The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1899-01-19


struments in the national peace jubilee
Of 33 years ago, all these sounds accom-
panied by the ringing Of bells and the
guns on Boston common. But can |
ever have my ears SO silenced that l
will not remember that | did hear
them? Are you chained to your room
now, your powers of locomotion all
gone. or, if coming to the house of
God, every step is torture?
Do you forget when in childhood you
danced and skipped because you were
so full of life you had not patience to
walk, and in after years you climbed
the mountains of Switzerland, putting
your alpenstock high up on glaciers
which few others ever dared ana
jumped long reaches in competition,
and after walk of ten miles YOU came
in jocund as the morning? Oh. you
shut-ins! Thank God for a vivid mem
ory of the times when you were free
eagle going straight for the sun. When
the rain pounded the roof of the ark.
the eight voyagers on that craft did
not forget the time when it gayly pat
tered in summer shower, and when
the door of the ark shut to keep out the
tempest they did not forget the time
when the door of their home in Ar
menia was closed to keep out the spring
rains which came to fill the cups of lily
and honeysuckle and make all the trees
OF the wood clap their hands.
Again, notice that during that 40
days of storm which rocked that ship
on that universal ocean of Noah's time
the door which shut the captain of the
snip inside the craft kept him from
many outside perils. How those wrath
full seas would like to have got their wet
hands on Noah and pulled him out and
sunk him! And do all of you of TIE
great army Of the shut-in realize
though you have special temptations
where you are now. how much of the
outside style of temptation you escape:
DO you, the merchant incarcerated in
the sickroom, realize that every hour Of
the day you spend looking out of the
window or gazing at the particular fig
ure on the wall paper or listening to the
clocks ticks men are being wrecked by
the allurements and uncertainties of
business life? How many forgeries are
committed. how many trust funds are
swamped. how many public moneys are
being misappropriated, how many
| bankruptcies suffered? 1t may be. ii
is. very uncomfortable for Noah inside
the ark. for the apartment is crowded
and the air is vitiated with the brea tn
ing of so much human and animal life
but it is not half as bad for him as
though he were outside the ark. There
is not an OK. or camel. or an antelope
or sheep inside the ark as badly off a i,
the proudest king outside. While YOU
are on the pillow or lounge you will
make no bad bargains, you will rush
into no rash investments. you will avoid
the mistakes which thousands of men
as good as you are every day making.
Notice also that there was limit to
the shut-in experience of those ancient
mariners. l suppose the 40 days of the
descending and uprising floods and the
$50 days before the passengers could 90
| ashore must have seemed to those eight
people in the big boat like a small
eternity. ''Rain. rain. rain!" said the
| wife of Noah. "Will it never stop?"
For 40 mornings they looked out and
saw not one patch of blue sky. Float
ing around amid the peaks of noun
tains. Shem and Ham and Japheth had
to hush the fears of their wives lest
they should dash against the project
ing rocks. But after awhile it cleared
off. Sunshine, glorious sunshine! The
ascending mists were folded up into
clouds, which instead of darkening the
sky only ornamented it. As they
e cked out of the windows these worn
passengers clapped their hands and
rejoiced that the storm was over, and
l think if God could stop such storm
rs that He could stop any storm in your
lifetime experience. If He can control
vulture in mid-sky, He can stop sum-
pler bat that flies in at your window
AT the right time He will put the rain
bow on the cloud and the deluge of
your misfortunes will dry up. Ipreach
the doctrine of limitation, relief and dis
cnthrallment. At just the right time
the pain will cease. the bondage will
drop, the imprisoned will be liberated,
he fires will go out, the body and mind
and soul will be free. Patience! An
cid English proverb referring to long
continued invalidism, says: "a creak-
ing gate hangs long on its hinges" and
this may be protracted case of vale
tudinarianism, but you will have taken
the last bitter drop, you will have suf-
fsred the last misinterpretation, you
will feel the gnawing of the last hun
ger, you will have tainted the last time
from exhaustion, you will have felt the
cut of the last lancet, you will have
wept under the last loneliness. The
last week of the Noachian deluge came,
the last day, the last hour, the last mo-
ment. The beating of the rain on the
rccf ceased. and the dashing of the
pillows on the side of the ship quieted
and peacefully as a yacht moves out
over quiet Lake Cayuga. Como or Lu-
eerne. the ark with its ilIustrous pas