Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1894-10-13
been one Of tho pest Of the world 8
Christians
An Unhappy Childhood.


remarkable early privileges Perhaps,
like the beautiful captive Of the text,
you were an orphan. You had huge sor-
rows in your little heart You some
times wept in the night when you know
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 whom you
camo home from long journey. You
still feel the effect Of early disadvan-
tages, aud you have sometimes offered
Thorn as a reason for your not being as
thoroughly religious as you would like
to be. But these excuses are not sufh-
cient Gods grace will triumph If you
seek It, He knows what obstacles you
have fought against, and the moro trial
the moro help. After ALL there arc no
orphans in the world. for tho groat God
is tho Father Of Us all.
Again, our subject is an illustration
Of what religion may be under the pres
suro Of poverty. Tho captivity and
crushed condition of this orphan girl
and Of the kind man who adopted nor
suggest condition Of poverty. Yet from
tho very first acquaintance we had with
Haaassah we find her tho samo happy
and contentod Christian. 1t was only
by compulsion she was afterward taken
into o sphere Of honor and affluonce. In
tho humble homo Of Mordecai, hor
adopted father, she was light that IL
lunined every privation. In some period
In almost every mans life there comes
season of straitencd circumstances,
when tho sevorost calculation and most
scraping economy aro necessary IN order
to subsistence and rospectability AT
tho commencement of business, at the
entrance upon profession, whom
friends are few and the world is afraid
Of you because there is possibility OF
failure, many of tho noblost hearts have
struggled against poverty and are now
struggling.
Tho Wear OF Anxiety.
To suoh L bear o message Of good
cheer. You say 1t Is 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
tine to think about laying mp treasures
In heaven when it Is matter of great
doubt whether you will be enabled to
pay your next quarters rent. You can
not think Of striving after a robe OF
RI hteousness until you can get means
enough to buy an overooat to keep out
the cold. You want the bread OF life,
but you think you must get along with
out that until you can buy another bar
rel 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 damask ottoman, may scout at
such class of temptations, bat those
who themselves have been In the strug-
gle and grip Of hard misfortune oan 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 ou: 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 1t
as we'll Us you know It, Your easy times
will como after awhile. Do not let your
spirits break down midlife What II
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 spisits are not suffi-
ciont. The power Of the gospel-that is
what you want to wrench despair out OF
tho 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. Tho inspired
record says of the heroine Of my text,
She was fair ind beautiful. !" Her very
name signified u myrtle. " Yet the adj
miration and praise and f1attery 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 on the roses cheek, and the
Wilderness into the lily, and the CLEAN
on the wave, and that puts color in the
cheek and sparkle i'll the eye, and maj
esty in the forehead, and symmetry into
the form, and gracefulness into the gait,
but many through the very charm OF
their personal appearance have been de-
stroyed. What simperings and affecta-
tions and impertinenoes have often been
the result Of that which God has sent as
blessingl Japonicas, anemones and
heliotropes never swagger at the beauty
which God planted In their very leaf,
sepal, a1il and stamen. There are many
flowers that bow down so modestly You
cannot zoe the color In their cheek until
you lift up. their hoad, putting your
hand under their round chin Indeed
any kind Of personal attractions, wheth.
or they be those Of the body. the mind
or the. heart, may become temptations
to pride and arbitrariness and foolish
assumption. The neurological story OF
a man who. seeing himself mirrored in
O stream, became so epamored Of his ap-
pearance that he died Of tho effects IL
Illustrates tho fatalities under which
thousands of both sexes have fallen By
the view Of their own superiority. Ex.
treordinary capacities cause eItraordi-