The Bossier banner., 1901-12-05

curve Will keep on until 1T becomes
the circle.
Well, now, what is true in the ma
terial universe is true in Gods moral
government and spiritual arrange
ment. That is the meaning of Eze-
kie's wheel. All commentators agree
in saying that the wheel means Gods
providence. But wheel is of no use
unless it turns, and if it turns it
turns around, and if it turns around
it moves in a circle. What then? Are
we parts of a great iron machine
whirled around whether we will or
not, the victims of inexorable fate?
No! So far from that l shall show
you that we ourselves start the cor
Gle of good or bad actions and that
it will surely come around again to
us unless by Divine Intervention it be
hindered. Those bad or good actions
may make the circuit of many years,
but come back to us they will as GER
tainly as that God sits on the circle
of the earth.
Jezebel, the worst woman of the
Bible, Shakespeare copying his Lady
Macbeth from her picture, slew
Naboth because she wanted his vine
yard. While the dogs were eating
the body of Naboth, Elijah, the
prophet, put down his compass and
marked circle from those dogs clear
around to the dogs that should eat
the body of Jezebel, the murderess.
"Impossible!" the people said. "That
will never happen" Who is that be-
ing flung out of the palace window?
Jezebel. A few hours after they came
around, hoping to bury her. They
find only the palms of the hands and
the skull. The dogs that devoured
Jezebel and the dogs that devoured
Naboth-ch, what a swift, what an
awful circuit!
But do not become impatien be-
cause you cannot see the curve of
events and therefore conclude that
Gods government is going to break
down. History tells us that in the
making of the pyramids it took 1000
men two years to drag one great
stone from the quarry and put it into
the pyramids. If men short lived can
afford to work so slowly as that, cam
not God in the building of eternities
afford to wait?
What though God should take 10000
years to draw a circle? Shall we take
our little watch, which we have to
wind up every night lest it run down,
and hold it up beside the clock of eter-
nal ages? If, according to the Bible,
a thousand years are in Gods sight
as one day, then, according to that
calculation, the 5000 years of the
worlds existence has been only to
God as from Monday to Saturday.
But it is often the case that the re-
bound is quicker, the return is much
quicker, than that. The circle is SOON
er completed. You resolve that you
will do what good you can. In one
week you put a word of counsel in the
heart of a Sabbath school child. Dur
ing that same week you give letter
of introduction to young man strug-
Cling in business. During the same
week you make an exhortation in a
prayer meeting. 1t is all gone. You
will never hear Of it perhaps, you
think. A few years after man comes
up to you and says: "You don't know
me, do you?" You say: "No; don't
remember ever to have seen you"
''Why," he says, 81 was in the Sabbath
school class over which you were the
teacher. One Sunday you invited me
to Christ. I accepted the offer. You
see that church with two towers yon-
der?" "Yes," you say. He says:
That is where I preach" or: "Do
you see that governors house? That
is where 1 live"
One day man comes to you and
tays: "Good morning" You look at
him and say: "Why, you have the ad-
vantage of me. cannot place YOU
He says: Don't you remember 80
gears ago giving letter of introduc'
ton to a young mana letter of intro.
duction to William E. Dodge?" eyes,
yes; I do" He says: 81 am the man
That was my first step toward for.
tune, but I have retired from business
now and am giving my time to philan.
thropies and public interests. Come
up to my house and see me-"
Or man comes to you and says:
II want to introduce myself to you
I went into a prayer meeting some
years ago. I sat back by the door
| You arose to make an exhortation
That talk changed the course of my
life, and if / ever get to Heaven un
der God l will owe my salvation te
you" In only ten, twenty or thirty
years the circle swept out and swep
back again to your own grateful heart
| But what is true of the good is jus
as true of the bad. You utter Sian
der against your neighbor. 1t ha:
gone forth from your teeth. 1t will
never come back, you think. You hav'
done the man all the mischief you can
You rejoice to see him vince. Yo'
say: "Didn't give it to him!" Tha
word has gone out-that slanderou
word-on it's poisonous and blaste,
way. You think it will never do 20
any harm. But / anr-.vatching tina
word, and see it beginning to curve
| and it curves around. and it is aimin
at your heart. You had better dodg
| it. You cannot dodge it. It rolls int