The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1888-03-08


A little while ago approved and sought
for; now none so poor as to acknowledge
her acquaintanceship. Vashti the sacrifice.
All, you and / have seen it many a
time. Here is home empalaced with
beauty. All that refinement, and books,
and wealth can do for that home has been
done; but Ahasuerus, the husband and
the father, is taking hold on paths of sin.
He is gradually going down. After time
he will founder and struggle like wild
beast in the hunters net-further away
from God, further away from the
right. Soon the bright apparel of the
children will turn to rags; soon the house.
hold song will become the sobbing
of broken heart. The old story over
again. Brutal Centaurs breaking up the
marriage feast of Lapitha. The house
full of outrage, and cruelty and abomina-
tion, while trudging forth from the palace
gate are Vashti and her children. There
are homes represented in this house this
morning that are in danger of such a
breaking up. o, Ahasuerus, that you
should stand in home, by dissipated
life destroying the peace and comfort of
that home God forbid that your chill
dren should ever have to ring their hands
them as they pass down the street
and say: "There goes a drunkard's
child" God forbid that tho lit
tie feet should ever have to trudge the
path of poverty and wretchedness. G ID
forbid that any evil spirit, born of the
wine cup or the brandy flask. should
come forth and uproot that garden, and,
with blasting, blistering, all-consuming
Al D., !
Vashti and the children.
Oh the women and the men Of sacrifice
are going to take the brightest coronals
of Heaven. This woman of the text gave
up palatial residence, gave up all for
what she considered right Sacrifice! Is
there anything more sublime?
A steamer called the Prairie Belle, burn.
ing on the Mississippi river, Bludso, the
engineer. declared he would keep the bow
of the boat to tho shore till all were off,
and he kept his promise. At his post,
scorched and blackened, he persisted, bat
he saved all the passengers. Two verses
of pathetic poetry describe the scene, but
the verses are little rough, and so
changed a word or two:
Through the hot, black brea tn of the burning
Jim Bludso's voice was heard,
And they all had trust in his stubborn ness,
And knew he would keep his word.
And sure's you're born, they all cote
Afore the smoke stacks fell;
And Bludso's ghost went up above
In the smoke of the Prairie Belle.
He weren't no saint, but at Judgment
I'd run my chance with Jim
'Longside of some pious gentlemen
That wouldn't shake hands with him.
He'd seen his duty, dead sure thing,
And went for it there and then,
And Christ is not G ing to be too hard
On man that died for men.
Once more. l want you to look al
Vashti the silent. You do not hear any
outcry from this woman as she goes forth
from the palace gate. From the very
dignity of her nature you know there will
be no vociferation. Sometimes in life it is
necessary to make retort; sometimes in
life it is necessary to resist; but there are
crises when the most triumphant thing
to dois to keep silence. The philosopher
confident in his newly discovered prin
c;ple, waited for the coming of more in
telligent generations, wiling thai
| men should laugh at the light
| ming rod and cotton gin ant
Misunderstanding for long year.
through the SOOTHING and philosophical
schools, in grand and magnificent silence
Calico, condemned by mathematicians
and monks, and cardinals; caricatured
everywhere, yet waiting and watchins
with his telescope to see the coming up Of
stellar reinforcements, when the stars il
| their courses would fight for the Copper
| nican system; then 81 ting down in com.
plete blindness and deafness to wait fo
| the coming ON of the generations WHIT
| would build his monument and bow a
his grave. The reformer, execrated by
| his cotemporaries, fastened in pillory
| the slow fires of public contempt burning
| under him, ground under the cylinders Of
| the printing press, yet calmly waiting
| for the day when purity of soul and hero
| is m of character will get the sanction O
| of earth and the plaudits of Heaven. AT
| Fiction, enduring without any complaint
| the sharpness of the pang, and the
violence of the torn, and the heft of the
chain, and the darkness of the night
waiting until divine hand shall
| be put forth to soothe the
pang and hush the storm, and re
lease the captive. A wife abused, perse
cuted, and perpetual exile from every
| earthly comfort-waiting, waiting unit
the Lord shall gather up his dear chill
dren in a heavenly home, and no poo
Vashti will ever b, thrust out from tn,
palace gate. Jesus, in silence. and an
| swering not word, drinking the gall
bearing the cross, in prospect of the rapt
| urous cons ummation when
Angels thronged His chariot wheel,
| And bore Him to His throne;
Then swept their golden harps and sung
| The glorious work is done.
An Arctic explorer found ship float
ing helplessly about among the icsbergs
| and going on board he found that the
captain was frozen at his log-book, ant
| the helmsman was frozen at the wheel
| and the men on the lookout were frozer
| liz their places. That was awful, but mag
| nifcent. All the Arctic blast and all the
| icebergs could not drive them from thei
| duty. Their silence was louder thai
thunder. And this old ship of worlC
has many at their posts in the awful
chill of neglect, and frozen of the world
scorn, and their silence shall be thu
| eulogy of the skies, and bs rewarded
| long after this weather-beaten craft of {
planet shall have made its last VOYAGE.
thank God that the mightiest influ
ences are the most silent. The fires in ,
| furnace of a factory, or of a steamship
| thpy1orI bau ont e., IL,