The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1899-05-04

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or excited, whether will be flied with
reminiscen re or with anticipation.
cannot say. But come to the point I
must and you must. An officer from
the future world will knock at the door
OF our hearts and serve on us the writ
of ejectment. and we will have to SUR
render. And we will wake up after
these autumnal and wintry and vernal
and summery glories have vanished
from our vision. We will wake up into
realm which has only one season and
that the season of everlasting love.
But you say: II don't want to break
out from my present associations. 1t
is SO chilly and so damp to go down the
stairs of that vault. l don't want any
thing drawn so tightly over my eyes.
IT there were only some way of break
ing through the partition between
worlds without tearing this body all to
shreds! l wonder if the surgeons and
| the doctors. cannot compound a mix
ture by which this body and soul can
all the time be kept together? Is there
no escape from this separation"
None, absolutely none. A great many
men tumble through the gates of the
future, as it were, and we do, not know
where they have gone, and they only
add gloom and mystery to the passage,
but Jesus Christ so nightly stormed
the gates of that future world that
they have never since been closely shut.
Christ knows what it is to leave this
world, of the beauty of which He was
more appreciative than we ever could
be. He knows the exquisiteness of the
phosphorescence of TIL. sea. He trod
it. He knows the glories of the mid
night heavens. for they were the SPAN
gled canopy of His wilderness pillow.
He knows about the lilies. He twisted
them into His sermon. He knows about
the fowls of the air. They whirred
their way through His discourse. He
knows about the sorrows of leaving
this beautiful world. Net taper was
kindled in the darkness He died
physicianless. He died in cold sweat
and dizziness and hemorrhage and
agony. that have put Him in sympathy
| with all the dying. He goes through
Christendom, and He gathers up the
stings out of all the death pillows, and
He puts them under His own neck and
head. He gathers on His own tongue
the burning thirsts of many genera
tions. The sponge is soaked in the
sorrow of all those who have died in
their beds, as well as soaked in the sor-
rows of all those who perished in icy
or fiery martyrdom. While Heaven was
plying, and earth was mocking, and
hell was deriding, He took the vinegar.
To all those to whom life has been an
acerbity-a dose they could not swal-
low, draft that set their teeth on
edge and a-rasping-I preach the om-
nipotent sympathy of Jesus Christ.
The sister of Herschel, the astrono-
mer, used to spend much of her time
polishing the telescopes through which
he brought the distant worlds nigh,
and it is my ambition now this hour
to clear the lens of your spiritual
vision, so that. looking through the
dark night of your earthly troubles,
you may behold the glorious constel-
lation of Saviour's mercy and a Sa-
viour's love. Oh. my friends, do not
try to carry all your ills alone. Do not
put your poor shoulder under the
Apennines. when the Almighty Christ
is ready to lift up all your burdens.
When you have trouble of any kind
you rush this way and that way, and
you wonder what this man will say
about it, and you try this prescription
and that prescription and the other
prescription. Oh, why do you not go
straight to the Heart of Christ. know
ing that for our own SHINING and suf-
fering race He took the vinegar?
There was a vessel that had been
tossed of the seas for great many
weeks and been disabled. and the sup
ply of water gave out, and the crew were
dying of thirst. After many days they
saw sail against the sky. They sig.
nailed it. When the vessel came nearer
the people on the suffering ship cried to
the captain of the other vessel: "Send
US some water. We are dying for lack
of water" And the captain of the YES
sci that was hailed responded: dip
your buckets where you are. You are
in the mouth of the Amazon. and there
are scores of miles of fresh water all
around about you and hundreds of feet
deep" And then they dropped their
buckets over the side of the vessel and
brought up the clear. bright. fresh wa
Ter and put out the fire of their thirst
So / hail you to-day, after a long and
perilous voyage, thirsting for comfort
and thirsting for eternal life, and
ask you what is the use of going in that
death-struck state while all around you
is the deep, clear, wide, sparkling flood
of Gods sympathetic mercy. Oh, dir
your buckets and drink and live for
|, ever. "Whosoever will. let him come
and take of the water of life freely"
Yet there are people who refuse thi.
Divine sympathy, and they try to fight
!, their own battles. and drink their OWE
vinegar, and carry their own burdens
and their life, instead of being a tri
, lumphal march from victory to victory
will be a hobbling on from defeat t.