The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1902-03-27

lery-that Of eminent Christi-ns.
What strikes me strangely is the
| mixing in companionship of those
who on earth could not agree. There
is Albert Barnes and around him the
presbytery who tried him for hetero-
doxy! Yonder are Lyman Beecher
and the church court that denounced
him! Stranger than all, there are
John Calvin and James Arminius!
Who would have thought that they
would sit so lovingly together?
There are George Whitefeld and the
ministers who would not let him
come into they pulrits because they
thought him fanatic. There are the
sweet singers Toplady, Montgomery,
Charles Wesley, Isaac Watts and Mrs.
Sigourney. If heaven had had no mu-
sic before they went up, they would
have started the singing. And there
the band of missionaries-David
Abeel, talking of China redeemed;
and John Scudder, of India saved;
and David Brainer.i, of the aborig'nes
evangelized; and Mrs. Adoniram Jud-
son, whose prayers for Burma took
heaven by violence! All these Chris
: tians are looking into the arena.
Our struggle is nothing to theirs!
| Do we in Christ's cause suffer from
the cold? They walked @reenland's
icy mountains. Do we suffer from
the heat? They sweltered in trop-
les. Do we get fatigued? They faint
ed, with none to care for them but
cannibals. Are we prosecuted? They
: were mathematical. And as they
look from their gallery and see US
falter in the presence of the lions
I seem to hear Isaac Watts address,
:, ing us in his old hymn, only little
changed:
S Must you be carried to the skies
t On f1owery beds of ease
o While others fought to win the prize
. Or sailed through bloody seas?
Toplady shouts in his old hymn:
a Your harps, ye trembling saints.
Down from the willows take;
Loud to the praise of love divine
r Bid every string awake.
: While Charles Wesley, the Metho-
e dist, breaks forth in words little
0 varied:
: A charge to keep you have,
q A God to glorify,
A never dying soul to save
:. And fit it for the sky!
- look again, and see the gallefy of
our departed. Many of those in the
other galleries we have heard of, but
!, these we knew. Oh, how familiar their
- faces! They sat at our tables, and we
- walked to the house of God in com-
8 pany. Have they forgotten us? Those
y fathers and mothers started US on the
- road of life. Are they careless as to
what becomes of us? And those chill
d dren-do they look with stolid inditfer.
= ence as to whether we win or lose this
." battle of life? They remember the day
Is they left us. They remember the agony
ie of the last farewell. Though years ir
u Heaven, they know our faces. They
'e remember our sorrows. They speal
Il our names. They watch this fight fol
u Heaven Nay, see them rise up ane
g. lean over and wave before us theil
ie recognition and encouragement. Tha
III gallery is not full. They are keeping
y places for US. After we have slain thu
&c lion they expect the King to call us
OF saving: Come up higher!" BetweeI
al the hot struggles in the arena 1 wip'
u the sweat from my brow and stand ol
Is, Is, tiptoe, reaching up my right hand t.
Ill clasp theirs in rapturous handshaking
Ut while their voices come ringing dow
:. from the gallery, crying: BE tho'
nc faithful unto death, and you shall hav
a crown!"
OF But here pause, overwhelmed wit
'p- the majesty and the Joy of the scene
I'M Gallery of the King! Gallery of an
Is gels! Gallery of prophets and apos
an ties! Gallery of martyrs! Gallery 0
n; saints! Gallery of friends and kindred
as o majestic circles of light and love
n. Throngs, throngs, throngs! How sha
IL! we stand the gaze of the universe
on Myriads of eyes beaming on us! Myr
os ads of hearts beating in sympathy TO
)oo us How shall we ever dare to 81
he again? How shall we ever become di
It'll couraged again? How shall we eve
ese feel lonely again? With God for us an
OF angels for us and prophets and apo
'rn ties for us and the great souls OF tt
3
ler for us-shall we give up the fight an
,el die? No, Son of God, who didst die
ig- save us. No, We angels, whose wins
20,- are spread forth to shelter us! No, !.
900 prophets and apostles, whose war
YES ings startle us! No, ye loved one
the whose arms are outstretched to recei
the us! No; we will never surrender!
a. Sure / must fight II I would reign,
the Be faithful to my Lord.
igh And bear the cross, endure the pain
Supported by thy word.
ran Thy saints in all this glorious war
~. Shall conquer though they die;
civ They see the triumph from afar
give And seize it with their eye.
eep When that iIlustrious day shall rise
,ear And all thine armies shine
ash In robes of victory through the skie:
-. The glory shall be thine.
tba Nv hearers, shall we die in the are