The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1877-10-04
A SERMONS APPLICATION.
How One Fair Worshipper Found Her
Mission.

A refreshing story of sweetness and
life gathered from the shores of the
Spirit Lake by the beautiful capital OF
charming Wisconsin during the recent
soiourn of Times man at Madison,
will perhaps be read with more than Or
binary interest from the fact that it has
direct local bearing.
In the early portion of the present
season a St. Louis divine thought proper
one Sabbath morning to address his dis
course from the altar steps Of fashion
able ediice in the West End, to young
| ladies. The theme was a profitable
one, for the elements of his congrega-
ton happened to he eminently fashion
able, and it was fair to presume that
minister catering to popular tastes
could scarcely have hit upon a better
| subject.
The preacher deplored the tendency
of modern ideas of educating young
girls to life of fashionable uselessness
and profitless 'sinactivity." He pointed
out the paths which were open to young
women who earnestly sought the good
of others, and sketched with an elo-
quence peculiarly his own the life of a
ministering angel on earth. One young
and fair auditor took the sermon to her.
self in its fitting reference to her own
fashionable career.
Born of wealthy parents, all the ad-
vantages and some of the disadvantages
of European education were extended
to her, and reared in the lap of luxury,
if not of extravaganza, a tour of two
years. duration in the Old World COM
pleted her educational course Thence
she returned to figure as the star of So
ciety at home. Possessing property in
her own right, this young lady was Gag
erly sought by aspiring young men, but
a deaf ear was turned to each and all.
The sermon touched a chord in her
heart that had never sounded in the
whole course of her girlhood, and she
began to look about her for the oppor-
tunity of exercising whatever there
might be pertaining to Christian grace
in her character aud disposition. The
opportunity came One of her married
lady friends, who figures prominently
as the friend of the helpless in St. Louis,
related to her the case of a young lady
who had been visited with bitter affliction
the death of her mother, brother and
fiancee, and the life Imprisonment of her
father following in rapid succession,
and leaving her almost entirely depend
ent upon the mercies of the world.
Refined and sensitive to a degree, the
poor child of affiiction had Stunned all
past friends and acquaintance and
buried herself in her own sorrows, in a
scantily furnished apartment down
town, depending for the necessaries
of life upon the scanty income of a few
cottage rentals acquired from her
grandmother. The blow of adversely
was too strong for delicate frame, and
she declined in health and strength
daily. He who had won her sweet love
in the days of happiness and prosperity
had been torn from her by the hand of
the irrepressible, and there remained
nothing on earth, save one, who had
disgraced his name and his family, and
from whom she was separated for life.
The ray of comfort, however, appeared
in the darkest hour of her affiiction
and in the person of the young and
beautiful girl, who had listened with
profit to the remarks scattered as mus
tard seed from the altar of her church in
St. Louis. She came to comfort and to
weep with her, TO tend and solace her,
and to pour the balm of Gilead over her
crushed hopes and affections, to soothe
her young heart with the devotion and
love of ministering sister. la all this
she succeeded and more. The physicians
called in to pronounce upon the delicate
condition of the young girl to whom
she was devoted advised change of
air and scene; the case was hopeless,
but such change would tend to prolong
life.
1t was resolved to seek the calm re-
pose of Madison, Wis, the fair haven of
rest for the worn and the wearied, at
the feet at which are spread, in natures
lavishness, the refreshing beauties of
Spirit Lake scenery. amid the calm relief
of verdure-clad mounds and messy dells
in gentle undulation. From the sloping
! lawn of modest little villa residence
skirting the lake shore, the sweet air of
the four-lake country is breathed in the
bright hours of day by two fair daughters
of St. Louis; the one delicately nurtured,
handsome and bearing all the signs of
health and strength; the other, lovely
and delicate, passing through the stages
of an insidious disease. The one had
sacrificed, from conviction of duty,
the associations of home and family to
fulfill sweet mission of love; and while
her friends tarry during the heated term
at Saratoga and Cape May, moving in
the stream of fashion and gayety, the
flower of the circle blooms 1900 miles
away, devoting the strength of her fresh
young girlhood to self-imposed labor,
the reward of which is assuredly record
ed in higher places. Louis Times.