The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1899-02-09
BENTON. LOUISIANA, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY g. 1899.

tactics than | used to before I took
a musket in my hand and learned to
present arms, and when was pest
to the drill officer" 1t is not base
egotism for sailor to say: Il know
better how to clew down the mizzen
topsail than used to before had ever
seen ship" And there is no sinful
egotism when Christian man, fighting
the battles of the Lord, or, if you will
have it, voyaging toward haven of
eternal rest, says: II know more about
spiritual tactics and about voyaging
toward Heaven than used to-
Why, there are those in this presence
who have measured lanc.s with many
& foe and ruhorsed it! There are Chris
tian men here who have become
swarthy by hammering at the forge of
calamity. They stand on an entirely
different plane of character from that
which they once occupied. They are
measuring their life on earth by golden
gated Sabbaths, by pentecostal prayer
meeting, by communion tables, by bap-
tismal fonts, by hallelulahs i'll the tenn
pie. They have stood on Sinai and
heard it thunder. They have stood or
Pisgah and looked over into the prom-
ised land. They have stood on Calvary
and seen the cross bleed. They can,
like Paul, the apostle, write Oh their
heaviest troubles Eight and "but for
moment" The darkest night their
soul is irradiated, as was the night over
Bethlehem, by the faces Of those who
have come to proclaim glory and good
cheer. They are only waiting for the
gate to open and the chains to fall off
and the glory to begin.
iremark again. there are maryland
timating life by the good they can do.
John Bradford said he counted that
day nothing at all in which he had not,
by pen or tongue, done some good. If
man begin right, / cannot tell how
many tears he may wipe away, how
many burdens he may lift, how many
orphans he may comfort, how many
outcasts he may reclaim. There have
been men VINO have given their whole
life in the right direction, concentrat-
ing all their wit and ingenuity and
mental acumen and physical force and
enthusiasm for Christ. They climbed
the mountain and delved into the mine
and crossed the sea and dropped at last
into martyrs graves waiting for the
resurrection of the just. They meas
ured their lives by the chains they
broke of, by the garments they put up
on nakedness, by the miles they trav-
eled to alleviate every kind of suffer
ing. They felt in the thrill of every
nerve, in the motion of every muscle,
in every throb of their heart, in every
respiration of their lungs the magnifi-
cent truth, mo man liveth unto him
self" They went through cold and
through heat, foot blistered, cheek
smitten, back scourged, tempest
lashed, to do their whole duty. That is
the way they measured life-by the
amount of good they could do.
Do you want TO know how Old
Luther was; how old Richard Baxter
was; how old Philip Doddridge was?
Why, you cannot calculate the length
of their lives by any human arithmetic!
Add to their lives 10000 times 10000
years and you have not expressed it
what they have lived or will live. Oh,
what standard that is to measure a
mans life by! There are those in this
house who think they have only lived
so years. They will have lived 1000
they have lived 1000. There are those
who think they are so years of age
They have not even entered upon their
infancy. for one must become babe in
Christ to begin at all.
Now, I do not know what your ad-
vantages or disadvantages are; / do
not know what your tact or talent is:
do not know what may be the fascina-
ton of your manners or the repulsive-
ness of them; but know this-there il
Cor you, my hearer, field TO culture, ii
harvest to reap, tear to wipe away,
a soul to save. If you have worldly
means, consecrate them to Christ. If
you have eloquence, use it on the side
that Paul and Wilberforce used theirs.
If you have learning, put it all into the
poor box of the worlds suffering. But
if you have none of these-neither
wealth, nor eloquence, nor learn
ing-you, at Nany rate, have a
smile with which you can encourage
the disheartened; frown with which
YOU may blast injustice; voice with
which you may call the wanderer back
to God. "Oh," you say, that is very
sanctimonious view of life!" 1t is not.
1t is the only bright view of life, and it
is the only bright view of death. Con-
trast the death scene of man who has
measured life by the worldly stand
ard with the death scene Of man who
has measured life by the Christian
standard. Quin, the actor, in his last
moments, said: II hope this tragic
scene will soon be over, and hope to
keep my dignity to the last. Males
herbes said IN his last moments to the
confessor: Hold your tongue! Your
miserable style puts ME out of conccit
with Heaven" Lord Chesterfield in his