National Baptist world., 1894-10-19
TRUE CHRISTIANITY.
lts Trials Discussed by DR.. Tai
mage.
~As a Lamb to the Slaughter Was Led the
"eautiful Hadassah, but She Tri-
omphed by the Integrity
of Her Faith.

Rev I. Dewitt Talmage, who is still
absent from Brooklyn on his tour O
The world, gave out for his sermo,
through the press last week the stor,
OF the beautiful Hadassah, the text be
ing from Esther H.. 7: ''And h,
brought up Hadassah. Following i
the sermon:
A beautiful child was born in tn,
capital of Persia. She was an orphan
and captive, her parents having beer
stolen from their Israelitish home anC
carried to Shushan, and had died, leav
ing their daughter poor and in {
strange land. But an Israelite. who
had been carried into the same captiv
lty, was attracted by the case of the
orphan. He educated her in his holv
religion, and under the roof of that
good man this adopted child began to
develop sweetness and excellence OF
character if ever equaled, certainly
never surpassed. Beautiful Hadassah!
Gould that adopted father ever spare
her from his household? Her
artlessness;her girlish sports;her innno-
cence; her orphanage, had wound
themselves thoroughly around his
heart just as around each parents
heart among us there are tendrils
climbing, and fastening and blossom
ing, and growing stronger. 1 expect
ne was like others who have loved ones
at home-wondering some times if
sickness will come, and death and be-
reavement. Alas! Worse than any,
thing that the father expects happens
TO his adopted child. Ahasuerus. a
princely scoundrel demands that
Hadassah, the fairest one in all the
Kingdom, become his wife. Worse
than death was marriage to such a.
monster of iniquity! How great the
change when this young woman left
the home where God was worshiped
and religion honored, to enter palace
devoted to pride. idolatry and sensual
ity! 'As lamb to the slaughter!'
Ahasuerus knew not that his wife
was q Jewess. At the instigation of
the infamous prime minister the king
decreed that all the Jews in the land
should be slain. Hadassah pleads the
cause of her people, breaking through
the rules Of the court and presenting
herself in the very face of death, cry
qng: IF | perish, PERISH Oh, it
was sad time among the enslaved
people! They had all heard the decree
concerning their death. Sorrow, gaunt
and ghastly, sat in thousands of house
holds, and mothers wildly pressed their
infants to their breasts as the dav of
massacre fastened on, praying that the
same swOrd-strOke which slew the
mot1er might also slay the child, rose
bald anabsld
blast
But Hadassah is busy at court The
hard heart of the king is touched by
her story, and although he could not |
reverse his decree for the Staying of |
the Jews, he sent out an order that |
they should arm themselves for de-
tense. On horseback, on mules, on
dromedaries, messengers sped through |
the land bearing the kings dispatches,
and a shout of joy went up from that |
enslaved people at the faint hope of |
success.
The day of execution dawned. Gov
ernment officials, armed and drilled. |
cowed before the battle shout of the
oppressed people. The cry of defeat
rang back to the palaces, but above the
of dead, above rs, 900 crushed
and mangled cOrpses, sounded the tri-
umph Of the delivered Jews and their
was as when the Highland
ers came to the relief Of Lucknow, and
the English army, which stood in the
very jaws of death, at the sudden hope
Of assistance and rescue, lifted the
shout above the belching cannon and
the death-groan of hosts crying: "IVe
are saved! We are saved"
My subject affords me opportunity of
what Christian character
nay be under the greatest advantages.
There is no Christian now exactly what
le wants to be. Your standard is
much higher than anything YOU have
attained unto. If there be any man so
,utfed up as to be thoroughly satisfied
With the amount of eXcellency he has
-lready attained, [ have nothing to say
o such one. But to those who are
dissatisfied with past attainmentS, who
re tOlling under disadvantages which
re keeping them from being what ;
hey ought to be, 1 have a message |
rom God. You each of you labor un- ,
er difficulties. There is something in |
our temperament; in your worldly cir ]
in your calling, that acts s
owerfully against you. Admitting all
his, | introduce to you Hadassah of I
he text, noble Christian, notwith-
tanding the most gigantic difficulties. {
he whom you might have expected to |
e one Of the worst Of women, is one $
f the best.
In the first place, our subject is an |
lustrat ton Of what Christian charac- c
er may be under orphanage. This '
'lble line tells long story about |
ladassah. ''She had neither father nor
lother." A nObleman has become her t
but there is no one who can t
AXE the place of a parent. An indi-
ldual will go through life bearing r
ne marks of orphanage. 1t will re- c
uire more strength, more persistence, S
lore grace, to make such an one the t
ght kind Of Christian. He who !
40 years loses parent must reel J
nder the blow. Even down to old fl
ye men are accustomed to RELY h
pom the counsel or be powerfully in n
uenced by the advice of is, if d
hey are still alive. But how much d
reater the bereavement when it comes o
early life before the character IS il