The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1902-01-30
BENTON, LOUISIANA, THURSDAY, JANUARY 80, 1902.

what he was going to do with the
slave trade, but how mich he accom-
plished is suggested by Lord Broug-
hams remark concerning Wilberforce
after his decease: "He went to
Heaven with sOO,0uO broken fetters in
his hand" Some one, trying to dis
suade Napoleon from his invasion of
Russia, said: "Man proposes, but God
disposes." But you remember Mos
cow, and $4,000 corpses in the snow
banks. The only kind of boasting that
prospers was that of Paul, who cried
out: Il glory in the cross of Christi"
And that of John Newton, who de-
clared: II am not what I ought to
be; I am not what / wish to be; I
am not what hope to be, but, by the
grace cf God, am not what I was"
Do not boast of your moral
strength. One of the most brilliant
men of the nineteenth century, hav-
ing temporarily reformed from in
ebriacy, stood on the platform of
Broadway tabernacle, New York, and
said: "Were this great globe one
crystallite and were offered the pos
session of it if I would drink one
glass of brandy I would refuse with
scorn, and I want no religion to help
me-" But that same man died at
Poughkeepsie drunken pauper. Bet
ter underrate than overrate our
selves.
Notice also my text takes it for
granted that you must put on the har-
ness, else how can you take it off? Life
is battle-a 80 years, a 40 years or a
60 years war. Helmet you must have,
for the battleaxes of skepticism and
agnosticism are aimed at your head.
Every possible effort will be made to
make you think wrong. The young
man who gets his head filled with
wrong notions about God, about Christ,
about the soul, about the great beyond,
is already captured. Put on the helmet,
the latchet well adjusted under the
chin. Think right and you will act
right. Yes, breastpiate for the heart.
That is the most impc. .tant part to be
defended. That decid, what you love
and what you hate, what you hope for
and what you despise. That decides
earthly happiness and eternal destiny.
Keep the heart pure aAd the life will
be pure. Have the heart corrupt and
your actions will be corrupt. Oh, that
all of us might have a new heart COW
cred with divinely wrought breast
plate! Yes, greaves for The feet. So
many dangerous roads are we COM
PEELED to walk. So many people tread
on sharp prongs of temptation and 60
lame and limping all the rest of their
days. Iron mailed shoes for the feet.
[ congratulate all those who are
now in the thickest of life's battle
that the time is coming when the
struggle will end and you will put the
harness off, helmet and greaves and
breastplate having fulfilled their mis-
sion. You cannot in one visit to Lon
don Tower see all. You must go again
and again to that place which is as
sociated with the story of Lady Jane
Grey and Anne Boleyn and Walter
Raleigh and Sir Thomas More. You
will see the crowns of kings and
queens, the robe worn by the Black
Prince, and silver baptismal fonts
from which royal infants were chris
tened, and the block on which Lord
Lovat was beheaded. But no part of
London Tower will more interest you
than the armory, in which is skillful-
ly and impressively arranged collec-
tion of all styles of armor worn be-
tween the thirteenth and eighteenth
centuries, suggesting 500 years OF
conflict-cuirass and neck guard and
chin piece and lance rest and gauntlet
and girdle and mailed apron. You see
lust how from head to heel those old
time warriors were defended against
sharp weapons that would cut or
thrust or bruise and allowing them
to come out of battle unhurt when
otherwise they would have been slain.
o We soldiers of Jesus Christ, when
the war of life is over and the victors
rest in the soldiers home on the
heavenly heights, perhaps there may
be in the city of the sun tower OF
spiritual armor such as incased the
WdIEiOIS lol ShIlSo III SoAa aiiy \ohAA
bat. Some day we may be in that
armory and hear the heroes talk of
how they fought the good fight OF
faith and see them with the scars OF
wounds forever healed and look at
the weapons of offense and defense
with which they became more than
conauerors. In that tower of Heaven,
as the weapons of the spiritual con-
fiict are examined, st. Paul may point
out to us the armor with which he
advised the Ephesians to equip them
selves and say: THAT is the shield
of faith. That is the helmet of sal
walton. That is the girdle of truth.
That is the brea stplate of righteous
ness. Those are the mailed shoes in
which they were shod with the prepa-
ration of the Gospel" There and
then you may recount the contrast
between the day when you enlisted
in Christian conflict and the day
when you closed it in earthly fare
well and heavenly saluta don, and the
text. which has so much meaning for
us now, will have more meaning for