The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1898-03-24


uel, her son. and carried it to
the temple every year, will help every
woman in preparing the family ward
robe. The God who opens the Bible
with the story of Abrahams entertain
ment by the three angels on the plains
OF Mamre will help every woman to
hospitality, however rare and embar-
RAISING. 1t is high time that some of
the attention we have been giving to
the remarkable women Of the Bible
remarkable for their virtue, or their
want of it, or remarkable for their
deeds-Deborah and Jezebel, and Hero
dias and Athalia, and Dorcas and the
Marys. excellent and abandoned-it is
high time some of the attention we
have been giving to these conspicuous
women of the Bible be given to Julia,
an ordinary woman. amid ordinary cir
cumstances. attending to duties, and
meeting ordinary responsibilities.
Then there are all the ordinary busi-
ness men. They need Divine and
Christian help. When we begin to
talk ABOUT business life we shoot right
off and talk about men who did busi-
ness on large scale, and who sold
millions of dollars of goods a year; and
the vast majority of business men do
not sell million dollars of goods, nor
half million, nor quarter of a million,
nor the eighth part of million. Put
all the business men of our cities,
towns, villages, and neighborhoods
side by side, and you will find that
they sell less than hundred thou
sand dollars worth of goods. All
those men in ordinary business life
want Divine help. You see how the
wrinkles are printing on the counte-
nance the story OF worriment and care.
You can not tell how old business
man is by looking at him. Gray hairs
at 80. A man at As with the stoop of a
| nonogenarian. No time to attend to
improved dentistry, the grinders cease
because they are few. Actually dying
of old age at 40 or 50, when they ought
to be at the meridian. Many of these
business men have bodies like a
neglected clock, to which you come,
and when you wind it up it begins to
buzz and roar, and then the hands
| start around very rapidly, and then the
| clock strikes five, or ten, or 40, and
strikes without any sense, and then
suddenly stops. So is the body of that
| worn-out businessman. It is neglect
ed clock, and though by some summer
recreation it may be wound up, still
the machinery is all out of gear.
The hands turn around with a
velocity that excites the aston
ishment of the world. Men can
not understand the wonderful activity,
| and there is a roar, buzz, and a rattle
| about these disordered lives, and they
strike IL when they ought to strike six,
and they strike 40 when they ought to
! strike nothing, and suddenly they
stop. Post-mortem examination re-
veals the fact that all the springs, and
| pivots, and weights, and balance
wheels of health are completely de-
| ranged. The human clock is simply
run down. And at the time when the
steady hand ought to be pointing to
the industrious hours on clear and
sunlit dial. the whole machinery OF
body, mind and earthly capacity stops
forever. Oak Hill and Greenwood
have thousands of business men who
died of old age at 80, 35, 40, 45.
Now, what is wanted is grace-di.
vine grace for ordinary business men,
men who are harnessed from morn till
night and all the days of their life
harnessed in business. Not grace to
| 1oSn Ct0n h,,f ~
Not grace to supervise $50 employees in
a factory, but grace to supervise the
bookkeeper. and two statesmen, and the
small boy that sweeps out the store.
Grace to invest not the $4,000 of net
profit, but the $500 of clear gain.
Grace not to endure the loss of a whole
ship load of spices from the Indies, but
grace to endure the loss of paper OF
collars from the leakage of displaced
shingle on a paper roof. Grace not tc
endure the hardness of the American
congress in passing necessary law
but grace to endure the tardiness of ar
errand boy stopping to play marble:
when he ought to deliver the goods
Such grace as thousands of busines:
men have to-day-keeping them tran
quill. whether goods sell or do not sell
whether customers pay Or do not pay
whether tariff is up or tariff is down
whether the crops are luxuriant or {
dead failure-caln in all circumstances
and amid all vicissitudes That is tn,
kind of grace we want.
Millions of men want it. and they
may have it for the asking. Som,
hero or heroine comes to town, and a!
the procession passes through tn,
street the business men come out, stant
on tiptoe on their store step and lool
at some one who, in arctic cline. or il
ocean storm, Or in day of battle, or il
hospital agonies, did the brave thing
not realizing that they, the enthusi
astic spectators, have gone through
trials in business life that are just a
great before God. There are men who
have gone through freezing arctics ant
burning torrents, and awful Marengoe!
of experiences without moving fivt
miles from their own doorstep.
Now, what ordinary business me
need is to realize that they have tn
friendship of that Christ who locke