The Bossier banner., 1892-03-17

ment! Shadow of sickness! Shadow
of bankruptcy! Shadow of mental de-
preston! Shadow of persecutionl
Shadow of death! Speak out, Oh, sun
dial of Ahaz, and tell all the people
that God manages the shadow. AS
Hezekiah sat in his palace window
wrapped in invalidism and surrounded
by anodynes and cataplasms and looked
out upon the black hand of the only
clock known at that time and saw it
move back ten degrees, he learned a
lesson that majority of the human
race need this hour to learn-tAat the
best friend man ever had controls the
shadow. The set-backs are sometimes
the best things that can happen. The
great German author Schiller could not
work unless he had in his room the
scent of rotten apples, and the decay
of the fruits of earthly prosperity may
preston. Robert Chambers lame feet
shut him up from other work, and he
became the world-renowned publisher.
and helped fashion the best literature
of the ages. The painful disorder like
that of Hezesiah called carbuncle is
spelled exactly the same as the pre-
cious stone called the carbuncle, and
the pang of suffering may become the
jewel of immoral value. Your setback
like that of Ahaz's sun-dial may be re-
covery and triumph. l never had set
back but it turned out to be set for
ward You never would have become
u Christian If you had not had a set
back. The highest thrones in Heaven
are for the set-backs. In 1861 the
shadow of the sun-dial of this nation
was set back. and all things seemed
going to ruin, and it was set back
further in 1862, and further in 1868, and
still further in 1865, but there is not an
intelligent and well-balanced man,
north or south, east or west, but feels
it was set back toward the sunrise.
But promised to show you how the
shadows might be turned back FIRST,
by going much among the young peo-
grandchildren. By this Divine arrange
ment most of the peple who have passed
the meridian of life can compass them
selves by juvenility. 1t is bad thing
| for an old man or old woman to sit
looking at the vivacity of the grand
children shouting: stop that racket!'
B Better join in the fun. Let the eighty
years-old grandfather join the eight
year-old young grandson or grand
daughter. My father and mother lived
to see over eighty children and
grandchildren and great-grandchil-
dren. and more boisterous
crew were never turned out on
this sublunary sphere, and they
all seemed to cry to the old
folks, ''keep young" and they did keep
young. Don't walk with a cane unless
you have to, or only as defense in city
afflicted with too many CANNES. Don't
wear glasses stronger than necessary,
putting on mum ber tens when eighteens
will do as well. Don't go into the
company of those who are always
talking about rheumatism and lumbago
and shortness of breath and the brevity
of human life. 1t is too much for my
gravity to hear an octogenarian talk
about the shortness of human life.
From all that / can find out he has
always been here, and from present
prospects he is always going to stay.
Remain young. Hang up your stock
ings in Christmas time. Help the boys
fly the kite Teach the girls how to
dress their dolls. Better than arnica
for your stiff joints and catnip tea for
your sleepless nights will be large
dose of youthful companionship.
Set back the clock of human life.
Make the shadow of the sun-dial o1
Ahaz retreat ten degrees. People
make themselves old by always talking
about being old and wishing for the
good old days. which were never a:
good as these days. From all 1 car
hear, the grandchildren are not hal.
as bad as the grandparents were. Mat
ters have been hushed up. But if yor
have ever been in a room adjoining {
room where some very old people lit
tie deaf were talking over old times 20,
will find that this age does not monop
olize all the young rascals. 1t may now
be hard to get young people up early
enough in the morning, but theil
grandparents always had to be pulled
out of bed. 1t is wrong now to play
mischievous tricks on the unsuspecting
but eighty years ago at school that nov
venerable man sat down on crooked
pin not accidentally placed there, ant
purposely drove the sleigh-riding party
too near the edge of the embankment
that he might see how they would lool
when tumbled into the snow. And tha
man who has SO little patience will
childish exuberance was in olden times
up to pranks one-half of which if prac
ticed by the eight-year-old of to-da,
would set grandfather and grandmothe
crazy. Revive your remembrance o
what you were between five and tel
years of age, and with patience capa
: BILE of everything join with the young
Put back the shadow of the dial not tel
degrees, but fifty and sixty and sevent,
degrees.
} Set back your clocks also by entering
on new and absorbing Christian work
In our desire to inspire the young W
) have in our essays had much to sa,
| about what has been accomplished b
| the young; of Romulus, who founde
/ Rome when he was twenty years O