The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1896-06-25

| cruelty TO Cnlluren, Wnere children are put
on the limits and whacked and cuffed and
ear pulled and senselessly called to order
and answer sharp and suppressed until it is a
wonder that under such processes they do
not all turn out Modocs and Mana Sahibs.
| What is your influence upon the neighbor-
hood, the town or the city of your residence?
| will suppose that you are a star of wit.
! What kind of rays do you shoot forth? Do
you use that splendid faculty to irradiate
the world or to rankle it? 1 bless all the
apostolic college of humorists. The man
that makes me laugh is my benefactOr. | do
not thank anybody to make me cry? I can
do that without any assistance. We all cry
enough. and have enough to cry about. God
bless all skillful punsters. all reparteests,
all propounders of ingenious conumdrums.
all those who mirthfully surprise us with I'M
usual juxtaposition of words. Thomas Hood
and Charles Lamb and Sidney Smith had Il
divine mission, and so have their successors
in these times. They stir into the acid bev
erage of life the saccharne. They make the
| cup Of earthly existence, which Is sometimes
stale, effervesce and bubble. They placate
animosities. They foster longevity. They
Stay fOllies and absurdities which all the SER
mons of all the pulpits cannot reach.
| They have for examples Eli ah, who made
! fun of the Baalites when they called down
| fire, and 1t did not come, suggesting that
their heather god had gone hunting. or was
off on journey, or was asleep, and nothing
but vociferation could wake him, saying,
| "Cry aloud for he is god. Either he is
| talking or pursuing or peradventure he
Sleepeth and must be awaked." They have
al example in Christ. who with healthful
sarcasm showed up the lying, hypocritical
Pharisees by suggesting that such perfect
people like themselves needed no improve
ments. saying. "The whole need not a ply
stefan but they that are sick.
But what use are you making of your wit?
Is it besmirched with profanity and unclean-
ness? Do you employ it in amusement at
physical defects for which the victims are
not responsible? Are your powers of MIN
lcry used to put religion in contempt? Is it
a bunch of nettleSOme invective? Is it a bolt
Of I'm ust scorn? Is it fun at others misfor-
tune? Is it glee at their disappointment and
defeat? Is it bitterness put drop by drop
into a cupY Is it like the squeezing of Ar
temisia absinthium into a draught al
ready pungant? Then you are the star
Norwood. Yours is the fun of a rattle
snake trying how we'll 1t can sting. 1t is the
fun of a hawk trying how quickly it can
strike out the eye of dove.
But l will change this and suppose you are
a star Of Worldly Prosperity. Then you
have large opportunity You can encourage
improve the fields, the stables, the highway,
by introducing higher style of fowl and
horse and COW and sheep. You can bless the
world with genealogical achievement in the
orchards. You can advance arboriculture
and arrest this beautiful iconoclasm of the
American forests. You can put a piece of
sculpture into the niche of that public
academy. You can endOw a college. You
can stocking thousand bare feet from the
winter frost. You can build church. You
can put missionary of Christ on that
foreign shore. You can help ransom world.
A rich man with his heart right-can you
| tell me how much good a james Lenox or a
George Peabody or a Peter Cooper or a
William E. Dodge did while living, or is
doing now that he is dead? There is not a
city. town or neighborhood that has not
glorious specimens Of consecrated wealth.
But suppose you grind the face of the
poor. suppose when mans wages are due
you make him wait for them because he can
not help himself. Suppose that, because his
family Is sick and he has had extra expenses,
he should politely ask you to raise his wages
Tor this year and you roughly tell him if he
wants better place to go and get it. Sup
pose by your manner you act as though he
were nothing and you were everything. Sup
pose you are selfish and overhearing and ar
roSant. Your first name ought to be Attila
aud your last name Attila, because you are
the star Norwood. and you have imblttered
one-third If not three-thirds of the waters
liltt ION past your tupiOSeS dlu
and dependents and associates, and the long
line of carriages which the undertaken orders
for your funeral in order to make the occa-
sion respectable, will be filled with twice as
many dry, fearless eyes as there are persons
occupying them.
There is an erroneous idea abroad that
there are only few genuses. There art
millions of them-that is. men and womer
who have especial adaptation and Quickness
for some one thing. 1t may be great it may
be small. The circle may be like the circum
terence OF the earth or no larger than q thin
bic. There are thousands of geniuses. and
in some one thing you are a star. Wha
kind of star are you? You will be in thi:
world but a few minutes. As compared witt
eternity tho stay of the longest life on eartf
is not more than a minute. What are W,
doing with that minute? Are we imbitterine
the domestic or social or political fountains
or are we like Moses, who, when the Israelite
} in the wilderness complained that the water:
of Lake Marah were bitter and they coulc
not drink them, cut off the branch of a Ger
tain tree and threw that branch into thu
water, and it became sweet and slakei the
thirst of the suffering host? Are we with
branch of the Tree of Life sweetening all tn,
brackish fountains that we can touch?
J Dear Lord, send US all out on that mission
> All around us imbittered Iives-imbit
, tered by prosecution. imbittered by hyper
criticism, lmDlttered by poverty, I'M
Uttered by pain, imbittered by injustice
imbittered by sin. Why not go forth and
, sweeten them by smile, by inspiring words
by benefactions, by hearty counsel, by prayer
} by gospelized behavior? Let us remembe
} that If we are NORWOOD to others we ar,
NORWOOD to ourselves, and our life will bt
bitter and our eternity bitterer. The gospe
r of Jesus Christ is the only sweetening power
+ that is sufficient. 1t sweetens the DISPOSE
tion. 1t sweetens the manners. T. sweeten
life. 1t sweetens mysterious providences
} 1t sweetens Affections. 1t sweetens death
5 1t sweetens everything. I have heard PEG
pie asked in social company. "If you coul,
have three wishes gratitied what would you
three wishes be2' If 1 could have thre
! wishes met this morning. tell you VIVA
they would be: /. More of the grace of God
.. More of the grace of God. g. More of tn
f grace of God. In the dooryard of m,
= brother John, missionary in Annoy, China
. there was tree called the emperor tree, thu
l TWO characteristics of which are that it al
t ways grows higher than it's surround
l ings, and its leaves take the form of
n crown. If this emperor tree be planted
4 by rosebush, it grows little highe
4 than the bush and spreads out above it a
crown. II it be planted by the side of an
l other tree, it grows a little higher than thai
l Tree and spreads above 1t a crown. Would