The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1888-05-17

w mere envy anu SbrlI6 Is, lneTo is COLI
fusion and every evil work; Jealousy is
the rage of man." My hearers, if this evil
passion is IN any OF your souls, cry
nightly unto God for its expulsion. That
which has downed kings and emperors,
and apostles, land reformers, and ministers
of religion, and thousands of good men
and women, is too mighty for you to con-
tend against unaided. The evil has SO
many roots of such infinite CONFUSION
that nothing but the energy of omnipo-
tence can pull it out. Tradition says that
when Moses lifted up his hand to pray it
was all encrusted with mama, and no
sooner do you pray than you are helped.
Away with the accurSed, stenchful, black
ening, damning crime of jealousy. Allow
it to stay and it will eat up and carry off
all the religion you can pack into your
soul for the next half-century. 1t will do
you more harm than it does any one it
leads you to assail. 1t will delude you
with the idea that you can build yourself
up by pulling somebody else down. You
will make more out of the success of
others than out of their misfortunes.
Speak well of everybody. Stab no man
in the back. Be a honey-bee rather than
a spider; be dove rather than buzzard.
Surely this world is large enough for
you and all your rivals. God has given you
a work to do. Go ahead and do it. Mind
your own business. In all circles, in all
businesses, in all professions there is
room for straightforward successes. Jeal-
ousy entertained will not only bedwarf
your soul, but it will fiatten your skull,
bemean your eye, put pinchedness of look
about your nostril. give bad curl to the
lip, and expel from your face the Divine
,To1 4ol
you hear man or woman abused drive in
on the defendants side. Watch for ex-
cellencies in others rather than for defects,
morning glories instead of nightshade. If
some one is more beautiful than you
thank God that you have not so many per-
lis of vanity to contend with. If some one
has more wealth than you, thank God that
you have not so great stewardship to an
swer for. If some one is higher up in So
cial position, thank God that those who
are down need not fear a fall. If some
one gets higher Office in Church or State
| than you, thank God there are not so many
to wish for the fastening on of your OBJ Sc
quies.
The Duke of Dantzig, in luxurious apart
ments, was visited by plain friend, and
to keep his friend from jealousy the Duke
said:
"You can have all I have if you will
stand twenty PAGES off and let me shoot
at you one hundred times"
''No, no." said his friend.
''Well," said the Duke, ''to gain all my
honors l faced on the battlefield more
than a thousand gunshots fired not more
than ten PAGES Off"
A minister of a small congregation COM
planned to minister of a large congrega-
ton about the sparseness of his attend
ants.
"Ah," said the one of large audience,
my son, you will find in the day of judg-
ment that you had quite enough people
for whom to be held accountable"
Substitute for jealousy an elevating
emulation. Seeing others good, let us try
to be better. Seeing others industrious,
let us work more hours. Seeing others
benevolent, let US resolve on giving larger
percentage of our means for charity. May
God put congratulations for others into
onr right hand and cheers on our lips for
those who do brave and useful things
Life is short at the longest; let it all be
filled up with helpfulness for others, work
and sympathy for each others misfortunes,
and our arms be full of white mantles to
| cover up the mistakes and failures of 9TH
| ers. 1t an evil report about some one
| comes to US, let us put on the most favora-
BILE construction, as the Rhone enters Lake
Leman foul and comes out crystalline.
| Do not builds so much on the transitory diff
ferences of this world, for soon it will
make no difference to us whether we had
ten million dollars or ten cents, and the
ashes into which the tongue of Demos
themes dissolved are just like the ashes
into which the tongue Of the veriest stam-
| merer went.
If you are assailed by jealousy, make no
| answer. Take it as a compliment, for
people are never jealous of a failure.
Until your work is done you are invulner-
able. Remember how our Lord behaved
under such exasperations. Did they not
try to catch Him in his word? Did they
not call Him the victim of intoxicants?
Did they not misinterpret Him from the
winter of the year 1 to the spring of the
| year 33-that is, from His first infantile
cry to the last groan Of His assassination?
Yet He answered not word. But so far
from demolishing either His mission or
His good name, after near nineteen GEN.
turtles He outranks everything under the
skies, and is second to none above them,
and the archangel makes salaam at His
footstool. Christ's bloody antagonists
/ $AOoSho tAiAo llCy hbu HulSutu Hill when
they wrote over the cross His accusation
in three languages-Hebrew, Greek and
Latin-not realizing that they were by
that act introducing Him to all nations,
since Hebrew is the hottest language, and
Greek the wisest of tongues and Latin the
widest spoken.
You are not the first man who had his
faults looked at through microscope and
and his virtues through the wrong end of
telescope. Pharoah had the chief butler
and baker endungeoned, and tradition
says that all the butler had done was to
allow fly in the Kings cup, and all the
baker had done was to leave gravel in
, the Kings bread. The world has the habit
OF making great ado about what you do
wrong and forgetting to say any thing
| about what you do right, but the same God
will take care of you who provided for
| Merlin, the Christian martyr, when hid
| den from his pursuers in hay-mow in
Paris, and hen came and laid an egg
| close by him every morning, thus keeping
him from starvation. Blessed are they
that are prosecuted, although persecution