The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1900-03-15
BENTON. LOUISIANA THURSDAY, MARCH Is. 1900

DIN i
b! the enemy be recaptur,d for God
ard the reporters, and the typesetters,
and the editors, and the publishers
swear allegiance to the Lord God of
truth. All, my friend, that day must
come, and if TIE great body of Chris
tian men have not the faith, or the
courage, or the conservation to do it,
then let some Jonathan on his busy
hands and on his praying knees climb
up on the tOck of Hindrance and in
the name of the Lord God of Israel slash
to pieces these literary Philistines! If
these men will not be converted to God,
then they must be oyerthrown.
Again, / learn from the subject what
large amount of the church's re-
sources is actually hidden and buried
and undeyeloped. The Bible intimates
that that was q very rich land, this
land of Israel. It says: 1.-THE stones
are iron, and out of the hills thou shalt
dig brass and yet hundreds and thou
sands of dollars worth of this metal
was kept under the hills. Well, this is
the difficulty with the church of God
al this day.. Its talent is not developed.
If one-half of its energy. could be
brought out, it might take the public
iniquities of the day by the throat and
make them bite the dust. If human
eloquence were consecrated to the Lord
Jesus Christ, it would in a few years
persuade this whole earth to surrender
to God. There is enough undeve.oped
energy in this city to bring all the
| United States to Christ-enough of un-
developed Christian energy in the Unit
| ed States to bring the whole world to
Christ, but it is buried under strata
| of Indifference and under whole noun
tains of sloth. Now, is it not time for
the mining to begin, and the pickaxes
to plunge, and for this buried metal to
be brought out and put into the fur
naces and be turned into howitzers and
carbines for The Lords host?
The vast majority of Christians in
this day are useless. The most of the
Lords battalion belong to the reserve
corps. The most of the crew are asleeE
in the hammocks. The most of the
metal is under the hills. Oh, is it no,
time for the church of God to rouse W
and understand that we want all tn.
energies, all the talent and all thu
wealth enlisted for Christ's sake?
like the nickname that the English sol
diers gave to Blucher, the commander
They called him "Old Forwards" w
have had enough retreats in the church
of Christ; let us have a glorious ad
vance. And l say to you as the genera
said when his troops were affrighted--
rising up in his stirrups, his hair f1yins
in the wind, he lifted up his voice unit
10000 troops heard him crying out
Forward, the whole liIfe!" We.wan
all the .laymen enlisted. Ministers ar
numerically too small. They do tn
best they can. They are the most over
worked class on earth. Many of then
Gle of dyspepsia because they canno
get the right kind of food to eat, OF
getting the right kind, are SO worrie
that they take it down in chunks. The
, die from early and late exposure.
, If a novelist or historian publishe
i one book year, he is considered in
!. dustrious. but every faithful paste
: must originate enough thought 70
three or four volumes year. Minis
tiers receive enough calls in year fror
men who have maps and medicines an
: lightning rods and pictures to sell
) exhaust their vitality. They ar
bored with agents of all sorts. The
t | are set in drafts at funerals and poi!
. oned by the unventilated rooms of il
/ valids and waited upon by committed
9 who want addresses made until Iii
! becomes burden to bear. 1t is nt
e hard study that makes ministers loo
i pale. 1t is the infinity of interruption
s and deliberations to which they al
i. subjected. Numerically too small!
L is no more the work of the pulpit
e lconyert and save the world than it
i the work of the pew. If men go
t ruin, there will be as much blood 9
I- your skirts as on mine.
+ Again, learn from this subject TIL
/ we sometimes do well to take advantas
o Of the worlds grindstones. These ]
= raelites were reduced to file, and j
s they went over to the garrison of Il
i Philistines to get their axes and the
# goads and their plows sharpened. II
Bible distinctly states it - the te
s which read at the beginning of t
IL seryice-that they had no other
It struments now with which to do th
l. work, and the Israelites did right VIII
D. they went over to the Philistines to u
ic their grindstones. My friends. is it n
:, right for us to employ the worlt
Ie rrindstones? If there be art, ifthere
;e logic, il there be business faculty on I
A. other side, let us go over and employ
a flor Christ's sake. The fact is we fig
id with too dull weapons and we wo
u with too dull implements. We hack a
b. we maui when we ought to make
D. clean stroke. Let us go over amo
id sharp business men and among sha
he literary men and find out what tn
ee tact is and then transfer it to the ca,
nd of Christ. If they have science and a