The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1902-04-10
NO. Z.

the church and the world shall not
forget them. If you want to declare
that you have been the chief of sin
save such wretch as you were, do so,
but do not go into particulars. Do
not tell how many times you got drunk
or to what bad places you went or
how many free rides you had in the
prison van before you were convert
ed. Lump it, brother; give tito us in
bulk. If you have any scars got in
honorable warfare, show them, but
if you have scars got in ignoble war
fare do not display them. know you
will quote the Bible reference to the
horrible pit from which you were
digged. Yes, be thankful for that res
cue, but do not make displays of the
mud of that horrible pit or splash it
over other people. Sometimes l have
felt in Christian meetings discounted
and unfit for Christian service be-
cause | had done none of those things
which seemed to be, in the estimation
of many, necessary for Christian use
fulness, for l never swore word or
ever got drunk or went to compromis-
ing places or was guilty of assault and
battery or ever uttered a sIanderous
word or ever did any one hurt, al
though 1 knew my heart was sinful
enough, and said to myself: ''There
Is no use of my trying to do any good,
for 1 never went through those de-
ga ,,.J r
saw consolation in the thought that
no one gained any ordination by the
laying on of the hands of dissoluteness
and infamy.
There are certain names so magnetic
that their pronunciation thrills all who
hear them. Such is the name of the
Italian soldier and liberator, Carl
baldi. Marching with his troops, he
met shepherd who was in great dis
tress because he had lost a lamb.
Garibaldi said to his troops: "Let us
help this poor shepherd find his lamb"
And so, with lanterns and torches, they
explored the mountains, but did not
find the lamb, and after an unsuccess.
full search late at night they went to
their encampment. The next morn
ing Garibaldi was found asleep far on
into the day, and they wakened him
for some purpose and found that he
had not given up the search when the
soldiers did, but had kept on still fur
ther into the night and had found it,
and he pulled down the blankets from
his couch, and there lay the lamb,
which Garibaldi ordered Immediately
of all the hosts of heaven turned aside
from His glorious and victorious march
through the centuries of heaven and
said: Il will go and recover that lost
world and that race of whom Adam wa
the progenitor, and let all who will ac-
company me-" And through the night
they came, but do not see that the
angelic escort came any farther than
the clouds, but their most illustrious
Leader came all the way down, and by
the time His errand is done our little
world, our wandering and lost world,
our world fieecy with the light, will be
found in the bosom OF the Great Shep-
the cantata and sing: "The lost sheep
found!"
So I set open the wide gate of my
text, inviting you all to come into the
mercy and pardon of God-yea, still
further, into the ruins of the place
where once was kept the knowledge Of
your iniquities. The place has been
torn down and the records destroyed,
and you will find the ruins more dilapi-
dated and broken and PROSTATE than
the ruins of Melrose or Kenilworth, for
from these last ruins you can pick up
some fragment of sculptured stone
or you can see the curve of some
broken arch, but after your repent
ance and your forgiveness you cannot
find in all the memory of God frag-
ment of your pardoned sins so large
as a needles point. "Their sins and
their iniquities will l remember no
more"
Six different kinds of sounds were
heard on that night which was inter-
iected into the daylight of Christ's as
sassination. The neighing of the
warhorses-for some of the soldiers
were in the saddle-was one sound,
the bang of the hammers was second
sound, the jeer of malignants was
third sound, the weeping of friends and
followers was a fourth sound, the
plash of blood on the rocks was a fifth
sound, and the groan of the expiring
Lord was a sixth sound. And they all
commingled into one sadness. Over a
place in Russia where wolves were pur-
suing a load of travellers and to save
them a servant sprang from the sled
into the mouths of the wild beasts and
was devoured and thereby the other
lives were saved are inscribed the
words: "Greater love hath no man
than this, that a man lay down his life
for his friend" Many surgeon in
our own time has in tracheotomy with
his own lips drawn from the windpipe
of diphtheritic patient that which
cured the patient and slew the surgeon,
and all have honored the sef-secrifce.
But all other scenes of sacrifice pale
before this most illustrious martyr OF