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

pA C4CAS oDoNO dlA OthSAS ohS SA@S
power of book for good or evil!
Through books we sit down and talk
with the mightiest spirits of all the
ages. We accompany Tennyson on his
spring time walk as he falls upon his
knees in the meadows, crying to his
companion: 'Violets, man, violets!
Smell them" Or we ride with Ira jan
in his triumphal march, or stand with
Godfrey at the taking of Jerusalem, or
with arctic explorer hear the crash
of the icebergs, or are received with
fernando Cortes in the halls OF
Montezuma, or watch in the observa-
tory as Herschel with his telescope
captures another star, or the ink in
the inkhorn turns red as blood, and
we are at Marengo and Arbela and
Eylau and Borodino and Leipsic; or
we sail with Hamilcar from Carthage
to Palermo, or we see Calico fighting
for the solar system, and around rs
gather for conversation Aristotle and
Plato and Robert South and Sydney
Smith and Locke and Samuel Rogers
and Chaucer and Paul Richter and
Swift and Hazlitt and Leigh Hunt and
Talleyrand and Burke and Edward
Irving, while to make music for us
Handel and Mozart and Mendelssohn
come in, and we watch Columbus land
ing and see John Harvard's legacy of
900 paid over for the founding of
Harvard university, and Joshua Rey-
nolds and David Wilkie and Rem
brandt tell us of their pictures. Oh,
the books! Thank God for the books,
and thanks be to all the authors!
May the inkhorn ever be under divine
inspiration!
A wrong theory is abroad that the
newspaper impression is ephemeral.
Because we read and cast it aside in
an hour and never see it again we are
not to judge that we are parted from
its influence. No volume OF 500 pages
makes such impression upon the peo-
pie as the daily newspaper. It is not
what we put away carefully upon the
shelf and once in awhile refer to that
has as close relation to our welfare
| as the story of what the world is
now doing OF has recently done. Yes
! terday has more to do with to-day
than something occurring century
previous. The engineers who now
guide the rail trains, the sea captains
who now command the ships, the ar
chitects who now design the build
ings, the batons that now control the
orchestras, the legislators who now
make the laws, the generals who now
march the hosts, the rulers who now
govern the nations, the inkhorns that
now flood the world with intelligence
these are what we have most to dc
| with.
You have all seen what is called
iudelible ink, which is weak solu
ton OF silver nitrate, and that ink
you cannot rub out or wash out
Put it there, and it stays. Well, the
liquid of the editorial and reportoria
inkstands is an indelible ink. 1t puts
upon the souls of the passing gener
atoms characters of light or dark
ness that time cannot wash out ant
eternity cannot efface. Forever in
delible. Be careful how you use it
The impression made with it will b.
resplendent or repulsive on the da,
for which all other days were made
But how shall speak of the ink
horn of the worlds evangelization
Oh, how may loving and brilliant ant
glorious pens have been dipped int
it! Thomas Kempis dipped into l
and brought up his Limitation o
Christ" Horace Bushnell dipped int
it and brought up Every Mans Lif
Plan of God" Thomas Binne,
dipped into it and brought up hi
weigh House Chapel Discourses.
Conybeare dipped into it and brough
up the Life and Epistles of Paul.
Archbishop Trench dipped into it an
brought up the "Epistles to the Sevel
Churches" Stuart Robinson dippe
into it and brought up "Discourses o
Redemption Austin Phelps dippe
i. into it and brought up 'rhe Sti
Hour" Mary Hopkins dipped into
and brought up Evidences of Chri:
: tianity." Thomas Guthrie dippe
, into it and brought MP 'The Gospel j
: Ezekiel" John Cumming dipped int
} it and brought up 'The Apocalypse.
, Oh, the opulence of Christian liter;
ture! Oh, the mighty streams OF eval
= gelistic power that have poured frol
1 the writer's inkhorn that appeare
4 in Ezekiers vision! .--.
( While you recognize the disti1
e guished ones who have dipped int
n the inkstand of the worlds evangeliz;
k ton do not forget that there are HUI
4 dreds of thousands of unknown me
i and women who are engaged in il
n conspicuous ways doing the san
n thing! How many anxious mother
n writing to the boys in town! Ho
+ many sisters writing encourageme,
to brothers far away! How many i
: valids bolstered up in bed, the inkho1
|. on the stand at their side, writing le
e ters of coincidence to those worse G
y than themselves! They are flying
l. the time kind words, gospel WORD
:, helpful words, saving words. Call Il
r evangelistic inkhorn into service
n the early morning, when you feel WI
', and you are grateful for the prote
1 Il a