The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1901-08-01

formed for this life or saved ter the
life to come by an argument. buc in
humblest and gentlest way, your
voice subdued, ask him a few ques-
tions. Ask him if he had Christian
parentage, and if he says yes ask
him whether the old folks died happy.
Ask him if he has ever heard of any
one going out of this life in raptures
of infidelity and agnosticism. Ask
him if it is not somewhat remark
able fact that the Bible, after so
many years, sticks together and that
there are more copies of it in exist
ence than ever before. Ask him ii
he knows of any better civilization
than Christian civilization and
whether he thinks the teachings OF
Confucius or Christ are preferable.
Ask him if he thinks it would be a
fair thing in the Creator of all things
to put in this world the human race
| and give them no direct communica-
tion for their guidance and, if they
did wrong, tell them of no way of
recovery. / think if famous infidel
of our time, instead of being taken
| away instantaneously, had died in
his bed after weeks and months of
| illness he would have revoked his
| teachings and left for his beloved
family consultations which they could
not find in obsequies at which not
one word of Holy Scripture was read,
or at Fresh Pond crematory, whers
no Christian benediction was pro-
nounced. / do not positively say that
in prolonged illness, there would
have been a retraction, but I think
there would. ....
But let me confess at this crisis OF
my sermon that there is not an in
junction in the Bible more difficult to
obey than the words of the text.
While it applauds wholesome indig-
nation, it warns against sinful an
ger. And there is in all the realm
of passion nothing more destructive
than indiscriminate hate. First OF
ALL it frenzies the nervous ganglia.
Those people who easily flare up on
little provocation go into high dud-
geon, take umbrage without reason,
snap you up quick, have ruined their
nerves, and there is only one thing
worse to ruin, and that is the brain,
and we say of one that is given to
frequent ebuIlitions of temper that
he is an unbalanced man. A business
man of our acquaintance said Il
cannot afford to get mad. 1t hurts
me So"
man thoroughly mad can say
,,,,fn 70 l.r
him for 20 years. It only took five
minutes for the earthquake to de-
stroy Caracas. One unfortunate sem
tence uttered in affront in speech
in the United States senate shut for
ever the door of the white house
against one of the most brilliant men
of the last century.
Surprising all other characters in
the worlds biography stands Jesus
Christ, wrathful against sin, merciful
to the sinner. Witness His behavior
toward the robed ruffians who de-
, manded capital punishment for an
offending woman-denunciatio for
their sinful hypocrisy, pardon for
her sweet penitence. He did not
speak of Herod as "his majesty" or
!. 'his royal highness," but dared to
compare him to cunning fox, say
ing: $50 We and tell that fox" But,
!. alert to the cry of suffering, He finds
. ten lepers and to how many of the
/, ten awful invalids did He give con-
valescence and health? Ten. Rebuk-
ing Pharisaism in the most COM
. pressed sentence in all the vocab-
ulary of anathema-"Ye serpents, ye
:. generation of vipers, how can We es-
! cape the damnation of hell?"-yet
; looking upon Peter with such tender
ness that no word was spoken-and
= not word was needed, for the look
>. spoke louder than words. And the
Lord looked upon Peter, and Peter
= went out and wept bitterly Oh, what
|, look it must have been to break
down the swarthy fisherman apostle!
1t was such hurt look, such be
- seeching look, such a loving look
: such forgiving lookt Was there
= any other being since time began
=. such a combination of wrath against
wrong and compassion for tn,
wrongdoer? Lion of Judah's tribei'
Hear that! Lamb of God who tax
eth away the sins of the world!
Hear that!
a Like Him, let us hate iniquity witt
N complete hatred; but, like Him, ma.
ID we help those who are overthrow
IS and be willing to suffer for thei
in restoration. Then, although at tn
lie opening of this discourse our tex
y, may have seemed to command us t
n do an impossible thing, we will a
re the close of this sermon, with
of prayer to God for help, be more ris
y id and determined than ever befor
u against that which is wrong, Will
I'D at the same time we shall feel $
if kindly toward all the erring an
n work SO hard for their rescue thu
re we will realize that we have scale
ur the Alpine, the Himalayan, height I
ps my text, which enjoins: "Be ye angr
on and sin not"
ch ----------