The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1901-12-19
A LESSON OF HOPE.
DR.. Talmage Would Lift People
Out of Dependency.
shows Some of the Future Joy which
May lie the Portion of Every
body-Assarances from
Heaven.
copyright, 1901, by Louis Klopsch, N. u
Washington,

Washington,
In this discourse DR.. Talmage
would lift people out of dependency
and bring something of future JOY
into earthly depression. The text is
Hebrews 6:19, (Which hope"
There is an Atlantic ocean OF depth
and fullness in the verse from which
my text is taken, and l only wade
into the wave at the beach and take
two words. We all have favorite
words expressive of delight or alb
horrence, words that easily find their
way from brain to lip, words that
have in them mornings and mid
nights, laughter and tears, thunder
bolts and dewdrops. In all the lexl-
cons and vocabularies there are few
words that have for me the attrac-
tions of the last word of my text:
switch hope"
There have in the course of our
life been many angels of God that
have looked over our shoulders, or
met us on the road, or chanted the
darkness away, or lifted the curtains
from the precipices, or rolled down
upon us the rapturous music of the
heavens, but there is one of these
angels who has done so much for us
that we wish throughout all time
and all eternity to celebrate 1.-THE
angel of Hope. ST. Paul makes it the
center of a group of three, saying:
snow abideth faith, hope, charity"
And, though he says that charity is
the greatest of the three, he does not
take one plume from the wing, or
one ray of luster from the brow, or
one aurora from the cheek, or one
melody from the voice of the angel
of my text: (Which hope"
That was a great night for our
world when in a Bethlehem caravan
sary the Infant Royal was born, and
that will be a great night in the
darkness of your soul when Christian
hope is born. There will be chanting
in the skies and star pointing to
the nativity. I will not bother you
with the husk of a definition and tell
you what hope is. When we sit down
hungry at table, we do not want a1i
analytical discourse as to what bread
is. Hand it on; pass it round; give
us a slice of it. John speaks of
hope as ''pure hope" Peter calls
it ''lively hope" Paul styles it a
''good hope" "sure hope" a "re-
iocing hope" All up and down the
Bible it is spoken of as an anchor,
ms a harbor, as helmet, as a door.
When we draw a check on a bank,
we must have reference to the
amount of money we have deposited,
but Hope makes draft on a bank
in which for her benefit all Heaven
has been deposited. Hope! May it
light up every dungeon, stand by
every sickbed, lend helping hand
to every orphanage, loosen every
chain, caress every forlorn soul and
turn the unpictured room Of the
almshouse into the vestibule of
Heaven! How suggestive that my
thology declares that when all other
deities fed the earth the goddess
Hope remained!
1t was hope that revived John
Knox when on shipboard near the
coast of Scotland he was fearfully
Ill, and he was requested to look
shoreward and asked if he knew the
village near the coast, and he an
sWered: II know it well, for I see
the steeple OF that place where God
first opened my mouth in public to
Ills glory, and l am fully persuaded
how weak that ever l now appear l
shall not depart this life till my
tongue shall glorify His holy name
in the same place." His hope was re-
warded, and for rs more years he
preached. That is the hope which
sustained Mr.. MorrelI, of Norwich,
when departing this life at "a years
of age he declared: II should like
to understand the secrets of eternity
before tomorrow morning." That
was the kind of hope that the cor
poral had in the battle when, after
several standard bearers had fallen,
he seized the flag and turned to a
lieutenant colonel and said: eff |
fan, tell my dear wife that I die with
a good hope in Christ and that am
glad to give my life for my country
That was the good hope that DR..
Goodwin had in his last hour when
he said: "Ah, is this death? How
have / dreaded as an enemy this
smiling friend!"
Philippe de Mornay, prime minister
of Henry ~, when asked in his last
hours whether he was certain of
eternal felicity, replied: 81 am as
confident of it from the incontesta-
bility of the spirit of God as ever
/ was of any mathematical truth
from all the demonstrations of Eu-
clid.' That was the hope that
cheered Vara, the converted native
of the island of Aimee, when he said
in his last moment: 1.-THE canoe
is on the sea; sails are spread; she
is ready for the gale. l have a good
PILOT to guide me and good haven
to receive me-"
No better medicine did a man ever
take than hope. It is stimulant, a
febrifuge, tonic, a catholicon. Thou
sands of DeOple loDp aro denor.ad