The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1901-04-18

,
start a concerted and organized
movement through tbs inkhorns
of all Christendom, each writer Dip
ping from the inkhorn nearest him a
letter of gospel invitation, gospel
hope. gospel warning, gospel in-
struction. The ink is all ready on
hundred thousand tables, and beside
it are the implements with which to
dip it out. Why not, through such
process, have millions of souls brought
to God before next summer? BY let
ter you could make the invitation
more effective than by word of mouth.
The invitation from your lips may be
argued back, may evoke querulous
reply, may be answered by joke, but
a good, warm, gospel letter, written in
prayer and started with prayer and
followed by prayer, will be read over
and over again and cannot be an
swered in frivolous way. 1t will
speak from the table by day and night
or, if pettishly torn up, will, in it's
scattered fragments, speak louder
than when it remained whole. Within
arms reach of where you sit there
may be a fluid that you may put on
wing with message of light and love.
The other angels spoken of in my
text were destroying angels, and each
had what the Bible calls "slaugh-
ter weapon" in his hand. It was
lance or a battleax or sword. God
hasten the time when the last lance
shall be shivered and the last bat
tleax dulled and the last sword
sheathed, never. again to leave the
scabbard, and the angel of the text,
who, Matthew Henry says, was the
Lord Jesus Christ, shall, from the
full inkhorn of His mercy, give saw
ing call to all nations. That day may
be far off, but it is helpful to think
Of it's coming. AS DIR. Raleigh de-
clared that when so miles at sea
off the coast of New England the
cattle on board the ship, as well as
| himself, scented the clover on the
New England hills, so we, amid all
the tossing waves of the worlds con-
troversies, inhale the redolence of the
white lilies of universal peace. Is
it not time that the boasted inven-
ton of new and more explosive and
more widely devastating weapons OF
death be stopped forever and the
Gospel have a chance and the ques-
ton be not asked: "How many shots
can be fred in minute?" but "How
many souls may be ransomed in
day?" The world needs less powder
and more grace, fewer fortresses and
more churches, less power to destroy
and more power to save. oh, am
sick of the war cries and the extin-
guished eyesight and the splintered
bones and the grave trenches and
the widowhood and orphanage and
childlessness which sob and groan
and die in the wake of the armies on
both sides of the sea! Oh, for less
Of the slaughter weapon and more
of the evangelizing inkhorn! Oh,
for the stopping of the science OF
assassination, that crime of crimes,
that woe of woes, that horror of hor-
rors, that hell of hells--war, which
this moment stands reeking with
blood and washing itself in tears
and blaspheming the heavens and
pushing off the edge of this life men
who have as much right to live as
you and I have and blasting homes
in which there dwells as much lowell
ness s in our own! Would that the
merciful angel of my text take the
last weapon of war and fling it oil
and fling it down with such force
that it shall clang on the lowest
round of the perdition where the
first keen edge of human strife was
sharpened! War! In the name OF
Almighty God and of all the home
steads it has, destroyed and is now
destroying, / hate it, l denounce it.
! curse it!
If our Bible is true-and no other
book that was ever printed is as
true as that book, which Moses be-
gan and John finished-then the time
will come when all the weapons OF
cruelty will stop and the inkhorns
of evangelization will have their way.
In the museums Of the world the
D carbine and the cannon and the bomb
will be kept as curiosities, and chill
dren will be incredulous as parents
tell them that civilized nations once
4 employed such instruments Of death
1 and more incredulous when told by
their parents that the army that
killed the most men was considered
the most glorious army. The red
horse of carnage that st. John saw
in vision, and the black horse oi
u famine, and the pale horse of death
: will be stabbed, and the white horse
: of prosperity and peace, mounted BY
the King Of Kings, will lead the
:. great army with banners. Through
y the convicting, converting, sanctify
ing power of the Eternal Spirit maJ
= we all march in that procession
= y Hail, thou Mighty Rider of the white
u horse in the final triumph! Sweel
II down and sweep by, thou Angel o
> the New Covenant. with the inkhori
= of the worlds evangelization! "Th
~ =, mountains and the hills shall breal
- forth into singing, and all the tree
:, of the field shall clap their hand:
Il