The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1899-11-02


to the baker or to the apotheeary or to
the clothier you are not acting like a
Christian. Take care Of all your physi- |
cal forces-nervous. muscular. bone.
brain, cellular tissue-for all you must |
be brought to judgment. Smoking your
nervous system into fidgets, burning
out the coating of your stomach with
wine longwooded and strychnined.
walking with thin shoes to make your
feet look delicate, pinched at the waist
until you are nigh cut in two and nei-
ther part worth anything. groaning
| about sick headache and palpitation of
the heart. which you think came from
God, when they came from your own
folly!
What right has any man or woman to
deface the temple of the Holy Ghost?
What is the ear? 1t is the whispering
gallery of the soul. What is the eye? 1t
is the observatory God constructed, its
telescope sweeping the heavens. What
is the hand? An instrument SO wonder
full that, when the earl of Bridgewater
bequeathed in his will $4,000 for
treatises to be written on the wisdom,
power and goodness of God, Sir Charles
Bell, the great English anatomist and
surgeon, found his greatest illustration
in the construction of the human hand.
devoting his whole book to that subject.
So wonderful are these bodies that God
names his own attributes after different
parts of them. His omniscience-it is
Gods eye; His omnipresence-it is
Gods ear; His omnipotence - it is
Gods arm; the upholstery of the mid
night heavens-it is the work of Gods
fingers: His life-giNing power-it is
the breath of the Almighty; his domin
ion-''the government shall be upon his
shoulder"
But you say, professors of religion
have fallen. professors of religion have
got drunk, professors of religion have
misappropriatedt trust funds, professors
of religion have absconded." Yes, but
they threw away their religion before
they did their morality. If a man on
White Star line steamer, bound for
Liverpool, in mid-Atlantic jumps over
board and is drowned, is that anything
against the White Star lines capacity
to take the man across the ocean? And
if man jumps over the gunwale of his
religion and goes down never to rise.
is that any reason for your believing
that religion has no capacity to take
the man clear through? In the one
case, if he had kept to the steamer,
his body would have been saved; in
the other case, if he had kept to his re-
lieion. his morals would have been
saved.
There are aged people who would
have been dead 25 years ago but for the
defenses and the equipOise of religion.
You have no more natural resistance
than hundreds of people who lie in
the cemeteries to-day slain by their own
vices. The doctors made their case as
kind and pleasant as they could, and it
was called congestion of the brain or
something else, but the snakes and the
blueflies that seemed to crawl over the
pillow in the sight of the delirious pa
tient showed what was the matter with
him. You, the aged Christian man.
walked along by that unhappy one un-
til you came to the golden pillar Of a
Christian life. You went to the right.
: he went to the left. That is all the
! difference between you. If this reli-
gion is a protest against all forms OF
dissipation, then it is an illustrious
friend of longevity. with long life
will satisfy Him.
: | will. Yonder is factory, and one
wheel is going north, and the other
wheel is going south, and one wheel
plays laterally, and the other plays yer,
] tically. ] go to the manufacturer and
I say: 20 manufacturer. your ma.
chinery is contradiction! Why dc
YOU not make all the wheels go one
way?' "Well,' he says, II made them
4 go in opposite directions on purpose
: and they produce the right result. You
20 downstairs and examine the car
t pets we are turning out in this estab
Y lishment, and you will see" go dowr
e on the other floor, and see the car
d nets. and am obliged to confess that
:, though the wheels in that factory go ir
0 opposite directions, they turn out ;
S beautiful result, and while am stand
Il ing there looking at the exquisite fab
n ric an old Scripture passage comes into
: nv mind: "All things work together
o for good to them who love God" Il
t there not tonic in that? Is there no
il longevity in that?
e Suppose a man is all the time wor
ried about his reputation? One maj
i says he lies, another says he is stupid
t another says he is dishonest and hal
Q a dozen printing establishments attacl
l him, and he is in a great state of ex
: citement and worry and fume and can
is not sleep, but religion comes to hin
= and says: Man, God is on your side
k He will take care of your reputation
It If God be for you, who can be agains
g you?" How much should that man wor
IS ry about his reputation? Not much
ia If that troker who some years ago j
h Wall street, after he had lost money
Is sat down and wrote farewell letter I
his wife before he blew his brains on
Il If instead of taking out of his pocke