The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1900-09-13
THE TRUE RELIGION.
DR.. Talmage Says It Must Be from
Heaven.
Makeshifts OF Human Manufacture
Are Useless When Measured by
Gods Plumb Line-The
Wall of Character.


Are Useless When Measured by
Gods Plumb Line-The
Wall of Character.
copyright. 1900. by Louis Klopsch.l
Washington,
From Trondhjem, Norway, where
Dr.. Talmage is now staying, he sends
the following discourse. in which he
shows that the world can never be
benefited by religion of human man
ufacture, which easily yields to ones
surroundings, but must have reli-
gion let down from Heaven; text,
Amos 7:S: "And the Lord said unto
me, Amos, what seest thou? And !
said, A plumb line"
The solid masonry of the world has
for me fascination. Walk about
some of the triumphal arches and the
cathedrals 400 or 600 years old, and
see them stand as erect as when they
were built, walls of great height, for
centuries not bending quarter OF an
inch this way or that. So greatly
honored were the masons who builded
these walls that they were free from
taxation and called "free" masons.
The trowel gets most of the credit
for these buildings, and its clear ring
ing on stone and brick has sounded
across the ages. But there is another
implement of just as much Importance
as the trowel, and my text recognizes
it. Bricklayers and stonemasons and
carpenters, in the building OF walls,
use an instrument made OF q cord,
at the end of which a lump of lead
is fastened. They drop it over the
side of the wall. and, as the plummet
naturally seeks the center of gravity
in the earth, the workman discovers
where the wall recedes and where it
bulges out and just what is the per-
pendicular. Our text represents God
as standing on the wall of character
which the Iraelites had built and in
that way testing it. "And the Lord
said unto me, Amos, what seest thou?
And / said. A plumb Gne."
What the world wants is straight up
and down religion. Much of the So
called piety of the day bends this way
and that to suit the times. It is
oblique, with low state of sentiment
and morals. We have all been build
ing a wall of character, and it is glar-
ingly imperfect and needs reconstruc-
ton. How shall it be brought into
perpendicular? Only by the Divine
measurement. "And the Lord said
unto me, Amos, what seest thou
And said, A plumb line"
The whole tendency of the times is
to make us act by the standard Of
what others do. We throw over the
wall of our character the tangled
plumb line of other lives and reject thu
infallible test which Amos saw. The
question for me should not be what
| you think is right, but what Goo
thinks is right. This perpetual refer
ence to the behavior of others, a,
though it decided anything but hu
man fallibility, is q mistake wide Al
the world. There are 10000 plumb
lines in use, but only one is true ant
exact, and that is the line of God'
eternal right. There Is mighty at
tempt being made to reconstruct ant
fix up the Ten Commandments. T
many they seem too rigid. The towe
i of Pisa leans over about 13 feet from
the perpendicular, and people 60 thou
sands of miles to see its graceful in
clination and to learn how, by extr
braces and various architectural cor
!. trivances, it is kept leaning from Ger
tury to century. Why not have tn
ten granite blocks Of Sinai set littl
aslant? Why not have the pillar Q
, truth leaning tower? Why is not a
ellipse as good as square? Why
: not an oblique as good as straight u
, and down? My friends, we must hav
a standard. Shall it be Gods q
: mans?
! The Divine plumb line needs to b
. thrown over all merchandise. Tho,
sands Of years ago Solomon discovere
the tendency of buyers to depreciat
7 goods. He saw a man beating dow
( an article lower and lower and sayin
= it was not worth the price asked, an
: when he had purchased at the loves
5 point he told everybody what shal
. bargain he had struck and how
!. outwitted the merchant. "It
naught, saith the buyer, out when |
is gone his way, then he boastetl
proverbs 2O:14). Society is SO utter
c askew in this matter that you seldo
d find seller asking the price he e
d poets to get; he puts on higher vail
d than he expects to receive, KNOWN
e that he will have to drop. And il
q wants $50, he asks $75. And If
70 wants $1,000, he asks $500. '.It
e naught," saith the buyer. "The fab1
r. IL defective; the style Of goods
l. poor; can get elsewhere better q
3 ticle at asmaller price. It is out
ID fashion; It is damaged; it win fad
y It will not wear we'll" After awh
< the merchant, from overpersuasion
le from desire to dispose of that part
er ular stock Of goods, says: "WeH, ia
a. It at your own price," and the p,
y chaser goes home with light step a
n. calls into his private Office his cor
Dental friends and chuckles while
tells how for half price he got t
81. To n<hnr vrnrda hA lied q