Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1894-10-13

Ao" EA'ttti ttst
when il comes i'll early life, before tho
character is self reliant, and when nat
urally the heart is unsophisticated and
easily tempted.
And yet behold what nobility of
disposition Hadassah exhibited Though
father and mother We're gone, grace had
triumphed over all disadvantages Her
willingness to self sacrifice, her control
over the king. her humility, her faith
full worship of God, show her to have
been one of the best of the worlds
Christians.
An Unhappy Childhood.
There are those who did not enjoy
remarkable early privileges. Perhaps.
like the beautiful captive of the text,
you were an orphan. You had huge sor-
rows i'll your little heart. You some
times wept i'll the night when you knew
not what was the matter. You felt sad
sometimes even OH 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, aud you have sometimes offered
them as reason for your not being rs
thoroughly religious as you would like
to be. But these excuses are not sufii
cient Gods grace will triumph if 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 pres
sure 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 afterward taken
into n sphere of honor and affiuence. In
the humble home of Mordecai, her
adopted father, she was light that IL
lumined every privation. In some period
in almost every mans life there comes
season of straitencd circumstances,
when the seyerest calculation and most
scraping economy are necessary in order
to subsistence and respectability. AT
the commencement of business. at the
entrance upon n profession, when
friends are few and the world is afraid
of you because there is possibility of
failure, many of the noblest hearts have
struggled against poverty and are now
struggling.
The Wear of Anxiety.
1 IT, Ng
cheer. You say it is a hard thing for
you to be 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 l tell that this is the
very trouble which keeps you from be-
ing 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
righteousness 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 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 i'll satin slippers, with their
feet ON damask ottoman, may scout at
such class of temptations, but those
who themselves have been i'll the strug-
gle and grip of hard misfortune can 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
tie! 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 hcarths. 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 midlife. What if
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. IL you cannot afford
to smoke, You can afford to whistle
But merely animal spirits are not suffi-
cient. The power of the gospel-that is
what you want TO wrench despair out OF
the soul and put you forward into the
| .F So,
BILE armor.
Beauty and Its Perils.
Again, our subject illustrates what
religion may ne under the temptation of
personal attractiveness. Tho inspired
record says of the heroine of my text,
She was fair and beautiful. Her very
name signified "a myrtle" Yet the adj
miration and praise and flattery 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 OH the roses cheek, and the
whiteness into the lily, and the gleam
Oh the wave, and that puts color i'll the
cheek and sparkle in the eye, and maj
esty i'll 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 impertinences have often been
the result of that which God has sent as
blessing. Japonicas. anemones and
heliotropes never swagger ut the beauty
which God planted i'll their very leaf,
sepal, axil and stamen. There are many
flowers that bow down so modestly You
cannot see the color i'll their check until
you lift up their head, putting your
hand under their round chin. Indeed
any kind of personal attractions, wheth-
er 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