The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1901-03-14

How many mel. do you know worth ;:
$25O,OO0 who are devout and conse- !;
Grated and humble and generous and |
employing their means for the worlds |
redemption? You could count them !
up ON the fingers of your two hands, !
even if by accident or war you had /
lost one or two OF your fingers. As
to the realm of personal attractive
ness, how many women radiant OF
countenance and graceful of form do
you know who are unaffected and nat
ural of manner and deeply pious be-
fore God, using their beauty for the
betterment of the world and not for
selfish purposes? only take the risk
of asking the question and leave to
you the risk of answering it. These
things 1 say to show you that in order
to have the promise of the text full
filled in your case it is not necessary
you have phenomenal worldly success.
Notice also that God gives the
righteous the power to extract good
out of evil and by divine chemistry
to change the bitter into the sweet
and the harmful into the beneficial.
The promise that it shall be well with
you does not imply that you are to be
| free from trouble. There is no escape
from that. We all have family rela-
| tions, and some of them will be max
| ing exit from this world, SO that be-
| reavement is the universal inherit
| ance. So also is financial loss. The
| difference between the prospered and
those not prospered is the difference
in the amount they can afford to lose.
| The more wealth a man has the more
he can lose, but one man can afford
to lose million dollars where anoth-
er man cannot afford to lose one dol
lar. On larger or smaller scale all
suffer financial loss. Amid the rapid
ity of the revolutions of the wheel OF
national and international finance
monetary perplexity is as common as
day or night.
Financial loss. which just now said
is sure to come, never breaks up a
man who has strong faith in God. In
most cases it is loss of surplus or it
is the banishment of luxuries. Most
of the wants of the prosperous classes
are artificial wants. The late Mr.. Ar
mour of the $6O,oOO,O0O estate pointed
to one of his clerks on ordinary salary
and said: "That man has better ap-
petite than I, sleeps better nights and
enjoys life more than | do" Oh. the
gigantic miseries of those who have
too much! A man in Solomon's time
expressed as philosophic and reason.
!, able wish as any man of those times
or of our times. His name was Agur
: and he offered prayer that he might
never have a superabundance or 9
/ deficit, crying out: "Give me neither
poverty nor riches" On the one sidt
5 he had seen the awful struggle of thu
: poor to get food and clothes and shel
ter and to educate their children, ant
= on the other side he had seen tht
4 gouty foot and the indigestion, ant
/ the insomnia, and the anxiety abou
n large investments, and the Threatened
$ paresis often characteristic of thost
s who are loaded up and loaded dow
$ with too many successes. Those peo
e pie who are generally called the mass
e es-that is, the most of folks-hav
: the things absolutely necessary TO
Y their well being. They have no Mu
S rillos on their wall, nor 'Belshazzar'
|, Feast" in the dining room. nor pal
e of $4,000 sorrels at their doorway
# But they have something which thos
+ superabundantly supplied seldom have
). They have better health because, be
y ing compelled to walk, they get tn
h necessary exercise, and, their diet bs
n ing limited to plan food, they do nc
If suffer from midnight salads and al
is not victimized by rare caterers. The
# retire for wholesome sleep at the yer
e hour in which others are leaving the
= homes for the dance or the card part.
h They will sleep the last sleep just &
d well in the plain graveyard as tho:
t who have over them an arch of sculI
n tured granite in costliest necropol
"a or most historical abbey.
is The reason SO many people are mi
,e erable is because they do not let we
of enough alone. They are in one occ
ne patton and see it's annoyances and
t. change to another occupation and fiji
as many annoyances, if not NOR
lie They live in one place and know i
is uncomfortable environments and mo
i'll into another place which has just
No many limitations. Their investmen
is yield them four per cent. and they 81
w. out to make investments that W
I'd Weld ten per cent. and lose all. Bs
r. ter settle down and stop fretting abo
he yourself and the world.
Id Do any of us fully realize the ia
Ike that God gives US three things in U
IT. limited supply, although no forml
n # PRAYER that ever heard recogniz
ot them-water, air and sunlight? Wat
it by the riverfull. Water by the lakef
to Water by the oceanful. Some for alb
ed ton, some for shaking of thirst, sol
,u- for baptistery, some for fountains a
1t aquariums. l never appreciated WI
.er a wonderful thing water is until |;
ses summer l stood by the fountains beft
mt and around the emperor's palace at
nd terhof, Russia. l had been famil
ap- with this wonderful element of nat,
,rk from childhood, having been born
L f..l D.r-