The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1914-01-29
SATURDAY
@E% NIGHT
SERMONS
BY
= .MA,mflW .PuRyEll
THE NOBLE COMPANY OF FOOLS.

= MAhuu WPuRyrll
THE NOBLE COMPANY OF FOOLS.
Texts: IF any man seemeth to be wise
let hin, become a fool"-l Cor. It'll, 1919.
I'VE are fools for Christ's sake."-l Cor.
iv. TO-
Queer, our dislike Of the different
We insist he shall go with the crowd.
think as we think. act as we act. II
he insists in his belief and persists in
his way he is fool. In common par
lance when man departs little from
the way of the crowd he is old. pecul
lar. eccentric. ''nutty" crank. fool. Be
tween the common mob and the crazy
house the fool persists in walking
The man who differs at once becomes
a target He has singled himself ont
because he has pioneered away from
the beaten track. All the time he is
accommodating. exploring. there is "a
hubbub In the camp over his alleged
desertion. The roll is called. and he il
not there. That is proof enough that
he is a renegade. He wont march in
the parade unless he can he in the van
with the banner or wearing big
badge. He's the hardest worker in
the ranks. poor fool He forgets him
self in the charge and carries tho ban
ner to an impossible height. the fool.
How prudently most of MS creep into
nameless graves while some Of the
fools forget themselves into immortal
ity. We insist Oh regularity and the
crowd being with us. Yet It Is the in
dividual man at every crisis Of the
worlds onward swoop and not the in
stitution--a SavOnarola, not n church:
a Washington. not an army: an Ed
son. not corporations: Wright. not a
scientific society.
"A Little OFT"
One who reads or works while others
play is "a little off" And when he
shows brightness above the crowd they
quote:
Great wits to madness nearly are allied,
And but thin partitions do their bounds d.
vide.
He must be mad or he wouldn't col
lect stamps and coins and bugs and
beetles. while other we'll meaning
folks are ut the ball game or theater.
Edison works in Il little room at I'M
canny hours o night, when he might
be filling up with champagne. and
Burbank grubs~ away at plants when
he might be at friendly cards. They're
a queer lot, these abolitionists, prohi
bitionists, socialists, suffragettes, pure
food cranks. muckrakers. mugwunps,
heretics and whatnots. And the de-
luded fanatics are ready to die in pris-
on. in poverty, at the martyrs stake
too. They're surely ''lippyr Yet it
always comes true in human history
that the madmen of yesterday are the
wise men of today. The fathers kill
the prophets and the children build
costly mausoleums for them. The fool
of today asks bread. and the next
generation gives him stone in the
shape of Il monument
An Ancient and Honorable Fraternity.
The fool is the man who believes
enthusiastically what others doubt or
think impossible. There are two kinds
of fools The real fool is the most
sincere Of nortals. The court fool. the
tri1ing, testing clown only acts the
family virtue and steals the family
name for sortlid purposes The life vi
the fool il full Of the poetry of faith.
He may pursue will o the wisp
while the wise deride-to him it is the
star of il new day. He differs from
his fellows mostly in this. he sees
and believes what they do not and
SO undertakes what they never at
tempt. If lie succeeds, the world stops
laughing and calls him Il genius: if he
fails. they laugh the more--they al
ways knew he WAS IA fool" Sometimes
he is fool while living and Il genius
ton and philosopher to the next. or
fool ut home and prodigy abroad.
it is in the element of simple IN
doubling faith that the kinship OF
genius and folly consist. One may be
tn unquestioned fool without any pos
sibility of being taken for II seer. This
is the case. indeed with most of the
tribe 1t is success alone that trans
forms the credulity of folly iuto ac-
knowledged prophetic provision.
"He Is Beside Himself"
Oh. the long line Of Larebrained,
dream eyed. starving. ragged enthusi
astic fools, with their Y rays, wireless.
airships-C dying In chains.
John the Baptist in a dungeon.
Dreamers. fools. Watts dreamily
watching the kettle lid, Fulton pushing
his folly against the tide, Morse link
ing continents with sparks of light
ming and Harvey and Pasteur and
Koch the laughing stocks. Day duwns
where they point, though they may be
in their graves before the sunrise
In that magnificent roll of the worlds
great men and great deeds found in
the eleventh chapter of the Book Of
Hebrews are the names of those who
were fools in spiritual things. Paul.
thou art beside myself" said his boast
FIJI. lustful accuser I'VE are fools for
Christ's sake" said the Jewish tent
maker The preaching of the cross is
fooiishness.' he declares The word
tells of one of the saddest days in the
- e ~.