The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1894-10-10

Whatever may be the comfort and
adornment Of your present home, you
cannot forget the place of your birth,
though 1t may have been lowly and un-
honored. You often dream Of your
youthful days, and in the silent twi-
light run off to the distant land and
seem to see your forsaken home, just as
It was when your people were all alive.
Ihough you may have hundreds OF
friends around you, you often feel that
you are strangers In a strange land.
God saw the bitter partings when your
families were scattered. He watched
you in the ships cabin houndering in
the stormy seas, He knew the bewil-
derment of your Decentralization on
strange shore, and your wanderings up
and down this land have been under an
eye that never sleeps, and felt by
heart that always pities. Stranger far
from home, you have a companion in
the beautiful Hadassah, as good in
Shushan as in her native Jerusalem. In
deed, very many of you are distant
from the place of your nativity. Some
OF you may be pilgrims from the warm
south, or from harder climes than
ours, from latitudes of deeper
SHOWS and sharper frosts. You have
come down in these regions for pur-
poses Of thrift and gain. You have
brought your tents and pitched them
here, and you seldom now go back
again except to visit the old village
with wide streets and plenty Of trees,
on some holiday. This is not the eli
mate in which many Of you were born.
These mothers are not the neighbors
who came to the old homestead to greet
you into life. These churches are not
those under the shadow of which your
grandfather was buried. These are not
the ministers of Christ who out of the
baptismal font sprinkled your baby
brow. Far away the kirkl Far away
the homestead! Far away the townl
Have you formed habits which would
not have seemed right in the places
and times Of which we speak? Have
you built an altar in your present
abodeP Is the religion of olden time
once planted in your heart come up In
glorious harvest? Is your present home
a eulogy upon that from which you
were transplanted? Then are ye wor-
thy companions of Hadassah, the
stranger as holy in Shushan as in
Jerusalem.
Again, our subject illustrates what
religion may be under the temptation
ofpersonal attractiveness. The inspired
record says Of the heroine Of my text:
"She was fair and beautiful" Her very
name signifed, "a myrtle" Yet ths
admiration, and praise and fattery OF
the world did not blight her humility.
The simplicity of her manners and BE-
havior equalled her extraordinary at
fractions. 1t is the same divine good
ness which puts the tinge on the roses
cheek, and the whiteness into the lily,
and the CLEAN on the wave, and thst
puts color in the cheek, and sparkle In
the eye, and majesty In the forehead,
and symmetry into the form, and grace
fulness into the gait. But many
through the very charm of their per
sonal appearance have been destroyed
What simperings, and affectations and
impertinenoes have often been the re-
suit of that which God sent as bless
ing. Japonieas, anemones and hello
tropes never swagger at the beauty
which God planted in their very leaf
sepal, axil and stamen. There are many
flowers that bow down so modestly you
cannot see the color in their cheek un
til you lift up their head, putting
your hand under their round chin. In
deed, any kind Of personal attractions
whether they be those Of the body, the
mind, or the heart, may become tempta
tions to pride, and arbitrariness, ant
foolish assumption. The mythologica
story of man who seeing himself mir
ored in a stream became so enamorec
of his appearance that he died of the
effects. illustrates the fatalities un
der which thousands of both sexeI
have fallen by the view of their OWL
superiority. Extraordinary capacitie.
cause extraordinary temptations. Mer
who have good moral health down il
the valley, on top Of the mountain!
are seized with consumption. Monima
the wife of Mithridates, was strangleC
with her own diadem. Whilst the most
of us will not have the same kind o.
temptation which Hadassah must have
felt from her attractiveness of per
sonal appearance, there may be some
to whom it will be an advantage t.
hold up the character of the beautiful
captive, who sacrificed not her humil
ity and earnestness of disposition tt
the worlds admiration and flattery
The chief secret of the beauty of thC
violet is that, away down in the grass
from one weeks end to another, i
never mistrusts that it is violet.
Again, our subject exhibits what re
ligion may be under bad domestic in
fuences. Hadassah was snatched from
the godly home into which she haC
been adopted, and introduced into tn,
abominable associations of whicl
wicked Ahasuerus was the center
What whirl of blasphemy and drunk
enness and 'licentiousness. No altar
no prayer, no Sabbath, no Godl If thi
captive girl can be a Christian there
then it is possible to be Christian
anywhere. There are many of the bes
people of the world who are obliged
to contend with the most adverse do
mestic influences, children who hav,
grown up into the love of God under tn,