The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1899-09-07

wounds and bruises and putrefying
sores. which have not been bound up
or mollified with ointment" The
marasmus of sin is on us, the palsy, the
dropsy, the leprosy. The man that is
expiring tonight in the next street
the allopathic and homeopathic doctors
have given him up and his friends now
standing around to take his last words
lis no more certainly dying as to his
body than you and / are dying unless
we have taken the medicine from God s
apothecary. All the leaves of this Bible
are only SO many prescriptions from
the Divine Physician, written, not in
Latin. like the prescriptions of earthly
physicians, but written in plain Eng
iish so that "man, though fool, need
not err therein" Thank God that
the Saviour's garments smell of
| cassia!
When Christ trod this planet with
foot of flesh, the people rushed after
Him-people Who were sick and those
who, being so sick they could not walk,
were brought by their friends. Here 1
see mother holding up her little
child, crying: "Cure this Group, Lord
Jesus! Cure this scarlet fever!" And
others: "Cure this ophthalmia! Give
ease and rest to this spinal distress!
Straighten this club foot!' Christ
made every house where He stopped a
dispensary. do not believe that in the
10 centuries which have gone by since,
His heart has got hard. feel that we
can come novlwith all our wounds of
soul and get His benediction. O Jesus,
here we are! We want healing. We
want sight. We want health. We want
life. THE whole need not physician,
but they that are sick" Blessed be
God that Jesus Christ comes through
this assemblage now, His garments
smelling of myrrh"-that means fra
grance-"and aloes"-they mesn bitter
sacrificial memories-"and cassia''-
that means medicine and cure.
According to my text, He comes ''out
of the ivory palaces" You know, or,
if you do not know, will tell you now
that some of the palaces of olden time
were adorned with ivory. Ahab and
Solomon had their homes furnished
with it. The tusks of African and Ash
attic elephants were twisted into all
manners of shapes. and there were
| stairs of ivory and chairs of ivory and
tables of ivory and pillars of ivory and
windows of ivory and fountains of
ivory that dropped into basins of ivory
and rooms that had ceilings of ivory.
Oh, white and overmastering beauty!
Green tree branches sweeping the
white curbs. Tapestry trailing the
snowy floors. Brackets of light fash
] ing on the lustrous surroundings. Sill
very music rippling on the beach of the
arches. The mere thought of it almost
| stuns my brain, and you say: "Oh, if
1 l could only have walked over such
floors! If could have thrown myself
in such chair! If could have heard
the drip and dash of those fountains!"
You shall have something better than
that if you only let Christ introduce
you. From that place He came, and to
that place He proposes to transport you,
for His garments smell of myrrh and
! aloes and cassia out-of the ivory pal
aces" What place Heaven must be!
The Tuileries Of the French, the Wind
sor castle OF the English, the Spanish
| alhambra, the Russian kremlin, are
mere dungeons compared with it! Not
SO many castles on either side of the
Rhine as on both sides Of the river of God
the ivory palaces! One for the an
gels, insufferably bright, winged, fire
eyed, tempest charioted; one for the
martyrs, with blood red robes from un-
der the altar; one for the King, the
steps of His palace the crown of the
church militant; one for the singers,
who lead the one hundred and forty
| and four thousand; one for you ran
somed from sin; one for me, plucked
from the burning. Oh, the ivory pal
aces:
| To-day it seems to me as if the win
dows of those palaces were illumined
for some great victory, and look and
see climbing the stairs of ivory and
walking on floors of ivory and looking
from the windows of ivory some whom
/ we knew and loved on earth. Yes, !
L
mother, not 81 years and 70 years as
4 when they left us, but blithe and young
as when on their wedding day. And
i there are brothers and sisters, merrier
than when we used to romp across the
meadows together. The cough gone
1 The cancer cured. The erysipelas
healed. The heartbreak over. Oh, how
fair they are in the ivory palaces! And
1 YOUR dear little children that went out
! from you-Christ did not let one 81
/ them drop as He lifted them. He did
not wrench one of them from you. No
They went as from one they loved well
to one whom they loved better. If
should take your little child and press
| its soft face against my rough cheek
/ might keep it little while; but when
i YOU, the mother, came along it would
struggle to 60 with you. And SO you
stood holding your dying child when
Jesus passed by in the room and ths
little one sprang out to greet Him
| h,rsr%