The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1902-01-16


the three-quarters of mile COM
nand, they followed the ark, and
you will do well to follow the divine
leading, as the path you tread now
has not yet been trodden. 'Ye have
not passed this way before" Many
of you are suffering from just such
annoyances as have not occurred in
all your history. There have been
meannesses practiced upon you or
you have received Sights or you are
the subject of misinterpretations or
you are in the midst of sore disap-
poin:ments or there are demands
made upon your strength and time
more than you can meet, or some
physical ailment is laying siege to
your castle of health or you are un-
der embarrassments that you cannot
mention even to nearest friends.
You say: swell, I never saw any
thing like this. l never expected
such treatment as this. I never
thought it possible to be placed in
such circumstances" And when you
say all that you are only translating
tllC "oi oo VI NY tCAt iHlo your OWN
phraseology. If you had suffered
something like this before, you would
have known what to do, but here is
flank movement for which you are
not ready.
AS our sorrows are new, our joys
are new and all our experiences are
new. Our life is one long discovery
of things that we did not know and
could not know, because we have not
passed this way before. We have
found, for instance, that gratitude is
the rarest of virtues. You used to
suppose that if you do kindness it
will be fully appreciated and recip-
rocated. You have found out by ex-
perience, as you could have found out
in no other way, that gratitude is
apt to be only another ak to grind.
While there is possibility that you
may return still more service you are
thanked, but when you can return no
more advantage you are dropped.
Here is man whom you have helped
in political elevation. When the time
comes for the compliment to be re-
turned, you are not only refused help,
but you receive positive opposition.
You have found out that you should
do the right thing not with respect
to reward or gratitude, but because
it is the right thing to do. Many are
miserable because they are all the
way looking for gratitude which they
cannot find. You might as well go
down Pennsylvania avenue, Washing
ton, or Broadway, New York, or Tre-
mont street, Boston, your eyes scruti-
nizing the pavements looking for tur-
quoises and emeralds and rubies. Per-
haps you might find them, but there
is not much probability that in so
years you would find one of them.
We talk about the great discoveries
of the age, the electric power, the
telescope and microscopic power, but
do not say anything about the discov-
cries we all make year by year and day
by day. There are surprises all the
time. 1t is a new road we are travel
ing. "Ye have not passed this way be-
FORE"
But closely allied is the other fact
which we limited at in the opening
that we will not pass this way again.
This is our only opportunity for doing
certain things that ought to be done.
On all sides there are griefs we ought
to solace, hunger we might feed, cold
that We ought to warm, kind words
that we ought to speak, generous deeds
we ought to perform. All that you and
[ do toward making this world better
and happier we must do very soon or
never do at all. Joshua and his troops
never came back over the way they
were marching toward the crossing Of
the Jordan. The impress of the sandal
or the bare feet of each soldier showed
in what direction he was going, but
never did the impress of the sandal of
any one of them show that he returned.
! We are all facing eternity to come.
! There is no retreat. Alertness and
fidelity would not be so important If
we could truthfully say: II will be
back here again. The things I neglect
now l will do the next time. I will be
| reincarnated, and ] will resume my
earthly obligations. Having then more
knowledge than I have now, will dis
! charge my earthly duties better than
, can now discharge them, l do not give
! solemn farewell to these obligations
and opportunities, but smiling and
/ CHEEKY good-by until see them again"
No, we cannot say that. There will be
! no new and corrected edition of the
/ volume of our earthly life. After we
make exit from the stage at the close
| of the fifth act we cannot reenter. How
many millions of people have lived and
died / know not, but of all the human
race who have gone only seven persons
that / now think of have returned, the
son of the widow at Zarephath, the
young man of Main, the rulers daugh-
ter, Tabitha, Eutychus, Lazarus and
Christ. Among all the ages to come
do not suppose there will be one more
to return to this life, having once left
| it.
| Lord Bacon said that he who shall
discover the way to make myrrh solu-
BILE by human blood will discover inn