The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1901-05-30

abode as you will yet occupy, and all
the worldly treasures you have lost
are nothing compared with the opu-
lence that you will yet own. If you
love and trust the Lord, Paul looks
you in the face and then waves his
hand toward a Heaven full of palaces
and thrones, saying: "All are yours!"
So that what you fail to get in this
present life you will get in the coming
life. Go to work right away and re-
; build as we'll as you can, knowing that
what the trowels of earthly industry
fail to rear the scepters of heavenly
reward will more than make up. Per-
sistence is the lesson of every ant hill.
Waste not moment in useless regrets
or unhealthy repining. Men fret them
selves down, but no man ever yet
| fretted himself up. Make the obsta-
| cles in your way your coadjutors, as all
| those have who have accomplished
anything worth accomplishment.
Furthermore, go to the ant and
learn the lesson of God-appointed or
| der. The being who taught the insect
| how to build was geometer as well as
architect. The paths inside that little
home radiate from the door with as
complete arrangement as ever the
boulevards of city radiated from a
| triumphal arch or a fiowered circle.
And when they march they keep per-
feet order, moving in straight lines,
turning out for nothing. If timber
lie in the way, they climb over it. 1t
there be house or barn in the way,
they march through it. Order in archi-
tectural structure, order in govern
ment, order of movement, order of ex-
petition. So let us all observe this
God-appointed rule and take satisfac-
ton in the fact that things are not at
loose ends in this world. If there is
Divine regulation in a colony or re-
public of insects, is there not a Divine
regulation in the lives of immortal
men and women? If God cares for
the least of His creatures and shows
them how to provide their meat in the
summer and gather their food in the
harvest, will He not be interested in
matters of human livelihood and in the
guidance of human affairs? I preach
the doctrine of particular Provi-
dence. care not two sparrows sold for
farthing, and yet not one of them
is forgotten before God2 Are We not
of more value than many sparrows"
Let there be order in our individual
lives, order in the family, order in the
church, order in the state. In all the
world there is no room for anarchy.
But we live in times when there are
so many clashings. There seems al
most universal unrest. Large for
tunes swallow up small fortunes.
Civilized nations trying to gobble up
barbaric nations. Upheaval of creeds
and people who once believed every
thing now believing nothing. The old
book that Moses began and st. John
ended bombarded from scientific OBJ
servatories and college classrooms.
Amid all this disturbance and uncer-
tainty that which many good peopls
need is not a stimulus, but sedative,
and in my text I finu .it-Divine OBJ
servation and guidance of minutest
affairs. And nothing is to God large
or small-planet or ant hill-the God
who easily made the worlds employ
ing His infnity in the wondrous con-
struction of spiders foot.
| But before we leave this subject
let us thank God for those who are
willing to endure the fatigues and
self-sacrifices necessary to make rev.
elation of the natural world, so reen-
forcing the Scriptures. If the micro
scope could speak, hat a story it
could tell of hardship and poverty
and suffering and perseverance, on
the part of those who employed it for
important discovery! 1t would tell
of the ,linded eyes of NJ. Strauss, Of
the Hubers and of scores of those
who, after inspecting the minute OBJ
iects of Gods creation, staggered out
from their cabinets with vision de-
stroyed. This hour in many pro-
fessor's study the work of putting
eyesight on the altar of science is 60
ing on. And what greater loss can
one suffer than the loss of eyesight
unless it be loss of reason! While the
telescope is reaching farther down,
both are exclaiming: There is q
God, and He is infinitely wise and in
finitely good! Worship Him and wor-
ship Him forever!" r< -Efa
And now 1 bethink myself of the
fact that we are close to season of
the year which will allow us to be
more out of doors anu to confront
the lessons of the natural world, and
there are voices that seem to say:
$50 to the ant; go to the bird; go to
the flowers; go to the fields; go to
the waters" Listen to the cantatas
that drop from the gallery of the
tree tops. Notice in the path where
YOU walk the lessons of industry and
Divine guidance. Make natural re-
ligion commentary on revealed re-
hgion. Put the glow OF sunrise and
: sunset into your spiritual expert
ences. Let every star speak of the
morning star of The Redeemer, and
, every aromatic bloom make you
, think of Him who is the Rose OF
Sharon and the Lily of the Valley
and every overhanging cliff remind
! you of the Rock of Ages, and every
| L