The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1901-11-07

Iudt uSnC 1allS upon the soul, unen
you will see tie crystals. What .
magnificent setting for these jewels
of eternity! I sometimes hear people
representing Heaven in a way that
is far from attractive to me. It
seems almost vulgar Heaven as they
represent it, with great blotches of
color and bands of music making q
deafening racket. John represents
Heaven as exquisitely beautiful.
Three crystals! In one place he says:
Her light was like a precious stone,
clear as crystal" In another place
he says: II saw pure river from
under the throne, clear as crystal"
In another place he says: Before
the throne there was sea of glass
clear as crystal" Three crystals!
John says crystal atmosphere. That
means health. Balm of eternal June.
What weather after the worlds east
wind! No rack of stormclouds. One
breath of that air will cure the worst
tubercle. Crystal light on all tho
leaves. Crystal light shimmering on
the topaz of the temples. Crystal
light tossing in the plumes Of the
equestrians of Heaven on white
horses. But "the crystal cannot
equal it." John says crystal river.
That means joy. Deep and ever roll
ing. Not one drop of the Potomac
or the Hudson or the Rhine to soil
it. Not one tear of human sorrow
to embitter it. Crystal, the rain out
of which it was made. Crystal, the
bed over which it shall roll and rip
pie. Crystal, its infinite surface. But
"the crystal cannot equal it." John
says crystal sea. That means multi
tudinously vast. Vast in rapture.
Rapture vast as the sea, deep as the
sea, strong as the sea, ever changing
as the sea. Billows of light. Billows
of beauty, blue with skies that were
never clouded and green with depths
that were never fathomed. Arctics
and antarctics and Mediterraneans
and Atlantics and Pacifics in crystal
line magnifcence. Three crystalsl
Crystal light falling on crystal river.
Crystal river rolling into crystal
sea. But 'the crystal cannot equal
it."
"Oh," says some one, putting his
hand over his eyes, "can it be that
who have been in SO much sin and
trouble will ever come to those crys-
tals?" Yes, it may bet will be.
Heaven we must have, whatever we
have or have not, and we come here to
get it. "How much must pay for it?"
you say. You will pay for it just a.
much as the coal pays to become the
diamond. In other words, nothing.
The same Almighty power that makes
the crystal in the mountain will change
your heart which is harder than stone,
for the promise is: II will take away
your stony heart, and will give you
a heart of flesh"
"Oh," says some one, "it is just the
doctrine / want. God is to do every
thing, and I am to do nothing" My
brother, it is not the doctrine you
want. The coal makes no resistance.
1t hears the resurrection voice in the
mountain and it comes to crystalliza-
ton; but your heart resists. The
trouble with you, my brother, is the
coal wants to stay coal.
do not ask you to throw open the
door and let Christ in. l only ask that
you stop boiling and barring it. My
friends, we will have to get rid of our
sins. I will have to get rid of my sins,
and you will have to get rid of your
sins. What will we do with our sins
among the three crystals? The crys-
tai atmosphere would display our pol
luton. The crystal river would be be-
fouled with our touch. Transforma-
tion must take place now or no trans
formation at all. Give sin full chance
| in your heart and the transformation
| will be downward instead of upward.
Instead of crystal it will be cinder.
In the days of Carthage, Christian
girl was condemned to die for her faith,
| and boat was bedaubed with tar and
| pitch and filled with combustibles and
set on fire, and the Christian girl was
placed in the boat, and the wind was of
the shore, and the boat floated away
with its precious treasure. No one
can doubt that boat landed at the
shore of Heaven. Sin wants to put you
| in f1ery boat and shove you OF in an
| opposite direction-of from peace,
off from God, off from Heaven, ever
lastingly off, and the port toward
which you would sail would be port
of darkness, and the guns that would
greet you would be the guns Of despair.
and the flags that would wave at your
arrival would be the black flags of
death. Oh, my brother, you must
either kill sin or sin will kill you! It
is no exaggeration when I say that any
man or woman that wants to be saved
may be saved. Tremendous choiceI A
thousand people are choosing this mo-
ment between salvation and destruc-
tion, between light and darkness, be-
tween charred ruin and glorious crys.
tallization.