The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1901-03-21
BENTON, LOUISIANA, THURSDAY, MARCH 21, 1901

'Did you ever read the history Of
Joseph in the Bible?" "Yes," said the
man, sit is a fine story, and as interest
ing story as I ever read" "Well,
now," said my old friend, suppose that
account of Joseph stopped half way?"
"Oh," said the man, "then it would not
be entertaining" swell, now," said my
friend. 1--WE have in this world only half
of everything, and do you not think
that when we hear the last half things
| may be consistent, and that then we
may find that God was right?"
Oh, friends, better load up with few
Interrogation points! You cannot af-
ford to be silent when God and the BIZ
BILE and the things of eternity are as
sailed. Your silence gives consent to
the bombardment of your Fathers
house. You allow slur to be cast on
your mothers dying pillow. In behalf
of the Christ, who for you went through
the agonies of assassination on the
rocky bluff back of Jerusalem, you
dared not face sickly joke. Better
load up with few questions, so that
next time you will be ready. Say to the
scoffer: 'My dear sir, will you tell me
what makes the difference between the
condition of woman in China and in the
| United States? What 90 you think of
the sermon on the mount? How do
You like the golden rule laid down in
the Scriptures? Are you in favor of the
len Commandments? In your large
and extensive reading have you come
across lovelier character than Jesus
Christ? Will you please to name the
triumphant deathbeds of inidels and
atheists? How do you account for the
fact that among the out and out be-
levers in Christianity were such per-
sons as Benjamin Franklin, John Rus
kin, Thomas Carlyle, Babington, Mac
aulay, William Penn, Walter Scott,
Charles Kingsley, Horace Bushnell,
James A. Garfield, Robert E. Lee, Stone
wall Jackson, Admiral Foote, Admiral
Farragut, Ulysses S. Grant, John Mil
ton, William Shakespeare, Chief JUS
tice Marshall, John Adams, Daniel Web
ster, George Washington? How do you
account for their fondness for the
Christian religion? Among the in
Vulnerable colleges and universities
OF the earth will you name me three
started by infidels and now supported
by infidels? Down in your heart are
you really happy in the position you
occupy antagonistic to the Christian
religion? When do you have the most
rapturous views of the next world %
Go at him with a few such questions,
and he will get so red in the face as to
suggest apoplexy, and he will look at
his watch and say he has an engage
ment and must go. You will put him in
sweat that will beat Turkish bath.
You will put him on rout compared
with which our troops at Bull Run
made no time at all. Arm yourself, not
with arguments, but interrogation
points, and promise you victory. Shall
such man as you, shall such woman
as you, surrender to one of the mean
est spirits that ever smoked up from
the pit-the dumb devil spoken of in the
text?
But then there are occasions when
this particular spirit that Christ exor-
cised when He said: 81 charge thee
to come out of him." takes people by
: the wholesale. In the most responsive
religious audience have you noticed
how many people never sing at all
They have a book, and they have a
voice, and they know how to read
They know many of the tunes. and yet
are silent while the great raptures oi
music pass by. Among those who sins
not one out of hundred sings loud
enough to hear his own voice. They
hum it. They give sort of religious
grunt. They make the lips go, but it is
inaudible. With a voice strong enough
to stop street car one block away all
; they can afford in the praise of God is
, about half whisper. With enough
sopranos ,<pough altos, enough bassos
to make q small heaven between the
four walls they let the opportunity &C
by unimproved. The volume of voice
that ascends from the largest audience
that ever assembled ought to be multi
| piled two thousandfold. But the min
! lister rises and gives out the hymn, the
. organ begins, the choir or precentol
leads, the audience are standing 81
that the lungs may have full expan
J sion. and a mighty harmony is about t<
| ascend when the evil spirit spoken ot
! in my text-the dumb devil-spreads
his two wings, one over the lips of ont
. half the audience and the other wing
, over the lips of the other half Of the
: audience, and the voices roll back into
t the throats from which they started
, and only here and there anything il
heard, and nine-tenths of the holy
power is destroyed, and the dumb devil
as he flies away, says: Il could no
keep Isaac Watts from writing tha
, hymn, and could not keep Lowell Ma
, son from composing the tune to Nhicl
r it is set, but smote into silence or hal
silence the lips from which it woult
have spread abroad to bless neighbor
r hoods and cities and then mount tn,
wide open heavens" Give the lonI
, meter doxology the full support 9
, Christendom. and those four line
: would take the whole earth for God.
That hymn, "Oh, For a Thousan,