The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1900-07-05

ments and by such modes? And vet I
am here to say it ended in COM
plete triumph. Notwithstanding His
worldly occupation, His poverty, His
plain face, His unpretentious garb--
the fact that He was schoolless, the
fact that He was not accompanied by
any visible OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
standing all that, in an exhilaration
which shall be prolonged in everlnst-
ing chorals He declared: Il have FIN
ished the work which Thou gavest Me
to do"
See Him victorious over the forces
Of nature. The sea is crystal sep
ulcher. It swallowed the Central
America. the president and the Span
ish armada as easily as any fly that
ever foated on it. The inland lakes
are fully as terrible in their wrath.
Some of us who have sailed on it
know that Lake Galilee, when aroused
in a storm, is overwhelming, and yet
that sea crouched in His presence and
waves and the wind. When He beck
oned, they came. When he frowned,
they fed. The heel of His foot made
no indentation on the solidified wa
ter. Medical science has wrought
great changes in rheumatic limbs and
diseases blood, but when the mus
cles are entirely withered no human
power can restore them, and when
limb is once dead it is dead. But
here is paralytic-his hand lifeless.
Christ says to him: Stretch forth
thy hand" and he stretches it forth.
In the eye infirmary how many dis
eases of that delicate organ have been
cured? But Jesus says to one blind,
"Be open!" and the light of heaven
rushes through gates that have never
before been opened. The frost or an
ak may kill tree, but Jesus smites one
dead with word. Chemistry may do
many wonderful things, but what
chemist at wedding when the wine
gave out could change pail of water
into cask of wine? What human
voice could command school of fish?
Yet here is voice that marshals the
scaly tribes, until in a place where
they had let down the net and pulled
it up with no fish in it they let it down
again, and the disciples lay hold and
began to pull, when by reason of the
multitude of fish the net broke. Ma
ture is his servant. The fowers-he
twisted them into his sermons; the
winds-they were his lullaby when he
slept in the boat; the rain--it hung
glitteringly on the thick foliage of the
parallels; the star Of Bethlehem-it
sang Christmas carol over his birth:
the rocks-they beat dirge at his
death. Behold his victory over the
grave!
My subject also reassures us Of tho
fact that in all our struggles we have
Christ anything new about hardship.
I do not think that wide ages Of
eternity will take the scars from
His punctured side and His lacerated
temples and His sore hands. You will
never have burden weighing so
many pounds as that burden Christ
carried up the bloody hill. You viii
never have any suffering worse than
He endured, when with tongue hot
and cracked and infiamed and swollen
he moaned: II thirst" You will never
be surrounded by worse hostility than
that which stood around Christ's feet.
foaming, reviling, livid with rage, howl
ing down His prayers, and snuffing up
the smell Of blood. o ye faint hearted.
o We troubled, 0 ye prosecuted one,
here is heart that can sympathize
with you!
Again, and lastly, learn from all
that has been said to-day that Christ
was awfully in earnest. II it had not
been a momentous mission He would
have turned back from it disgusted and
discouraged. He saw you in q cap
tivity from which He was resolved to
extricate you. though it cost Him III
sweat, all tears, all blood. He came
a great way to save you. He came
from Bethlehem here, through thn
place Of skulls, through the charncl
house, through Punishment. There
was not among all the ranks Of celes-
tials one being who would do as much
for you. / lay His crushed heart at
your feet to-day. Let it not be told
in Heaven that you deliberately put
your foot on it. While it will take
all the ages of eternity to celebrate
Christ's triumph, / am here to make
the startling announcement that be-
cause of the rejection Of this mission
on the part of some of you all that
magnificent work of garden and cross
and grave is, SO far as you are con-
cerned, q failure. Helena, the empress,
went to the Holy Land to find the cross
of Christ. Getting to the Holy Land
there were three crosses excavated.
and the question was, which OF the
crosses was Christ's cross. They took
dead body, tradition says, and put
it upon one of the crosses, and there
was no life, and they took the dead
body and put it upon another cross,
and there was no life. But, tradition
says, when the dead body was put up
against the third cross, it sprang into
life. The dead man lived again. Oh,