The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1898-12-01
NO. 40.

cciling serpent with her right nd.
No tears. Comrades of the little one
came in and wept over the coffin;
neighbors came in and the moment
they saw the still face of the child the
shower broke. No tears for her. God
gives tears as the summer rain to the
parched soul; but in all the universe
the driest and hottest the most scorch-
ing and consuming thing is a mothers
heart if she has neglected her child,
when once it is dead. God may for
give her, but she will never forgive her.
self. The memory will sink the eyes
deeper into the sockets. and pinch the
face, and whiten the hair, and eat up
the heart with vultures that will not
be satisfied, forever plunging deeper
their iron beaks. Oh, you wanderers
from your home. go back to your
duty! The brightest flowers in all the
earth are those which grow in the
garden of a Christian household, clam
bering over the porch of a Christian
home.
Here are a man ana wife; they
agree in nothing else. but they agree
they will have a home. They will have
a splendid house, and they think that
if they have house they will have a
home. Architects make the plan, and
the mechanics execute it; the house to
cost 100000. 1t is done. The carpets
are spread; the lights are hoisted;
curtains are hung; cards of invitation
sent out. The horses in gold-plated
harness prance at the gate; guests
flute sounds; the dancers go up and
down; and with one grand whirl the
wealth and the fashion and the mirth
of the great town wheel amid the
pictured walls. Ha! this is happiness.
Float it in the smoking viands; sound
it in the music; whirl it in the dance;
cast it in the snow of sculpture; sound
it up the brilliant stairway; flash it in
the chadelers. Happiness, indeed!
Let us build on the center of the par
lor floor a throne to Happiness; let all
the guests, when come in, bring their
flowers and pearls and diamonds, and
throw them on this pyramid. and let
it be throne; and then let Happi-
ness, the queen, mount the throne,
and we will stand around, and, all
chalices lifted, we will say: Drink,
O queen! live forever!" But the
guests depart, the flutes are
breathless, the last clash of the
impatient hoofs is heard in the
distance, and the twain of the
household come back to see the queen
of happiness on the throne amidst the
Earlor floor. But, alas! as they come
back, the flowers have faded, the sweet
odors have become the smell of char
mel house, and instead of the queen of
happiness there sits there the gaunt
form of Anguish, with bitten lip and
sunken eye, and ashes in her hair.
The romp of the dancers who have left
seems rumbling yet, like jarring thun-
ders that quake the floor and rattle
| the glasses of the feast rim to rim.
The spilled wine on the floor turns to
| blood The wreaths of plush have be-
come wriggling reptiles. Terrors catch
! tangled in the canopy that overhangs
| the couch. \ strong gust of wind
c. mes through the hall and the draw
| ing room and the bed chamber, in
| which all the lights go out. And from
| the lips of the wine breakers come the
words: "Iappiness is not in us!'
And the arches respond: at is not in
! u.s." And the silenced instruments OF
music, thrummed on by invisible fin
gers. answer: ''Hapriness is not in
u.s." And the frozen lips Of Anguish
break open, and seated on the throne
OF wilted flowers. she strikes her Eony
| hands together, and groans: 1T Is
not in me-
That very night clerk with sal
ary of $1,000 a year only one thou
| sand-goes to his home, set up three
| months ago, just after the marriage
dav. Love meets him at the door;
love sits with him at the table; love
talks over the work of the day; love
takes down the Bible and reads of
Him who came our souls to save; and
they kneel, and while they are kneel-
| inr-rioht in that plain room on the
plain carpct-the angels of God build
n throne. not out of flowers that per-
ish and fade away, but out of gar
lands OF Heaven, wreath on top OF
wreath, anaranth on amaranth, until
the throne is done. Then the hacps of
God sounded, and suddenly there APP
pcared one who mounted the throne
with eye so bright and brow so fair
tLat the twain knew it was Christian
love. And they knelt at the foot OF
the throne, and. putting one hand on
each head, she blessed them, and said:
"Happiness is with me- And that
throne of celestial bloom withered not
With the passing years; and the Queen
left not the throne till one day the
married. pair felt stricken in years
felt themselves called away, and kne"
not which way to go. and the queen
hcrnt,cd from the throne, and said:
"Tollow me, and ! will show you ths
S vav up to the realm of everlasting
] love" And so they went up to sins
f songs of love, and walk on pavement
| Of love. and 10 re;cice forever in th
q truth that God is love.
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