The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1900-02-08

they nave rOlleQ down TO the present
and will roll down through the entire |
future.
The most of the Old Testament is |
rnade up of inspired anecdotes about
Adam and Eve, about Jacob. about
Esau, about Ahab and Jezebel, about
Jonah, about Daniel, about Deborah,
about Vashti, about men and women of
whom the story gave an accurate photo
graph long before human photography
was born. Let all Christian workers,
prayer meeting takers, Sunday school
teachers and preachers know the power
of that which my text calls the "tale
that is told"
If you have had experiences OF par
don and comfort and disenthrallment,
tell of it. Tell it in the most pointed
and dramatic way you can manage.
Tell it soon, or you may never tell it at
all. Oh, the power of ''the tale that is
told!" An hours discourse about the
fact that blasphemous behavior is
sometimes punished in this world
would not impress us as much as the
simple story that in town of New
York state, at the close of the last CEN
tury, 36 profane men formed them
selves into a club, calling them
selves Society of the Druids." They
met regularly to deride and damage
Christianity. One night in their awful
meeting they burned a Bible and ad-
ministered the sacrament to a dog.
Two of them died that night. Within
three days three were drowned. In
five years all the SO came to bad end.
Before justices of the peace it was
sworn that two were starved to death,
seven were drowned, eight were shot,
five committed suicide, seven died on
the gallows, one was frozen to death,
and three died accidentally. Incidents
like that, sworn to, would balk any pro-
posed irreverent and blasphemous be-
havior.
| In what way aid the fact that in
fidelity will not elp anyone die well
be so powerfully presented as by the
incident concerning a man falling ill in
Paris just after the death of Voltaire,
when professional nurse was called in
and she asked; rs the gentleman
Christian?" "Why do you ask that?"
said the messenger. Il am the nurse
who attended Voltaire in his last ill
ness, and for all the wealth of Europe
/ would never see another infidel die" :"
What discourse in its moral and spirit
ual effect could equal tale like that?
| You might argue upon the fact that
those fallen are our brothers and sis
i ters, but could we impress anyone
with such truth SO well as by the
scene near Victoria park, London.
where men were digging deep drain
and the snoring gave way and great
pile of earth fell upon the workmen.
A man stood there with his hands in
his pockets looking at those who were
trying to shovel away the earth from
those who were buried, but when
some one said to the spectator: Bill,
your brother is down there then the
spectator threw off his coat and went
to work with an agony of earnestness
to fetch up his brother. What course
of argument could so well as that in
cident set forth that when we toll f0r
the salvation Of soul it is brother
whom we are trying to save?
A second reading of my text re.
J minds me that life is not only story
. told, but that it is brief story. A
long narrative stretched out indefi-
+ nitely loses its interest. It is general
lly the story that takes only a minute
: or half q minute to rehearse that ar
t rests the attention. And that gives
t additional interest to the story Of oul
) life. 1t is short story. Subtrac
4 from our lives all the hours Of nee
E essary sleep, all the hours Of incapac
/: ity through fatigue or illness, all tn
? hours of childhood and youth befor
/ we get fairly to work, and you hav
abbreviated the story of life 50 mucl
4 that you can appreciate the Apostl
! James expression when he compare
: life to "a vapor that appeareth for
little season and then vanishes away.
e It does not take long to tell all til
d vicissitudes of life-the gladness as
+ the griefs, the arrivals and the ds
Y partures, the successes and the fai
l. ures, the victories and the defeats, tn
n ups and the downs. The longer W
II live the shorter the years. We hare
j; " get over the bewildering fatigue
d selecting gifts for children an
it friends and see that the presents 81
% off in time to arrive ON the appropr
E. ate day than we see another advan'
/, ing group Of holidays. Autumn
le fruit SO sharply chases the summt
harvest, ad the snow Of the whit
e blossoms of springtime come 20 SOC
Z after the SHOWS Of winter. It is . =
f mark SO often made that 1t fails
Iy make any impression and the plat
!. tude that calls forth no reply: "Ho
,e rapidly time goes.
is A third reading of my text remin'
ig me that IL is not only story told, b
at . story listened to. There is nothil
D. more yexatious to anyone than to II
st 4 story when people are not attendin
at They may whisper on some other 50