The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1900-01-18

tai Z your choice, Tor ono or the other it
will be-your complete pardon of her
or Gods eternal banishm-nt of you.
"hut," says some man, 'that fellow who
cheated me out of those goods or dam
aged my business credit or started that
lie about me in the newspapers by
his perfidy broke up my domestic hap
piness, forgive him cannot, forgive
him I will not" Well. brother, take
your choice. You will never be at peace
with God till you are at peace with man.
Feeling as you now do, you would not
get SO near the harbor of Heaven as to
see the ightship. Better leave that man
with the God who said: Vengeance is
mine, I will repay" You may say: II
will make him sweat for that yet; I will
make him squirm; mean to pursue
him to the DEATH" but you are damag-
ing yourself more than you damage
him, and you are making Heaven for
your soul an impossibility. If he will
not be reconciled to you, be reconciled
to him. In five or six hours it will be
sundown. The dahlias will bloom
against the western sky. Somewhere
between this and that take shovel and
bury the old quarrel at least six feet
deep. LET not the sun go down upon
your wrath"
Oh, it makes one feel splendid to be
able by Gods help to practice unlim-
tied forgiveness. It improves ones body
and soul. My brother, it will make you
measure three or four more inches
around the chest and improve your
respiration SO that you can take deep
-er and longer breath. 1t improves the
countenance by scattering the gloom
and makes you somewhat like God
himself. He is omnipotent, and we
cannot copy that. He is Independent
of all the universe, and we cannot copy
that. He is creative, and we cannot
copy that. He is omnipresent, and we
cannot copy that. But He forgives with
broad sweep all faults, and all neg
lects, and all insults, and all wrong
doings, and in that way we may copy
Him with mighty success. Go harness
that sublime action Of your soul to the
sunset-the hour when the gate of
Heaven opens to let the day pass into
the eternities, and some of the glories
escape this way through the brief OPEN
ing. We talk about the Italian sunsets
and sunset amid the Apprentices and
sunset amid the cordilleras, but will
tell you how you may see grander sum
set than any mere lover of nature ever
beheld; that is, by flinging into it all
your hatreds and aniposities, and let
the horses of fire trample them, and the
chariots of fire roll over them, and the
spearmen Of fire stab them, and the
beach of fire consume them, and the bill
lows of fire overwhelm them.
Again, we should not let the sun go
down on our wrath, because it is of lit
tie importance what the world says OF
you or does to you when you have the
afhuent God of the sunset as your pro-
WIDER and defender. People talk as
Though it were fixed spectacle of ma
ture and always the same. But no one
ever saw two sunsets alike, and if the
world has existed 5000 years there have
been about Z, 100000 sunsets, each OF
them as distinct from all the other pic
lures in the gallery Of the sky as
Titian's Last Supper" Rubens' "De-
scent From the CrDss," Raphaeps
TRANSPORTATION" and Michael Angeles
last Judgment" are distinct from
eachother. If that God is of such infinite
resources that he can put on the wall OF
the sky each evening more than the
Louvre and Luxembourg galleries all
in one is my God and your God, our
provider and protector, what is the use
of our worrying about any human an
tagonism? If we, are misinterpreted
the God of the many-colored sunset
can put the right color on our action
If all the garniture of the western heay,
ems at eventide is but the upholstery Of
one of the windows of our future home
| what small business for us to be chas.
ing enemies! Let not this Sabbath sur
go down upon your wrath.
Mohammed said: "The sword is the
key of Heaven and hell" But, my hear
ers, in the first day we will find just
| the opposite of that to be true, and that
the sword never unlocks Heaven, anl
that he who heals wounds is greater
than he who makes them, and that OF
the same ring are two keys Gods for
giveness of us and our forgiveness o,
enemies-and these two keys unlock
paradise.
And now I wish for all Of you beau
tiful sunset to your earthly existence
With senles Of yonS it has been q Ions
lday Of trouble, and with others of yol
| it will be far from calm. When the SUI
4 rose at six O'Clock, it was the morning
of youth, and a fair day was prophesied
| but by the time the MONDAY or middl,
/ life had come and the clock. of you
| earthly existence had struck IL, clout
racks gathered, and tempest beloved
4 in the track of tempest. But as thu
eyening of old age approaches, p-a,
i God the skies may brighten and tn,
! clouds be piled up into pillars as of ce
ilestial. temples ITO which you go, o
move as with mounted cohorts come t,
/ xvr,, hov,,o Ard r-oY,