The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1899-09-28
tsring places beware how you make
lifelong covenants.

tsring places beware how you make
lifelong covenants.
Another temptation lowering all
around our watering places is intoxi-
eating beverages. I am told that it il
becoming more and more fashionable
for women to drink. I care not how
well woman may dress, If she has
taken enough of wine to flush her
cheek and put a glassiness on her eye,
she is drunk. She may be handed into
$2,5OO carriage and have diamonds
enough to astound the Tiffanys-she il
drunk. She may be a graduate of the
best young ladies' seminary and the
daughter of some man in danger Of
being nominated for the presidency
she is drunk. You may have larger
vocabulary than have, and you may
say in regard to her that she is .'con-
viviap' or she is "merry" or she il ''fes-
tive" or she is ''exhilarated," but you
cannot with all your garlands Of ver-
biage cover up the plain fact that It
is an old-fashioned case Of drunk.
Now, the watering places are full Of
temptations to men and women to tip
pie. At the close of the tEnpin or bill
lard game they tipple. At the close OF
the cotillion they tipple. Seated on
the piazza cooling themselves off they
tipple. The tinged glasses come around
with bright straws and they tipple.
First they take light wines," as they
call them, but light Wines are heavy
enough to debase the appetite. There
is not very long road between cham
pagne at five dollars a bottle and whis-
ky at ten cents glass. Satan has three
or four grades down which he takes
men to destruction. One man he takes
up and through one spree pitches him
into eternal darkness. That 10 rare
case. Very seldom indeed can you find
a man who will be such fool as that.
Satan will take another man to q grade,
to a descent at an angle about like the
Pennsylvania coal shoot or the Mount
Washington rail track, and shove him
off. But this is very rare. When .
man goes down to destruction, Satan
brings him to plane. It is almost .
level. The depression is SO slight that
you can hardly see it. The man does
not actually know that he il on the
down grade, and it tips only q little
toward darkness-just a little. And the
first mile it is claret and the second mile
it is sherry and the third mile it il
punch and the fourth mile it is ale
and the fifth mile it is whisky and the
sixth mile it is brandy, and then it gets
sleeper and sleeper and sleeper. until
it is impossible to stop. Look not thou
upon the wine when it is red, when it
giveth its color in the cup, when it
moveth itself Alright. At the last it
biteth like serpent and stingeth like
IN adder.1
Whether you tarry at home which
will be quite as safe and perhaps quite
as comfortable-or 60 into the country,
arm yourself against temptation. The
grace of God is the only safe shelter,
whether in town or country. There are
watering places accessible to all Of us.
You cannot open book Of the Bible
without finding out some such wnter-
ing place. Fountains open for sin and
uncleanliness. Wells of salvation.
Streams from Lebanon. A flood struck
out of the rock by Moses. Fountains
in the wilderness discovered by Hagar.
Water to drink and water to bathe In.
The river of God, which is full OF water.
Water of which if man drink he shall
never thirst. Wells of water in the val
ley of Baca. Living fountains of water.
A pure river of water as clear az crys-
tai from under the throne Of God.
These are watering places accessible to
all of us. We do not have laborious
packing up before we start-only the
throwing away of our transgressions.
No expensive hotel bills to pay; it is
without money and without price"
No long and dusty travel before we get
there; it is only one step away.
In California, in five minutes, ]
walked around and saw ten fountains
all bubbling up, and they were all dif-
erent, and in FIVE minutes can go
through this Bible parterre and find
YOU so bright, sparkling fountains bub-
bling up into eternal life-healing and
therapeutic. A chemist will 60 to one
Of those summer watering places and
take the water and analyze it and tell
YOU that it contains SO much OF iron
and so much of soda and so much OF
lime and so much of magnesia. com.
to this Gospel we'll, this living fountain.
and analyze the water; and fnd that
its ingredients are peace, pardon, for
giveness, hope, comfort, life, Heaven.
"Ho, everyone that thirsteth, come yes
to this watering place. Crowd around
this Bethesda. o you sick, you lame,
you troubled, you dying crowd around
this Bethesda! Step in it, oh, step in
it! The angel of the covenant to-day
stirs the water. Why do you not step
in it? Some of you are too weak to
take a step in that direction. Then we
take you up in the arms of prayer and
| plunge you clear under the wave, hop
| ing that the cure may be as sudden and
as radical as with Capt. Naaman. who,
blotched and carbuncled, stepped into
the Jordan, and after the seventh dive
| came up, his skin roseate complexioneC