The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1902-04-17


something that will enlist all the en-
ergies of your body, mind and soul!"
| Diligent in business, fervent in spirit,
serving the Lord" while upon the bare
back of the idler and the drone comes
down the sharp lash of the apostle as
he says: "If any man will not work,
neither shall he eat"
| Oh, how important in this day, when
| so much is said about anatomy and
| physiology and therapeutics and some
new style of medicine is ever and anon
springing upon the world, that you
should understand that the highest
school of medicine is the school of
| Christ, which declares that ''godliness
is profitable unto all things, having
| the promise of the life that now is as
we'll as of that which is to come" So
if you start out two men in the world
with equal physical health, and then
one of them shall get the religion of
Christ in his heart and the other shall
not get it, the one who becomes a son
of the Lord Almighty will live the
longer. with long life will satisfy
him and show him my salvation"
| Again l remark that godliness is
good for the intellect. l know some
have supposed that just as soon as a
man enters into Christian life his in
tellect goes into bedwarfing process.
So far from that, religion will give new
brilliancy to the intellect, new strength
to the Imagination, new force to the
will and wider swing to all the intel
lectual faculties. Christianity is the
great central fire at which philosophy
has lighted it's brightest torch. The re-
ligion of Christ is the fountain out of
which learning has dipped it's clearest
draft. The Helicon poured forth no
such inspiring waters as those which
flow from under the throne of God
clear as crystal. Religion has given
new energy to poesy, weeping in DR..
Young's Might Thoughts" teaching
in Cowper's TASK" flaming in Charles
Wesley's hymns and rushing with
archangelic splendor through Milton's
paradise Lost"
| Now, l commend godliness as the
best mental discipline, better than
bellies lettres to purify the taste, bet
ter than mathematics to harness the
mind to all intricacy and elaboration,
better than logic to marshal the intel
lectual forces for onset and victory.
1t will go with Hugh Miller and show
him the footprints of the Creator in
the red sandstone. It will go with the
botanist and show him celestial glories
encamped under the curtain of a water
lily. 1t will go with the astronomer on
the great heights where God shepherds
the great flock of worlds that wander
on the hills of Heaven answering His
voice as he calls them all by their
names.
Again I remark that godliness is
profitable for ones disposition. Lord
Ashley, before he went into great
battle, was heard to offer this
prayer: 20 Lord, I shall be very
busy to-day! If I forget Thee, for
get me not" With such Christian
disposition as that a man is inde-
pendent of all circumstances Our
piety will have a tinge of our natural
temperament. If man be cross and
sour and fretful naturally, after he
becomes Christian he will always
have to be armed against the rebel
lion of those evil inclinations. But
religion has tanned the widest ma
lures. 1t has turned fretfulness into
gratitude, despondency into good
cheer, and those who were hard and
ungovernable and uncompromising
have been made pliable and consilia-
tory. Good resolution, reformatory
effort, will not effect the change. 1t
takes mightier arm and mightier
hand that bent the bow of Ulysses,
and it takes stronger lasso than
ever held the buffalo on the prairie.
A man cannot go forth with any
human weapons and contend sue
cessfully against these Titans armed
with uptorn mountains. But you
have known men into whose spirit
the influence of the Gospel of Christ
came until their disposition was en-
tirely changed. So it was with two
merchants in New York. They were
very antagonistic. They had done all
they could to injure each other.
They were in the same line of busi-
ness. One of the merchants was con-
verted to God. Having been convert
ed, he asked the Lord to teach him
how to bear himself toward that
business antagonist, and he was i'm
pressed with the fact that it was his
duty when a customer asked for cer-
tain kinds of goods which he had not,
but which he knew his opponent had
to recommend him to go to that
store. 1 suppose that is about the
hardest thing man could do; but
being thoroughly converted to God
he resolved to do that very thing
and, being asked for certain kind
of goods which he had not, he sail:
"You go to such and such a store
and you will get it." After awhile
merchant No. found these custom
ers coming, so sent, and he found
also that merchant No. / had beer
brought to God, and he sought thu
same religion. Now they are goot
friends and good neighbors, tn,
grace Of God entirely changing theil