The Bossier banner., 1894-11-22

e1OAS a u III W IlCdI b prayer,
or at twilight to chide youthful
wanderings, or to soothe youth
full sorrows? An individual will
go through life bearing the marks
of orphanage. 1t will require
more strength, more persistence, more
grace, to make such an one the right
kind of Christian. He who at forty
loses a parent must reel under the
blow. Even down to old age men are
accustomed to RELY upon the counselor
be powerfully influenced by the advice
of parents, if they are still alive. But
how much greater the bereavement
when it comes in early life, before the
character is self-reliant, and when
naturally the heart is unsophisticated
and easily tempted.
And yet behold what nobility of
disposition Hadassah exhibited!
Though father and mother were gone,
grace had triumphed over all disadvan-
tages. Her willingness to self-sacri-
fee; her control over the king; her
humility; her faithful worship of God,
show her to have been one of the best
of the worlds Christians
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 sphere of honor
and atfiuence. In the humble home of
Mordecai, her adopted father, she was
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 respectability. At the commence
ment of business, atthe entrance upon
a profession, when friends are few and
the world is afraid of you because there
is a possibility of failure, many of
the noblest hearts have struggled
against poverty, and are now strug-
Cling. To such l bear message of
good cheer. You sayit is a hard thing
for you to be Christian, This con-
stant 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 I 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 flour for your wife and chill
dren. Sometimes you sit down discour-
aged and almost wish you We're dead.
Christians in satin slippers, with their
feet on damasll 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 jnst 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 luxuries on your. table? High
expectations will make your blood
tingle 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
i1npenetrable arrnor. 1t does not
require extravagant wardrobe and
palatial residence and dashing equi-
page to make 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 a man without a 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
heroisn 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,