The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1889-12-05

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val in hell that night among the Philis-
tines. and they shout:
| "Ha! ha! We've got him."
Again, this narrative teaches us the
| power of an i'll disposed woman. In the
portrait gallery of Bible Queens we FIND
| Abigail and Ruth and Miriam and Vashti
and Deborah, but in the rogues' gallery
OF police station you find the pictures
of women as we'll as men. Delilah's
picture belongs to the rogues' gallery,
but she had more power than all Philistia
armed with sword and spear. She could
carry off the iron gates of Samson's
resolution as easy as he shouldered the
gates of GAIA. The force that had killed
the lion which one day plunged out fierce
from the thicket utterly succumbs to the
sllken net which Delilah weaves for the
giant. He who had driven an army in
r1otous retreat with the bleached jaw
bone, shifting them hip and thigh with
great slaughter, now falls captive at the
feet of an unworthy woman. DeIiIah in
the Bible stands in the memorable COM
pany of Adah,. aud Zillah, and Bath
sheba, and Jezebel, and Athaliah and
Herodias.
How deplorable the influence of such
IN contrast with Rebecca and Phoebe and
Huldah and Tryphona and Jephtha's
daughter, and Mary the Mother of Jesus.
While the latter glitter in the armament
Of Gods world like consultations with
steady cheerful holy light the former
shoot like baleful meteors across the
terrified heavens, ominOus of war, dis =
aster and death. II there is q Divine
power in the good mother, her face
bright with purity, an uuselfish love
Deamlng from her eye, q gentleness that
by pangs and sufferings and holy ankle
ties has been mellowing and softening
Tor many year, uttering itself in every
syllable, dignity that can not be de-
throned, united with the playfulness
that will not be checked, her hand the
charm that will instantly take pain out
OF the child's worst wound, her presence
a perpetual benediction, her name our
defense when we are tempted, her mem
DRY an outgushing well of tears and con-
graduation and thanksgiving, her heaven
palm waving and corOnal: then there
Is just as great an influence in the
opposite direction in the bad mother. her
brow beclouded with ungoverned pas
sion, her eye flashing with unsanctified
hre, her lips the fountain of fretfuIness
and depravity, her example mildew and
a blasting her name o disgrace to COM
ing generations, her memory a signal for
bltterest anathema, her eternity whirl-
wind and sufOcation and darkness,
One wrongheaded, wronghearted mother
may ruin one child, and that one child.
grown up, may destroy hundred people
and the hundred blast a thousand, and
the thousand q million. The wife's
sphere is realm of honor and power al
most unlimited. What a blessing was
Sarah to Abraham, was Deborah to Lapi-
doth, was Zipporah to Moses, was Huldah
to Stadium
There are multitudes Of men in the
marts of trade whose fortunes have been
the result of a wife's frugality. Four
hands have been achieving that estate.
two at the store, two at the home. Tho
burdens of life are comparatively light
when there are other hands to helm MS
lift them. The greatest difficulties have
often skunk away because there were four
eyes to look them out of countenance.
What care you for the hard knocks in
the world as long as you have bright
domestic circle? One cheerful word in
the evening tide as you come in has
sllenced the clamor of unpaid notes
and the disappointment of poor invest
ments. Your table may be quite frugal
Iy spread, but it seems more beautiful
to you than many tables that smoke with
venison and blush with Burgundy. Peace
meets you at the door, sits beside Won at
the table, lights up the evening and sings
in the nursery. You have seen an aged
couple who for scores of years have
helped each other on in life's pilgrimage
going down the steep of wears. Long
association has made them much alike.
They rejoiced at the same advent, they
bent over the same cradle, they wept at |
same grave. In the evening thew sit |
quietly thinking of the past, mother knit |
ting at the stand, father in his armchair
At the fire.
But there are, as my subject suggests, |
domestic scenes not so TRANQUIL. What
a curse to Job and Potiphar were their
companions, to Ahab was Jezebel, to Je- |
loram was Athaliah. to John Wesley |
was Mrs. Wesley, to Samson was Delilah. |
lille the most excellent and triumphant |
exhibitions of characters we find among |
me women of history, and the world !
thrills with the names 0 f Marie Antoi- |
lette and Josephine, and Joan of Arc and |
Maria Theresa and hundreds of others |
Who have ruled in the brightest homes |
md sung the sweetest cantos, and en-
'hanted the nations with their art and |
'wayed the mightiest scepters, on
he other hand the names OF Mary
he First of England, Margaret of France.
Julia of Rome, and Elizabeth Petroyna
II Russia, have scorched the eye of his
DRY with their denominations, and their
lanes, like banished spirits, have gone
and cursing through the world.
n female biography We find the two ex-
remes Of excellence and crime. Woman
tands nearest the gate of Heaven or
learest the door of hell. While adorned
~ grace she reaches point of Christian
'leyation which man can not attain, and
Vhen blasted of crime she sinks deeper
han man can plunge. Yet l am clad
hat the instances in which woman makes
liter shipwreck of character are COM
,aratively rare.
But, says some cynical spirit, what do
ou do with those words in Ecclesiates
7here Solomon says:
Behold, this have I found, saith the preacher
ountlng one by one to find out the account:
mich yet my soul seeketh, but find not: one
IAN among thousa and have l found; hut a
oman among all those have not foundl
My answer is that if Solomon had he.
ayed himself with common decency and
n nTT fNf 1E1f, -. y.