The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1899-05-18

man and woman there believed him. -
And the writer goes on to say, ''If he
had stood there saying, 4 am Chris
| tian, every man and woman would have
said, He is a liar.'"
This Bible is the sworn enemy of all
that is wrong, and it is the friend of all
that is good. Oh. hold on it! Do not
| take part of it and throw the rest away
Hold on to all of it. There are SO many
people now who do not know. You ask
them if the soul is immortal, and they
| say: II guess it is; don't know. Per-
haps it is; perhaps it isn't" Is the Bible
true? ''Well, perhaps it is. and perhaps
It isn't. Perhaps it may be, figurative-
ly, and perhaps it may be partly, and
perhaps it may not be at ALL They
despise what they call the apostolic
creed. but if their own creed were writ
ten out it would read like this: Il
believe in nothing, the maker of heaven
| and earth, and in nothing which it hath
sent, which nothing was born of moth
ing and which nothing was dead and
buried and descended into nothing and
| arose from nothing and ascended to
nothing and now sitteth at the right
| hand of nothing. from which it will
| come to judge nothing. l believe in the
holy agnostic church and in the COM
| munion of nothingarians and in the
forgiveness of nothing, and the resur-
rection of nothing and in the life that
never shall be. Amen!" That is the
creed of tens of thousands of people
in this day. Ifyou have mind to adopt
such theory, I will not. II believe in
God the Father Almighty, Maker of
heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ
and in the holy Catholic church and
in the communion of saints and in the
life everlasting. Amen" Oh, when
| see Eleazar taking such a stout grip
| of the sword in the battle against sin
and for righteousness, / come to the
conclusion that we ought to take a
| stouter grip of Gods eternal truth
the sword of righteousness.
AS l look at Eleazar's hand also no
tice his spirit of self forgetfalness. He
| did not notice that the hilt OF the sword
was eating through the palm of his
hand. He did not know it hurt him.
| As he went out into the conflict he was
SO anxious for the victory he forgot
himself, and that hilt might go never
SO deeply into the palm of his hand,
it could not disturb him. His hand
clave unto the sword Oh, my brothers
and sisters, let us go into the Christian
conflict with the spirit of self abnega-
ton. Who cares whether the world
praises us or denounces us? What dc
we care for Misrepresentation or abuse
or persecution in a canflict like this
Let us forget ourselves. That man
who is afraid of getting his hand hurt
will never kill a Philistine. Who cares
whether you get hurt or not if you get
| the victory? Oh, how many Christians
there are who are all the time worry
ing about the way the world treats
them. They are SO tired. and they are
so abused. and they are so tempted,
when Eleazar did not think whether
he had hand or an arm or a foot. All
he wanted was victory.
We see how men forget themselves in
worldly achievement. We have often
seen men who, in order to achieve
worldly success, will forget all physical
fatigue and all annoyance and all OBJ
stacle. just after the battle of York.
town. in the American revolution, a
musician, wounded, was told he must
have his limbs amputated, and they
were about to fasten him to the sur.
geon's table, for it was long before the
merciful discovery of anaesthetics. He
said, mo, don't fasten me to that table;
to him, and he said, Now go to work
as l begin to play" and for 40 minutes
during the awful pangs of amputation
he moved not a muscle nor dropped ;
note. while he played some sweet tune
oh, is it not strange that with the music
of the gospel of Jesus Christ and witt
this grand march of the church mill
tant on the way to become the churcl
triumphant we cannot forget ourselves
and forget all pang and all sorrow ant
all persecution and all perturbation
We know what men accomplish un
der worldly opposition. Men do no
shrink back for antagonism or for hard
ship. You have admired Prescott
/ Conquest of Mexico" as brilliant ant
beautiful history as was ever writ
ten. but some of you may not know
under what disadvantages it was writ
ten-that Conquest of Mexico"-fo
Prescott was totally blind, and he hat
two pieces of wood parallel to eacl
other fastened, and, totally blind, witt
his pen between those pieces of wood
he wrote. the stroke against one piec,
Of wood telling how far the pen mus
| go in one way, the stroke against tn,
other piece of wood telling how far tn,
pen must go the other way. Oh, hos
much men will endure for worldl,
knowledge and for worldly success
and vet how little we endure for Jesu
Christ! How many Christians Their
are that go around saying: .Oh, m,
hand; oh, my hand, my hurt hand
Don't you see there is blood on th
hand. and there is blood ON the sword .