The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1915-07-08
WHEN OUR TESTS COME.

uary, 1916.
WHEN OUR TESTS COME
How strong we are until we are put to the
test! We observe others in their times of
stress and compare ourselves, as rule,
with those who endure their trials with the
most courage. Not for moment do we
believe ourselves incapable of meeting any
emergency that may arise and we have
little patience with those whom we think
are not equal to their tests. Criticism is one
of the readiest weapons at our command
and we do not hesitate to use it upon occa-
sion. Our tests, however, while of the same
general nature are vastly different in their
immediate bearing upon our interests, and
many of them are not really the trials that
we think they are. We know our tests we'll
enough, however, when they come; there
is no doubt about them and the only ques-
ton is how are we to meet them? Before
their advent We feel ourselves prepared to
cope with any emergency possible, but
happiness gives US strength and it is only
when that is threatened and we are forced
to taste of the cup that others have drained
that we know what it means to have to stand
up to our tests or else exhibit the same
weakness of character which we have crit
icized in others. No one can know before
hand just how he shall meet any new ex-
perience, whether it be of joy or sorrow,
or whether it holds opportunity or denial,
and time alone tells the story. We cannot
expect to live always in the bright glow of
contentment that would be too ideal an
existence and life as we know it is seldom
ideal as whole. 1t may be so in some re-
spects, but there is generally something
lacking which prevents it from being wholly
ideal and it is largely because of it's human
aspects that this is so. Life demands many
different kinds of tests from US and it re-
quires high courage and indomitable will
to measure up to them all with equal salts
faction. We go on from day to day and
make our plans for the future as though we
alone were its arbiters; We make out a
schedule, as it were, of all the things that
we intend doing in the future just ahead of
us; We count upon this or that condition of
affairs and plan our actions accordingly
but we seldom count upon even the normal
changes which are natural in life. Then
something happens to alter all our plans;
some special interest is taken away from US;
some turn of fortune upsets all our calcula-
tons and instead of the pleasant realiza-
tons we anticipated we find ourselves
forced to assume far different responsible
ties and to accustom ourselves to strange
conditions.
1t is not hard to meet some of the tests
which are required of US if we possess in
even slight degree the courage of our
convictions and the common sense to make
the best of whatever fortune comes our
way. The tests that count, however, are
those that make heavy demands upon our
strength of character and our integrity of
purpose and unless we are we'll equipped
with both of these characteristics the
chances are that we shall not measure 10
fully to our tests. Moral courage is the
basis of the preparation necessary to our
acceptance of life's hardest conditions and
naturally the more exacting these condi-
tons the greater the demand upon such
courage. There are times, indeed, when
we feel that for all our boasted strength it
is impossible to even undertake to meet
certain conditions. We keep contrasting
the present with the past, the emptiness OF
to-day with the fullness of yesterday, the
lack of interest we feel with the ioy of liv :
ing that was ours before sorrow swept il
aside. Even so. however, there is strength
somewhere in our natures to take up the
task of saving something at least of the
beautiful treasure that once was ours. The
very change that comes to US in such con
ditions is often the needed element to make
more perfect the natures that God has eiver
US, for without loss of some kind, whether
through grief or disappointment, through
the separations Of death or the denial of HIGH
ambitions, We cannot rise to the heights o.
the experience which God has marked ou
for US. We cannot expect to perfect our.
selves until we know something of thu
deeper meanings of this life that we are
called upon to live, something of it's denial.
as we'll as its realities, its losses and it,
gains, its woes, too, as we'll as its lows
Without the Illuminating influences o
experience our powers of comprehension
become dwarfed and our facilities fo
learning something of the deeper forces
OF existence few and far between. W,
would not know how to respond to tn,
calls that are made upon us if we did no
have something to go by, some standard tt
set for ourselves, some knowledge of Ger
tain hard and cruel truths which come t,
US from time to time. Our tests arise un.
expectedy and whether we meet them il
the proper spirit and in the way in which
God would like US to meet them, depends
upon our sincerity of purpose in meeting
the ordinary experiences Of every day life
New Works fire loss during 1914 wa,
S8,217,811.