The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1900-03-22
BENTON. LOUISIANA. THURSDAY, MARCH %, 1900.

J, 1900.
resenges and outgianted by low pas
sion. ] am far from throwing any dis
credit upon physical stamina. There
are those who seem to have great ad-
miration for delicacy and sickliness of
constitution. l never could see any
glory in weak nerves or sick headache.
Whatever effort in our day is made to
make the men and women more robust
should have the favor of every good
citizen as well As of every Christian.
Gymnastics may be positively religious.
Good people sometimes ascribe to a
wicked heart what they ought to ascribe
to slow liver. The body and the soul
are such near neighbors that they often
catch each others diseases. Those who
never saw sick day and who, like Her
cules, show the giant in the cradle,
have more to answer for than those
who are the subjects of lifelong infirm-
flies.
How often it is that you do not find
physical energy indicative of spiritual
power! If clear head is worth more
than one dizzy with perpetual vertigo.
if muscles with the play of health in
them are worth more than those drawn
up in chronic "rheumatics," if an eye
quick to catch passing objects is better
than one with vision DIM and uncertain,
then God will require of us efficiency
just in proportion to what He has given
us. Physical energy ought to be a
type of moral power. We ought to have
as good digestion of truth as we have
capacity to assimilate food. Our spir-
itual hearing ought to be as good as
our physical hearing. Our spiritual
taste ought to be as clear as our tongue.
Samsons in body, we ought to be giants
in moral power.
| It is a most shameful fact that much
of the business of the church and of the
world must be done by those compara-
lively invalid. Richard Baxter, by rea-
son of his diseases, all his days sitting
in the door of his tomb, yet writing
more than 100 volumes and sending out
an influence for God that will endure
aslong as the Saints Everlasting Rest
Edward Payson, never knowing vel!
day, yet how he preached and how he
wrote, helping thousands of dying
souls like himself to swim in the sea OF
glory. And Robert McCheyne, walk
ing skeleton, yet you know what he did
in Dundee and how he shook Scotland
with zeal for God. Philip Doddridge
advised by his friends because of his ill.
ness not to enter the ministry, yet you
know what he did for the 'Rise and
Progress of Religion" in the church OF
the world.
/ Oh, men Of stout physical health
men of great mental stature. men OF
high social position, men Of great pow.
er of any sort, want you to under
stand your power, and want you te
Y know that that power devoted to Goo
will be a crown on earth, to you typica
of crown in Heaven, but misguided
bedraggled in sin, administrative Of
evil, God will thunder against yo,
!. with His condemnation in the day wher
! millionaire and pauper, master ant
slave, king and subject, shall stan6
side by side in the judgment and
! money bags and judicial ermine ani
royal robe shall be riven with the light
nings.
You who are seated in your Christian
homes, compassed by moral and reli
gious restraints, do not realize tn,
gulf of iniquity that bounds you on th'
north and the south and the east ant
the west. While speak there ar
!. tens of thousands of men and won
; en- going over the awful plunge of al
5 impure life, and while / cry to God 70
mercy upon their souls / cry to you +
, marshal in the defense of your homes
! your church and your nation. There
! a banqueting hall that you have neve
heard described. Youknow all about tn
feast of Ahasuerus, where 1000 lord
sat. You know all about Belshazzar'
carousal, where the blood of the mul
dered king spurted into the faces Z
the banqueters. You know of the seen
of riot and wassail where there wa
set before Aesopus one dish Of food ths
y cost 100000. But / speak now of
+ different banqueting hall. Its roof
fretted with fire. It's floor is tesse
u lated with fire. It's chalices are chase
u with fire. It's song is song of fir
" Its walls are buttresses OF fire. Sol
n mon refers to it when he says: "Hs
q guests are in the depths of hell"
= Our American communities are su
u fering from the gospel of free lows
le which so years ago was preached
81 the platform an.l in some OF tt
IS churches of this country. I chars
u upon free lovism that it has blighte
innumerable homes and that it h
Q. sent innumerable souls to ruin. FIR
:: lovism is bestial; it is worse-it is !
q formal: 1t has furnished this lal
e. with many thousands of divorces a
ID nually. In one county in the state
Indiana it furnished II divorces
~ one day before dinner. It has rous
m UP elopements north, south, east al
ng west. You can hardly take up /