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


tolic martyr, have on them the mark
of the. Lord Jesus. There is the great
army of foreign missionaries, some.
times maligned by dissolute American,
English and Scotch merchants, who at
Hong Kong and Calcutta and Constan-
tinople have had their wickedness re-
proved by the pure home life of those
missionaries. There is the great army
of the ministers of the Gospel, now in
Heaven, who, on small salaries and
amid fatigues thSt slew them, served
their day and generation. There is an
other great army of private Christians
who, in Sabbath schools and in tract
distribution and in Humanitarian and
evangelistic efforts have put their life
in sacrifice on the affairs of God. There
is another army of Christian invaders
who lost their life in overwork for the
church and the worlds redemption.
People call their illness nerrElgia or
nervous prostration or insomsta or
paresis or premature old age. call
their ailments scarf as my text calls
them scars. There Jay be scars on the
memory, scars on the spirits, scars On
the courage, scars on the soul, as we'll
as scars on the body, and those invisible
to the human eye are as honorable as
those visible.
All ye who bear in your body the
marks of the Lord Jesus have you
thought what use those marks will be
in the heavenly world? What source
of glorious reminiscence! In that
world you will sit together and talk
over earthly experiences. where did
you get that SCARF" saint will say to
saint, and there will come back story
of hardship and struggle and perse-
cution and wounds and victory through
the grace of the Gospel. Another spirit
will say to listening spirit: "Where
did you get that hurt SO plainly
marked 2" And the answer will be:
"Oh, that was one of the worst hurts
I ever had. That was broken friend
ship. We were in sweetest accord for
years, together in joy and sorrow
What one thought the other thought.
We were David and Jonathan. But
our personal interests parted, and our
friendships broke never to be renewed
on earth. But we have made it all up
here, and misunderstanding are gone,
and we are in the same Heaven, on
neighboring thrones, in neighboring
castles on the banks Of the same river"
Now what is the practical use of
this subject? 1t is the cultivation of
Christian heroics. The most of us
want to say things and do things for
God when there is no danger of get
ting hurt. We are all ready for easy
work, for popular work, for compen.
sating work, but we all greatly need
more courage to brave the world and
brave satanic assault when there is
something aggressive and bold and
dangerous to be undertaken for God
and righteousness. And if we happen
to get bit what an adieu we make about
it! We all need more of the stuff that
martyrs are made out Of We want
more sanctified grit, more Christian
pluck, more holy recklessness as to
what the world may say and do in
any crisis of our life. Be right and do
right, and all earth and hell combined
cannot put you down.
The same little missionary who
| wrote my text also uttered that piled
up magnifcence to be found in those
| words which ring like battle axes on
| splitting helmets: "In all these things
we are more than conquerors through
Him that loved us, for am persuaded
that neither death, nor life, nor an
gels, nor principalities, nor powers,
nor things present, nor things to come,
nor height, nor depth, nor any other
creature, shall be able to separate us
from the love of God, which is in Christ
Jesus our Lord"
How do you like that, you towards,
who shrink back from aggressive work
and if so much as a splinter pierce
your flesh cry out louder than many
a one torn in auto da fe? Many SOL
dier has gone through long war, been
in 20 battles, led a regiment up a hill
mounted by cannon and swept by mus
kerry and yet came home without hav-
ing been once hit and without mark
upon him. But it will not be SO among
those who pass in the grand review OF
Heaven. They have all in the holy
wars been wounded, and all bear scars
| And what would the newly arrived in
Heaven do with nothing to show that
he had ever been struck by human or
diabolic weaponry; how embarrassed
and eccentric such an one in such q
place! Surely he's would want to be
excused awhile from the heavenly
ranks and be permitted to descend on
earth, crying: 'Give me another
chance to do something worthy of an
immortal. Show me some post OF
danger to be manned, some fortress to
be stormed, some difficult charge to
| make. Like Leonidas at Thermopylae,
like Miltiades at Marathon, like Marl.
borough at Blenheim, like Godfrey at
Jerusalem, like Winkelried at Sam.
pach gathering the spears OF the Aus
trian knights into his bosom, giving
his life for others, show me some plac,
where l can do brave thing for God
I cannot GO back to Heaven until some
where / bear in my body the marks o
the Lord Jesus" My hearer, my read
u