The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1901-08-29

my family, either at home or in good
neighborhood. I will devote one to
charitable institutions. 1 will devote
one to my lodge" L congratulate
you. Here is man who says: "Out
of the six secular nights of the week
l will devote five to lodges and clubs
and associations and one to the home,
which night will spend in scowling
like March squall, wishing I was
out spending it as 1 have spent the
other FIVE" That mans obituary is
written. Not one out of ten thou
sand that ever get so far on the
wrong road ever stops. Gradually his
health will fail through late hours,
and through too much stimulants he
will be irst-rate prey for erysipelas
and rheumatism of the heart.
The doctor coming in will at a
glance see it is not only present dis
ease he must fight, but years of fast
living. The clergyman, for the sake
of the feelings of the family, on the
funeral day will only talk in reli-
gious generalities. The men who got
his yacht in the eternal rapids will
not be at the obsequies. They have
pressing engagements that day. They
will send flowers to the coffin, will
send their wives to utter words Of
sympathy, but they will have engage
ments elsewhere. They never come.
Bring me mallet and chisel, and I
will cut that mans epitaph: BLESSED
are the dead who die in the Lord?"
NO" you say, "that would not be
appropriate" 'Let me die the death
of the righteous and let my last end
be like his?" "No." you say, "that
would not be appropriate" Then
give me the mallet and the chisel, and
I will cut an honest epitaph: Here
lies the victim of diss1pating associa-
tions!"
Another test by which you can find
whether your secret society is right
or wrong is the effect it has on your
secular occupation. I can understand
how through such an institution man
can reach commercial success.
know some men have formed their
best business relations through such
a channel. If the secret society has
advantaged you in an honorable call
ing, it is a good one, but has your
credit failed? Are bargain makers
now more anxious how they trust
you with bale of goods? Have the
men whose names were down in the
commercial agency Al before they
entered the society been going down
since in commercial standing? Then
look out. You and I every day know
of commercial esta blish going
to ruin through the social excesses
of one or two members, their fortune
beaten to death with ball players bat
or cut amidships with the front prov
of the regatta or going down under
the swift hoofs of the fast horses
or drowned in the large potations OF
cognac or Monongahela. That secret
society was the Loeb Earn. Their
business was the Vile de Havre.
They struck, and the Vile de Havre
went under!
The third test by which you may
know whether the society to which you
belong is good or bad is this: What is
it's effect on your sense of moral and
religious obligation? Now, if l should
take the names of all the people in
this audience and put them on roll
and then I should lay that roll back
of this organ and hundred years
from now some one should take that
roll and call it from A to q there would
not one of you answer. l say that
any society that makes me forget that
fact is bad society.
Oh, man astray, God help you! I
am going to make very stout rope.
You know that sometimes a rope
maker will take very small threads
and wind them together until after
awhile they become a ship cable.
And I am going to take some very
small, delicate threads and wind
them together until they make very
stout rope. I will take all the men,
ories of the marriage day-a thread
of laughter, a thread of light,
thread of music, thread of BAN
quoting, thread of congratulation-
and I twist them together, and I
have one strand. Then / take
thread of the hour of the first ad-
vent in your house, thread of the
darkness that preceded, and a thread
of the light that followed, and
thread of the beautiful scarf that lit
tie child used to wear when she
bounded out at eventide to greet you,
and then a thread of the beautiful
dress in which you laid her away for
the resurrection, and then / twist all
these threads together, and / have
another strand. Then l take
thread of the scarlet robe of suf-
| fering Christ, and thread of the
white raiment of your loved ones be-
fore the throne, and string of the
harp cherubic, and string of the
harp seraphic, and 1 twist them all
| together, and 1 have a third strand.
"Oh," you say, ''either strand is
enough to hold fast world!" No.
will take these strands, and l will
twist them together, and one end
of that rope l will fasten, not to
the communion table, for it shall be
| removed; not to a pillar of the or