The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1902-07-03

prejudice and preconceived notions,
but you can see Jesus if you only
will.
AS the swinging couch was lowered
into the midst of that astonished
and dignifed company, Jesus looked
up and, instead of rebuke which
the Jewish teachers would have had
Him deliver, His encouraging smile
greets the men standing upon the
roof, and Scripture declares that He
saw their faith. How quick He is to
catch the faintest heart throb of
faith towards Him. The tip of the
woman's finger on the hem of His
garment as He passed along the
highway was enough to obtain from
Him the blessing sought.
And seeing their faith He turned
His gaze upon the poor paralytic now
lying before Him, thanks to their
faithfulness, and said unto him,
MAN, thy sins are forgiven thee"
All, how these words Of Jesus throw
new light into the picture of this
mans need, and we realize that He
sees not as man seeth. The strain
ing eyes of the pressing throng in
the courtyard and the doorway see
only poor paralytic needing heal
ing. Jesus looks deeper and search
ing the depths of the human heart
sees sin there and need of cleansing.
The man is conscious of but one
need. He desires above everything
else strength in his wasted limbs
and new vigor in his nerve centers.
His thought is centered in this life
and all hope is bound up in the sum
of the years he may live this side
the grave. But the words of Jesus
awaken within him new sense of
need, and the way is paved for
double blessing.
This double blessing is that to which
Jesus referred when He said: seek
first the Kingdom of God and His
Righteousness, and all these things
shall be added unto you" The para
lytic as he is being borne to the pres
ence Of Jesus realizes but one need and
has but one supreme aesire, that of
physical and temporary blessing, but
when face to face with Jesus he be-
comes conscious of a greater need, that
of cleansing from sin.
Face to face with Jesus. It is heart
searching position to be in. No trying
to make the dark places in the hidden
recesses of the heart look clean and
presentable. Then is borne in upon
the soul that declaration of Gods Word
that the Heart is deceitful above all
things and desperately wicked, who
can know it." Yea, who can know it
but God? Who can fathom its depths
of iniquity but the searching eye of the
omnipotent God? When Peter came
face to face with Jesus on that morn
ing after the weary night of toll with
his partners and had taken nothing,
and launched out into the deep at the
bidding of Jesus and let down the net,
and the miraculous draught of fishes
almost brake the nets, the first thing
he became conscious of, as he realized
he was in the presence of the Son Of
God, was that he was a sinful man. In
the agony of his lost condition, he cries
out: depart from me, for am sim
full man, Lord" And when soul
gets into that broken condition, then is
when Jesus does not depart, but comes
very near and with the loving touch
of His nail-pierced hands covers the
sin spots and wipes them out forever.
Jacob, the usurper, with the black
stain of the lie still fresh upon his
lips, comes to Bethel, as he fees from
the murderous wrath of his brother.
When he wakes in the morning after
the visit of God to him in that wonder
full vision he exclaims: "How dreadful
is this place!" Yes, it is a dreadful
place to come, into the presence OF
God. There is where the hidden sins
OF the heart begin to parade them
selves. All, what an array of them
there are. Sins unknown to our best
friends, and which we have hidden
away from mortal eyes; but the pene-
trating eye of the all-seeing God
searches them out. He knows they are
there. You cannot escape Him.
The man of our text was brought to
| Jesus, desiring deIVerance from palsy
of the body. Jesus gave him first de-
liverance from palsy of the soul. No.
tice the implication in the words of
the text: Whether is easier to say:
THY sins are forgiven thee or to say:
Rise up and walk?'" A question of the
greater power required in forgiveness
of sin OF in the healing of the body.
One held up against the other in con-
trast. 'But that ye may know that
the Son of Man hath power upon earth
to forgive sins (He said unto the sick
of the palsy, say unto thee, arise i"
How patient the Lord is with us in
our unbelief. He leads US step by
step from the seen to the unseen, from
the material to the spiritual, not will
ing that one should perish, but that
all should come unto the knowledge of
the truth. "And Immediately he
rose up" And as the gathered multi
tude opens up passageway to the
street and sees the man go back to his
home glorifying God, it knows a
| ,,,;phfy " mir a ole hae boep xrrou,b@ .~l