The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1899-01-12
BENTON. LOUISIANA, THURSDAY, JANUARY H. 1899

only ten years longer, or only one year,
or perhaps month mere. Now, you
had better cheerfully let God have His
way, for, you see, He has been taking
care of folks for near 5000 years and
knows how to do it and can see what is
lest for you better than you can your
self. Don't think you are too .psignifi-
cant to be divinely cared for. Il was
said that Diana, the goddess, could not
be present to keep her temple at Ephe-
sus from burning because she was at
tending upon the birth of him who was
to be Alexander the Great. But I tell
you that your God and my God is SO
great in small things as we'll as large
things. that He could attend the cradle
0 a abe and at the same time the burn
ing Of a world.
And God will make it all right with
you, and there is one song that you will
sing every hour your first ten years in
Heaven, and the refrain of that song
will be: II am so glad God did not let
:ne have it my own way!" Your case
WILDE all fixed up in Heaven. and there
will be such a reversal of conditions
that we can hardly find each other for
some time. Some of us who have lived
in firstrate houses here and in first-rate
ncighborhoods will be found, because
of our ukcwarmness of earthly service,
living on one of the back streets of the
celestial city. and clear down a the end
CT it at No. sos or 900 or 1905, while
some who had unattractive earthly
abodes, and a cramped one at that, will
in the heavenly city be in house front.
ing the royal plaza.
You, my brother. and you. my sister,
who have it so hard here, will have it 50
fine and grand there tina, you will ha.:d-
ly know yourself and will feel disposh1
to dispute your own identity. and the
first time See you there will cry out:
Didn't l tell you so when you sat down
there in the pew and looked incred-
uious because you thought it too good
to be true?'' And you will answer:
'You were right; the half was not told
me-" So l open your dark saying of
Gespondency and complain on my Cos
Eel harp and give you just one bar of
music, for do not pretend to be much
of player. THE Lamb which is in the
midst of the throne shall lead them to
living fountains of water, and God shall
wipe away all tears from their eyes
But, | must confess. am little per-
picked how some of you good Christians
are going to get through the gate, be.
Cause there will be so many there to
greet you, and they will all want to
shake hands at once and will all want
the first kiss. They will have heart
that you are coming. and they will all
press around TO welcome you and will
want you to say whether you know
them after being so long parted.
Amid the tussle and romp or reunion
| tell you whose hand of welcome you
had better first clasp and whose cheek
is entitled to the first kiss. 1t is the
hand and the cheek of Him without
whom you would never have got there
at all, the Lord Jesus, the darling of the
skies, as He cries out: II have loved
thee with an everlasting love, and the
fires could not burn it, and the foods
could not drown it," Then you, my
dear people, having no more use for my
ECor harp on which used to open your
dark sayings. and whose chords some
times snapped, despoiling the sym.
phony, you will take down your own
barps from the willows that grow by
the eternal water courses and play to-
ecther those celestial airs, some of the |
rames of which are entitled THE King
in His Beauty" "The Land That Was
Far Or" And as the last dark cur
tain Of mystery is forever lifted it will
be as though all the oratorios that were
ever heard had been rolled into one. and |
''lsraeI in Egypt" and "Jephthah's
and Beethoven's Overture
in c." and Rltter's first Sonata in d |
and the "Creation," and the |
''Messlah" had been blown from the |
lips of one trumpet.
But here I must slow up lest in try
ihg to solve mysteries | add to the
mystery that we have already wondered
namely, why preachers should keep
On after all the hearers are tired. So |
l gather up into one great armful the |
why's and hows and wherefores of your
life and mine which we have not had |
time or the ability to answer and write |
rE them the words: adjourned to |
rejoice that we do not un-
derstand all things now, or if we did |
what would we learn in Heaven? If we |
knew it all down here in the freshman |
and sophomore class, what would be tn |
ase of our going to stand amid the
juniors and the seniors? If we could |
put down one leg of the compass and |
with the other sweep a circle clear
around all the inscrutables, if we could |
lift our little steelyards and weigh the
hrone OF the Omnipotent, if we could |
With our seven day clock measure eter-
lity, what would be left for heavenly
'evelation? So move that we cheer
ully adjourn what is now beyond our
and as, according to
,ollin, the historian, Alexander the
'reat, having obtained the gold casket
y which Darius had kept his rare per-