The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1894-12-01

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
came home from a long journey. You
still feel the effect of early disadvan-
tages. and you have sometimes offered
them as reason for your not being as
thoroughly religious as you would like
to be. But these excuses are not
sufficient. Gods grace will triumph il
you seek it. He knows what obstacles
you have fought against, and the more
trial the more help. After all, there
are no orphans in 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
pressure 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 af-
terward taken into a sphere of honor
and affuence. In the humble home of
Mordecai, her adopted father, she was
a light that illumined every privation.
In some period in almost every mans
life there comes a season of straitened
circumstances when the severest cal
culation and most scraping economy
are necessary in order to subsistence
and responsibility. At the commence
ment of business, at the entrance upon
a profession, when friends are few and
the world is afraid of you because there
is possibility of failure, many of
the noblcst hearts have struggled
against poverty, and are now strug-
Cling. To such / bear message of
good cheer. You say it is hard thing
for you to be Christian. This con-
slant anxiety, this unresting calculat-
ton, wear out the buoyancy of your
spirit, and although you have told per-
haps no one about it, can not / 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 matter of great doubt
whether you will be enabled to pay
your next quarters rent. You can not
think of striving after robe of right
eousness until you can get means
enough to buy an overcoat 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 chill
dren. Sometimes you sit down discour-
aged 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
struggle and grip of hard misfortune
can appreciate the power of these evils
to dissuade the soul away from re-
ligious duties. We admit the
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 flour barrels and be-
side 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. Do not
let your spirits break down in mid-life.
What if your coat is thin? Run fast
enough to keep warm. What if you
have no luxurics on your table? High
expectations will make your blood
Jingle better than the best Madeira.
If you can not afford to smoke, you
can afford to whistle. But merely ami
NAL 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 extravaganza wardrobe and
palatial residence and dashing equi-
page to make a man rich. The heart
right, the estate is right. A new heart
is worth the worlds wealth in one roll
of bank bills; worth all scepters OF
earthly power bound in one sheaf;
worth all crowns expressed in one cor
onet. Many man without farthing
| in his pocket has been rich enough to
| buy the world out and have stock left
| for larger investment. 1t is not often
| that men of good habits come to posi-
tive beggary, but among those who
live in comfortable houses all
about you, among honest mechanics,
and professional men who never say a
word about it, there are exhibitions OF
heroism and endurance such as you
may never have imagined. These men
who ask no aid: who demand no sym.
pathy; who with strong arm and skill
full brain push their own way through
are Hannibals scaling the Alps; are
Hercules Staying the lion; are Moses in
Gods name driving back the seas
Hadassah with her needle has done
Drawer things than Caesar with a
sword.
Again, our subject illustrates what
religion may be when in a strange
land, or far from home. Hadassah was
a stranger in Shushan. Perhaps
brought up in the quiet rural scenes
she was now surrounded by the dazzle
of city. Heads as strong as hers ha6
been turned by transit from the coun
try to city. More than that, she wa:
in strange land. Yet in that loneli