The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1901-02-21

| if coming. there is no time to read it.
No selection of good books. The neigh
! bors calling in are full Of the same
grinding routine. No wonder so many
of them go into dementia!
| Now, the mother of whom / speak as
living on the banks of that river. in
Ohio ar Alabama or Maine has gone
through all the drudgery mentioned,
and her children have turned out well,
good and useful men and women, orna-
ments of society, pillars in the house
of God, and that whole family, after
the years have passed by and their I
work is done. will meet in the Heaven
ly country. From such family soma
will certainly have preceded her. and
the time of her expected arrival will be
announced to all the members OF that
family already glorified and 10 the old
earthly neighbors who put down their
tolls little sooner than she did, and
she will have the warmest kind Of home
coming.
There is another kind OF spirit who
will have radiant admission to the
upper dominion. There is a fact
which ought to have most emphatic
pronouncement. All over the world
to-day there are men and women Of
consecrated wealth. They are multi
plying by the day and hour.-people
who feel themselves the Lords stew
ards, and from their opulencs they
are making a distribution which
pleases the Heavens. The check
book in the office drawer of that
J man has on its stubs story OF be-
neicence clear up into the sublime.
} In all the round of the worlds saf-
fering and ignorance and woe you
cannot mention one worthy object
to which that prosperous and good
man has not made contribution. He
is not irritated, as many are, by So
licitations for aims. In some poor
woman in thin shawl, holding in her
arms child with rheum in its eyes,
, this good man sees the Christ who
) said: "Inasmuch as We have done it
unto one of the least of these, We have
, done it unto me-"
Well, this man of consecrated aff1u-
! ence is about to go out of this world.
} He feels in brain and nerve the strain
of the early struggles by which he
: won his fortune, and at 50 or 70 years
| collapses under the exhaustions Of
the twenties and thirties of his life
time. When the morning papers an
: nounce that he is gone, there is ex-
f citement not only on the avenues
2 where the mansions stand, but all
. through the hospitals and asylnms
j and the homes of those who. will
e henceforth have no helper. But the
e excitement of sadness on earth is q
e very tame affair compared with the
: excitement of gladness in Heaven.
: The guardian angel of that good
! mans life swept by his dying pillow
o the night before, and on swift wing
: upward announced that in few
O hours he would arrive, and there is q
! mighty stir in Heaven "He comes!"
O cries seraph to seraph. The Kings
: heralds are at the gate to say:
i, "Come, ye blessed" and souls who
j. were saved through the churches that
Y good man supported and hundreds
t who went up after being by him
e helped in their earthly struggle will
t come down off their thrones and out
IS of their palaces and through the
n streets to hail him INTO the land which
h they reached some time before
d through his Christian philanthropy.
a why. that is the man who, when
20 was a-hungered, gave me bread!
e ''Why, that is the man." says another,
d ''who encouraged me when l was in
d the hard struggle of business life!"
n "Why, that is the man" says another,
"who paid my rent when had moth
ing with which to pay!" why, that
is the nan through whose mission
= ary spirit | heard tho Gospel call in
- Bombay" "Why, that is the man, !
says another, s'who helped send the
Gospel of Christ to the aborigines oi
u, ~ America and caused me to exchange
- the war whoop of the savage for the
song of Christian deliverancev
- s'Stand back" commands the gate
- keeper of Heaven, "all We throngs re
90 deemed through this mans instru
,, mentalities! Make way for him to thu
~ feet of the King, where he will cas'
= his crown, and then make way fol
~ him to the throne, where he shal
e- reign forever and ever!" Now, tha
r is what / call an abundant entrance
al You see, it is not necessary to be ;
1g failure on earth in order to be sue
~ cess in Heaven.
: But I am to-day chiefly addressing
those who are started for Heaven ant
:. would have them know that while VI
"a are apt to speak of Lanphier, tn
-, founder of Fulton street prayer meet
- ings, as having an abundant entrance
and Alfred Goodman, the flaming evan
- gelist, as having an abundant en-
trance; and Thomas Welch ard Fletch
=. er, the glorious preachers of the Cos
~ pei. as having an abundant entrance
and John Rogers and Latimer an
as Ridley ascending, like Elijah in
!. chariot of fire, as having an abundan
j entrance, you also, if You love an
%, serve the Lord and fulfill your mission
=. whether it be applauded or unknown
will have, when your work on earth
ended and you are called to come U