National Baptist world., 1894-10-19

e IoAI, you were an orphan. You ha
huge sorrows in your little heart. Yo
sometimes wept in the night whe
you knew not what was the matter
You felt sad sometimes even O
the playground. Your father or moth
er did not stand in the door to welcom
you when you came home from lon,
l journey. You still feel the effect O
early disadvantages, and you hav
: sometimes offered them as reason fo
your not being as thoroughly religion
as you would like to be. But these ex
cuses are not sufficient. Gods grac,
, will triumph if you seek it.
Again, our subject is an illustration
OF what religion may be under tn,
pressure of poverty. The captivity anc
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 sphere O.
honor and affiuence. In the humble
home Of Mordecai, her adopted father
she was a light that illumined every
prlvatlon. In some period in almost
every mans life there comes a season
of straitened circumstances when the
severest calculation and most scraping
economy are necessary in order to sub
slstence and respectability. At the
commencement of business, at the en-
trance upon profession, when friends
are few and the world is afraid of you
because there is possibility of failure,
many of the noblest hearts have strug-
gled against poverty and are now strug-
Cling. To such I bear message of
good cheer. You say it is hard thing
for you to be Chistian.' This constant
| anxiety, this unresting calculation, wear
out the buoyancy of your spirit, and
| although you have told perhaps no
one about it, cannot tell that this is
the very trouble which keeps you from
being what you ought to be? You
have no time to think about laying up
treasures in Heaven when it is a mat
ter of great doubt whether you will be
enabled to pay your next quarters
rent. You cannot think of striving
L
can get means enough to buy an over
coat to keep out the cold. You want
the Bread of Life, but you think you
must get along without that until you
can buy another barrel of -four for
your wife and children. Sometimes
you sit down discouraged and almost
wish you were dead. Christians in
satin slippers, with their feet on dam
ask ottoman, may scout at such
class of temptations, but those
who themselves have been in the
struggle and grip of hard misfor-
tune can appreciate the power of
these evils to dissuade the soul
away from religious duties. We ad-
mit-t4fe strength of the temptation,
but then we point to Hadassah, her
poverty equaled by her piety. Courage
down there in the battle. 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 a hard time
you have had but God knows it as well |
as you know it. Your easy times will |
come after a while. Do not let your
spirits break down mid-life. What if |
your coat is thin? Run fast enough to |
keep warm. What if you have no lux
uries an your table? High expecta-
tions will make your blood tingle bet
ter than the best Madeira. If you can
not afford to smoke, you can afford to |
But merely animal spirits
are not sufficient; 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.
encased in impenetrable armor. 1t
does not require extravagant ward
ing equipage to make a man rich. The
heart right the estate is right. 1t is
not often that men Of good habits come
TO positive beggary, but among those
who live in comfortable houses all
about you, among honest mechanics,
md professional men who never say
word about it, there are exhibitions of
lerOism and endurance such as you
nay never have imagined. These men
Who ask no aid; who demand no sym
)athy; who with strong arm and skill
ul brain push their own way through
ire Hannibals scaling the Alps; are
Hercules Staying the lion; are Moses in
1od's name driving back the seas.
1adassah with her needle has done
,raver things shan Caesar with a
word.
Again, our subject illustrates what
eligion may be when in strange
and, or far from home. Hadassah was
stranger in Shushan. Perhaps
up in the quiet or rural
Genes, she was now surrounded by the
azzle of city. Heads as strong as
Iers had been turned by transit from
ountry to city. More than that, she
vas in a strange land. Yet in that
oneliness she kept the Christians in
egrity, and was as consistent among
he allurements of Shushan as among
he kindred of her fathers house.
Again, our subject illustrates what
eligion may be under the temptation
f personal attractiveness. The in
pired record says of the heroine of my
ext: ''She was fair and beautiful :
er very name signifed "a myrtle" {
ct the admira ton, and praise, and
artery of the world did not blight her :
umility. The simplicity of her man !