aggressive Work Needed In the Church
The Haif-and- Half Christians tho
Greatest Obstacles the Modern
Church Has to Contend with.


Church Has to Contend with.
In the following sermon Rev. T. De.
Witt Talmage points out the duties Of
protesting Christians, and pleads for
more aggressive, more heroic work.
The text is:
Whe knoweth whether thou art come to tn G
kingdom for such time as tlis:-E ,ther iv. =,
Esther, the beautiful, was the wife
of AhasueIus, the abominable. The
time had come for her to present pc
tition to her infamous husband in be-
half OF the Jewish nation, to which she
had once belonged. She was afraid to
undertake the work, lest she should
lose her own life; but her cousin, Nor
decai, who had brought her up, encour-
aged her with the suggestion that
probably she had been raised up Of
God for that peculiar mission. "Who
knoweth whether thou art come to the
kiagdom for such a time as this?'
Esther had her God-appointed work.
You and l have ours 1t is my busi-
ness to tell you what style of men and
women you ought to be in order that
you meet the demands of the age in
which God has cast your lot. So this
discourse will not deal with the tech
nicalities, but only with the practical
bilities. When two armies have
rushed into battle, the officers of
either army do not want a philosoph-
ical discussion about the chemical
properties OF human blood or the ma
ture of gunpowder; thev want some
one to man the batteries and take out
the guns. And now. when all the
forces of light and darkness, of Heaven
and hell, have plunged into the fight,
it is no time to give ourselves to the
definitions and formulas and techni-
calities and conventionalitles OF reli-
gion. What we want is practical,
earnest, concentrated, enthusiastic and
triumphant help.
In the first place, in order to meet
the special demand OF this age, you
need to be an unmist taxable, aggressive
Christian. OF half and half Christians s
we do not want any more. The church
of Jesus Cnrist will be better without
them. They are the chief obstacle to
the church's advancement. l am speak
ing of another kind of Christian. All
the appliances for your becoming an
earnest Christian are at your hand,
and there is Il straight pash for you in-
to the broad daylight Of Gods forgive
ness. You may this moment be the
bondmen Of the world, and the next
moment you may be princes OF the
Lord God Almighty. You remember
what excitement there was in this
country, years ago, when the prince of
Wales came here-how the people
rushed out by hundreds of thousands
to see him. Why? Because they ex-
pected that some day he would sit up
on the throne of England. But what
was all that honor to which God calls
you-to be sons and daughters of the
Lord Almighty; yea, to be queens and
kings unto God. They shall reign
with Him forever and forever"
l was once amid the wonderful, be =.
witching cactus growths of North Caro-
lima. never was more bewildered
with the beauty of flowers, and yet
when | would take up one Of these cac-
tuxcs and pull the leaves apart the
beauty was all gone. You could hard
ly tell that it had ever been flower.
And there are a great many Christian
people in this day just pulling apart
their Christian experiences to see what
there is in them, and there is nothing
left in them.
This style of self-examination is
damage instead of an advantage
to their Christian character. l re-
member when l was boy l
used to have small piece in the garden
that | called my own, and l planted
corn there, and every few days l
would pull it up to see how fast it was
growing. Now, there are a great
many Christian people in. this
day whose self-examination merely
amounts to the pulling up of that
which they only yesterday or the day
before planted, Oh, my friends, if you
want to have stalwart Christian
character, plant it right out of doors,
In the great field of Christian useful
hess, and though storms may come
"poA ~, anu though the not sun OF
trial may try to consume it, it will
thrive until it becomes great tree,
IN which the fowls of Heaven NAV
nave their habitation. l have no
patience with these hower-pot Chris
uans They keep themselves
under shelter, and all their Chris
tan experience in small, ex-
elusive circle, when they ought
70 plant it in the great garden
OF the Lord, so that the whole atmos-
phere could be aromatic with their
.nfistlan usefulness What we want
IN the church Of God is more strength
e1 piety. The century plant is won
uefiuliy suggestive and wonderfully
oeautifui, but l never look at it with.
vut thinking of its parsimony. 1t
.e's whole generations go by before it
puts forth one blossom; SO have really
.aofe admiration when l see the dewy
Years IN the blue eyes of the violets, for
.usy come every spring. My Christian
.I' trends time is going by so rapidly
eat we can not afford to be idle.