The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1900-09-20


mon damages Washington square.
Laurel Hill, Mount Auburn, Green
wood, weep over the same grief. The
statue Of Benjamin Franklin in New
York greeting the bronze ST ue of
Edward Everett in Boston. All the
cities confraternity. I cannot un-
derstand how there should go on bick-
erings and rivalries. I plead for q
higher style of brotherhood or ais
terhood among the cities.
But while there are great differences
IN some respects have to tell you
that all cities impress upon me and
ought to impress upon you three
or four very important lessons, all OF
them agreeing in the same thing. 1t
does not make any difference in what
part of the country we walk the
streets of great city there is one
lesson think which ought to strike
every intelligent Christian man, and
that is the world is scene of toll and
struggle. Here and there you find
man in the street who has his arms
folded and who seems to have no par
ticular errand, but if you will stand at
the corner of the street and watch the
countenances of those who go by you
will see in most instances there is an
intimation that they are on an errand
which must be executed at the earli-
est moment possible, SO you are
jostled hither and thither by business
men, up this ladder with hod of
bricks, out of this bank with a roll
of bills, digging cellar, shingling a
roof, binding a book, mending q
watch. Work, with it's thousand eyes
and thousand feet and thousand arms,
goes on singing its song, "Work, work,
work." while the drums of the mill
beat it and the steam whistles fife it.
In the carpeted isles of the forest, in
the woods from which the eternal
shadow is never lifted, on the shore
of the sea over whose iron coast tosses
the tangled foam, sprinkling the
cracked cliffs with baptism of whirl-
wind and tempest, is the best place to
study God, hut in the rushing, swarm
ing, raving street is the best place to
study man.
Going down to your place of busi-
ness and coming home again i charge
you look about; see these signs Of
poverty, Of wretchedness, of hunger,
Of sin, of bereavement, and as you go
through the streets and come back
through the streets gather up in the
arms of your prayer all the sorrow, all
the losses. all the sufferings, all the
bereavements of those whom you pass
and present them in prayer before an
Ill sympathetic God. In the great day
of eternity there will be thousands Of
persons with whom You in this world
never exchanged one word will rise up
and call you blessed; and there will
be thousand fingers pointed at you
IN Heaven, saying: THAT is the man,
that is the woman who helped me
when was hungry and sick and wan
dering and lost and heartbroken. That
is the man, that is the woman;" and
the blessing will come down upon you
as Christ shall say: Il was hungry
and We fed me, I was naked and ye
clothed me, was sick and in prison
and ye visited me; inasmuch as ye did
it to these poor waits Of the streets
We did it unto me-"
Again, in all these cities am i'm
pressed with the fact that life is full
Of pretension and sham. What subter-
fuge, what double dealing, what two
facedness! Do all people who wish
you good morning really hope for you
a happy day? Do all the people who
shake hands love each other? Are all
those anxious about your health who
| inquire concerning it? Do all want to
see you who ask you to call? Does all
the world know half as much as it pre-.
tends to know? Is there not many 9
wretched stock of goods with bril-.
liant store window? Passing up and
down the streets to your business and
your work, are you not impressed with
the fact that society is hollow and
that there are subterfuges and preten
sions? Oh, how many there are whs
/ swagger and strut and how few peo
4 pie who are natural and walk! Will,
fops simper and fools smoker and sim
pletons giggle, how few people ar
natural and laugh! / say these thing
not to create in you incredulity o.
misanthropy. nor do I forget there ar
thousands OF people great deal bet
ter than they seem, but / do not thinl
any man is prepared for the confiic
of this life until he knows this par
ticular peril. Ehud comes pretending
to pay his tax to King Eglon. and
while he stands in front Of the king
stabs him through with dagger un
til the haft went in after the blade
Judas Iscariot kissed Christ.
/ One of the migh1iest temptations i
commercial life in all cities to-day
in the fact that many professed Chris
tian men are not square in their bal
gains. Such men are in Baptia
and Methodist and Congregations
churches, and our own denominatio
is as largely represented as any {
them. Our good merchants are for,
! most in Christian enterprises; the
J are patronizers Of art, philanthropy
and patriotic. God will attend 4
i them in the day OF His coronation
!. tv - &hny. .