The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1899-04-20

unjust scorn? Is it fun at others mis-
fortune? Is it glee at their disap-
pointment and defeat? Is it bitterness
put drop by drop into cup? Is it like
the squeezing of Artemisia absinthium
into draft already distastefully pun
gent Then you are the star Worm
wood. Yours is the fun of rattlesnake
trying how well it can sting. 1t is the
fun of hawk trying how quick it can
strike out the eye of dove.
But1will change this and suppose you
are star of worldly prosperity. Then
you have large opportunity. You can
encourage that artist by buying his pic
ture. You can 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 pomological achievement in the
orchard. You can advance arboricul-
ture and arrest the deathful destruc-
ton of the American forests. You can
put piece of sculpture into the niche
OF that public academy, you can endow
a college, you can stocking 1000 bare
feet from the winter frost. you can
build church, you can put mission
airy of Christ on that foreign shore.
you can help to ransom world. A
rich man with his heart right-can you
tell me how much good James Lenox
or George Peabody or a Peter Cooper
or William E. Dodge did while living
or is doing now that he is dead? There
is not city. town or rneighborhood that
has not glorious specimens of conse-
Grated wealth.
But suppose You grind the face of the
poor. Suppose, when mans wages are
due, you make him wait for them be-
cause he cannot help himself. Suppose
that. because his family is sick and he
has had extra expenses. he should po-
litely ask you to raise his wages. and
you roughly tell him if he wants a
better place to SO and get it. Suppose
by your manner, you act as though he
were nothing and you were everything
Suppose you are selfish and overbear-
ing and arrogant. Your first name
ought to be Attila and your last name
Attila. because you are the star Worm
wood, and you have imbittered one
third if not three-thirds of the waters
that roll past your employees and OPP
eratives and dependents and associates,
and the long line of carriages which the
undertaken orders for your funeral. in
order to make the occasion respectable
will be filled with twice as many dry,
fearless eyes as there are persons oc
cupying them. You will be in this
world but few minutes. As compared
with eternity, the stay of the longest
life on earth is not more than a min
ute. What are we doing with that
minute? Are we imbittering the DO
mestic or social or political fountains,
or are we like Moses. who. when the
Israelites in the Wilderness complained
thst the waters of Lake Marah were
bitter and they could not drink them
their leader cut off the branch of q
certain tree and threw that branch
into the water. and it became sweet and
slaked the thirst of the suffering host :?
Are we with branch of the tree of
life sweetening all the brakish foun-
tains that we can touch?
Dear Lord, send US all out on this
mission. All around us imbittered lives
--imbittered by persecution. imbit
tered by hypercriticism, imbittered by
peyerty. imbittered by pain, imbittered
by injustice. imbittered by sin. Why
not go forth and sweeten them by
smiles. by inspiring words, by benefac-
tions. by hearty counsel, by prayer,
by gospelized behavior? Let us re-
member that if we are wormwood to
others we are wormwood to ourselves.
and our life will be bitter and our eter-
nifty bitterer. The Gospel of Jesus
Christ is the only sweetening power
that is sufficient. II sweetens the dis
position; it sweetens the manners; it
sweetens life; it sweetens mysterious
providences; it sweetens affections;
It sweetens death: it sweetens every
thing. / have heard people asked in
social company: "If you could have
three wishes gratified, what would your
three wishes be?" If l could have
three wishes met, / tell you what they
would be. First, more of the grace
of God; second. more of the grace of
God: third. more of the grace of God
In the doorway of my brother John.
once missionary to Annoy, China there
was tree called the emperor tree, the
two characteristics of which are that it
always grows higher than its sur
roundings, and its leaves take the form
of crown. If this emperor tree be
planted beside rosebush, it grows a
little higher than the bush and spreads
out above it a crown. If it be planted
by the side of another tree. it grows
little higher than that tree and spreads
above it crown. Would God that this
religion of Christ. a more wonderful
emperor tree. might overshadow all
your lives. Are YOU lowly in ambi-
ton or circumstance. putting over you
its crown: Are you high in talent and
position, putting over you its crown?
oh, for more of the saccharin in our
lives and less Of the wormwood!
vvhe% {s, %rue ~ ;pd;v;d,a1s C. frro ~