News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1894-10-11

how much greater tho bereavement
when it comes in early life, before the
character is self reliant, and when nat
nrally the heart is unsophisticated and
easily tempted
And yet behold what a nobility of
disposition H3dassah exhibited Though
father and mother wero gone, grace bad
triumphed over all disadvantages. Her
willingness TO self sacrifice, her control
over the king her humility, her faith
ill worship of God, show her to have
been one of the best of the worlds
Christians
An Unhappy Childhood.
There are those who did not enjoy
remarkable early privileges. Perhaps,
like the beautiful captive of the text,
yOu We're an orphan. You had huge sor-
rows in your little heart. You some
times wept in the night when you knew
not what was the matter. You felt sad
sometimes even ON the playground.
Your father or mother did not stand in
the door to welcome you when you
Game home from a long journey. You
Etill feel the effect of early disadvan-
tages, and you have sometimes offered
them as a reason for your not being as
thoroughly religious as you would like
to be. But these excuses are not suffi-
cient. Gods grace will triumph if you
seek it. He knows what obstacles you
have fought against, and the more trial
the more help. After all, there are no
orphans i'll the world, for the great God
is the Father Of us all.
Again, our subject is an illustration
of what religion may be under the pres
sure of poverty. The captivity and
crushed condition of this orphan girl
and of the kind man who adopted her
suggest condition of poverty. Yet from
the very first acquaintance we had with
Hadassah we find her the same happy
and contented Christian. 1t was only
by compulsion she was afterward taken
into a sphere of honor and afiuence. In
the humble home of Mordecai, her
adopted father, she was light that l.
lumined every privation. In some period
in almost every mans life there comes
a season of straitened circumstances,
scraping economy are necessary i'll order
to subsistence and responsibility. At
the commencement of business, at the
entrance upon a profession, when
friends are few and the world is afraid
of You because there is q possibility Of
failure, many Of the noblest hearts have
struggled against poverty and are now
struggling
The Wear of Anxiety.
To such I bear q message of good
cheer. You say it is a hard thing for
you to be a Christian. This constant
anxiety, this unresting calculation, wear
out the buoyancy of your spirit, and al
though you have told perhaps no one
about it cannot tell that this is the
very trouble which keeps you from be-
ing what you ought to be? You have no
time to think about laying up treasures
in heaven when it is a matter Of great
doubt whether you will be enabled to
pay your next quarter rent. You cam
not think of striving after robe Of
righteousness until you can get means
enough to buy an overcoat to keep out
the cold. You want the broad of life,
but you think you must get along with
out that until you can buy another bar
rel Of flour for your wife and children.
Sometimes you sit down discouraged
and almost wish you were dead.
Christians in satin slippers, with their
feet on damask ottoman, may scout at
such class Of temptations, but those
who themselves have been in the strug-
gle and grip of hard misfortune can ap-
preciate the power of these evils to dis
suade the soul away from religious
duties We admit the strength of the
temptation, but then we point to Ha-
dassah, her poverty equaled by her
piety. Courage down there IN the bat
tlel Hurl away your disappointment!
Men of half your heart have, through
Christ, been more than conquerors. In
the name Of God, come out of that!
The religion of Christ is just what you
want out there among the empty -four
barrels and beside the cold hearths. You
have never told any one of what hard
time you have had, but God knows it
as well as you know it, Your easy times
will come after awhile. Donot let your
spirits break down midlife. What if
your coat is thin? Run fast enough to
keep warm. What if you have no lux
uries on your table? High expectations
will make your blood tingle better than
the best Madeira. If you cannot afford
to smoke, you can afford to whistle.
But merely animal spirits are not suffi-
cient The power OF the gospel-that is
what you want to wrench despair out of
the soul and put you forward into the
front of the hosts incased in impenetra-
BILE armor.
Beauty and Its Perils.
Again, our subject illustrates what
religion may he under the temptation Of
personal attractiveness. The inspired
record says of the heroine Of my text
"She was fair and beautiful Her very
name signifed "a myrtle. y Yet the adj
miration and praise and fiattery of the
world did not blight her humility. The
simplicity of her manners and behavior
equaled her extraordinary attractions. 1t
is the same divine goodness which puts
the tinge OH the roses cheek, and the
whiteness into the lily, and the CLEAN
IN the wave, and that puts color in the
iheek and sparkle in the eye, and maj
isty in the forehead, and symmetry into
the form, and gracefulness into the gait,