The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1899-06-01

dicial robe fell on John Jay, it touched
nothing less spotless than itself" and
Rutledge and Cushing and Ellsworth
and Joseph Storey, called the Walter
Scott of common law, and Sir Matthew
Hale and Lord Eldon and Lord Tenter-
den and Sir James Mcintosh and Mans
field and the long line of lord chancel-
lors and the great judges from both
sides of the sea, and after they had
taken their places in our quickened
imagination and distinguished cases OF
centuries which they decided might
again be called on. after the assembled
nations had CALCULATED: GOD save the
United States of America" God save
Great Britain" ""God save the nations"
All, how the law hcnors and sanctifies
everything it touches! Natural law.
Civil law. Social law. Commercial law.
Common law. Moral law. Ecclesiastical
law. International law. Oh, the dig
nifty, the impressiveness, the power of
law! 1t is the only thing before which
Jehovah bows. but He bows before
that, although the law is of His own
making. The law! BY it worlds swing.
By it the fate of centuries is decided.
BY it all the affairs of time and all the
cycles of eternity will be governed.
We cannot soar SO high. or sink SO deep,
escape it. 1t is the throne on which the
Almighty sits. To interpret law, what
a profession! What responsibility!
What an execration when the Judge be
a Lord Jeffreys! What benediction if
he be Chancellor Kent!
Have you ever realized how much God
has honored law in the fact that all up
and down the Bible He makes the judge
a type of Himself and employs the scene
of a courtroom to set forth the grand
eurs of the great judgment day? Book
of Genesis: ''Shall not the judge of all
the earth do right?" Book of Deuter-
onomy: 1.-The Lord shall Judge His peo-
pie" Book of Psalms: God is judge
Himself" Book of the Acts: Judge
of quick and dead" Book OF Timothy:
"The Lord is the righteous judge"
Never will it be understood how God
thunderbolt of the last day shall pound
the opening of the great assize-the
day of trial, the day of clearance. the
day of doom, the day of judgment. The
law of the case on that occasion will be
read, and the indictment of ten counts,
which are the Ten Commandments.
| Justice will plead the case against us,
but our glorious advocate will plead in
our behalf, for ''we have an advocate
| with the Father-Jesus Christ, the
| righteous" Then the case will be de-
cided in our clearance, as the Judge an
nounces: There is now, therefore, no
condemnation to them who are in Christ
Jesus" Under the crowded galleries of
cloud on that last day and under the
swaying upholstery of burning heav-
ems and while the Alps and Himalayas
and Mount Washington are falling fiat
on their faces we will be able to under
stand the significance of those Scrip
ture passages which speak of God as
Judge and employ the courtroom of
earth as typical of the scene when all
nations shall be brought into tribunal.
To have done well. all that such pro-
| fession could ask of him, and to have
made that profession still more honor
able by his brilliant and sublime life, is
enough for national and international
terrestrial and celestial congratulation
And then to expire beautifully while
the prayers of his church we're being
offered at his bedside, the door o1
Heaven opening for his entrance as tht
door of earth opened for his departure
the sob of the earthly farewell caught
lived and died in the faith of the old
fashioned Christian religion.
Young man, 1 want to tell you thai
Justice Field believed in the Bible from
lid to lid. book all true either as doc
trine or history, much of it the histor,
of events that neither God nor man ap
proves. Our friend drank the wine O
the holy sacrament and ate the bread o
which IF man eat he shall never hun
ger" He was the up and down, out ant
out friend of the church of Christ. l
there had been anything illogical in on
religion he would have secuted it, for h
was a logician. If there had been in i
anything unreasonable, he would hav
: rejected it. because he was good rea
soner. If there had been in it anythin!
that would not stand research he woul'
have exploded the fallAcy, for his lif
was a life of research. Young men Q
Washington. young men of America
young men of the round world, a re
, ligion that would stand the test of Jus
tice Fields penetrating and a1i-rar
sacking intellect must have in it some
thing worthy of your confidence. tel
i YOU now that Christianity has not onl
, the heart of the world on its side, bu
the brain of the world also. Ye VIII
have tried to represent the religion c
| the Bible as something pusillanimou.
: how do you account for the Christia
faith of Stephen J. Field, whole shelve
, of the law library occupied with hi
magnificent decisions?
r And now may the God of all comfol
speak to the bereft. especially to ne
| r 4 Z II.