The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1888-08-23

DduU, OF Tile ldtutI, 10 uCtlu. IhO ca
penses of the obsequies have absorbed all
that was left in the savings bank; and
wan and wasted with weeping and
watching, she goes forth "a grave, a
hearse, a coffin, behind her-to
contend for her existence and
the existence of her children. When
I see such battle as that open shut my
eyes at the ghastliness of the spectacle.
Men sit with embroidered slippers and
write heartless essays about women's
wages; bat that question is made up OF
tears and blood, and there is more blood
than tears. Oh, give women free access
to all the realms where she can get live
ihood, from the telegraph office to the
pulpit. Let mems wages be cut down
before hers are cut down. Men have
iron in their souls and can stand it,
Make the way free to her of the broken
heart. May God put into my hand the
cold, bitter cup of privation, and give me
nothing but windowless hut for shelter
for many years, rather than that after
I am dead there should go out from my
home into the pitiless world a woman's
arm to fight the Gettysburg, the Auster-
itz, the Waterloo of life, for bread.
And yet how many women there are
seated between the rock of bereavement
on the one side, and the rock of destitu
ton on the other, Bozez and Seneh in
terlocking their shadow and dropping
them upon her miserable way. ''There
is a sharp rock ON the one side, and a
sharp rock on the other side." What
are such to do2 Somehow, let them
climb up into the heights of the glorious
promise: leave thy fatherless children; !;
1 will preserve them alive, and let thy
widows trust in me- Or getup into the
heights of that other glorious promise:
''The Lord preserveth the stranger and
relieveth the widow and the fatherless. :"
O! We sewing woman ON starving wages.
O.! ye widows turned out from the
once beautiful home. OF ye female
teachers, kept on niggardly stipend. o.!
ye despairing woman, seeking in vain for
work, wandering, along the docks, and
thinking to throw yourself into the river
last night. o! ye women of weak nerves
and aching sides, and short breath and
broken heart, you need something more
than human sympathy; you need the
sympathy of God Climb up into his
arms. He knows it ALL and he loves you
more than father, Oh mother, or husband
ever could or ever did; and instead of sit
ting down, wringing your hands in des-
pair, you had better begin to climb.
| There are heights of consolation for you,
though now ''there is a sharp rock on
the one side, and sharp rock on the
other side"
Again, that man is in the crisis of the
text who has a wasted life on tn one
sido and an unillumined eternity on the
other Though a man may all his life
have cultured dehberation and self poise,
if he gets into that position all his self
possession is gone. There are all the
wrong thoughts of his existence, all the
wrong deeds, all the wrong words
strata above strata, granite, ponderous,
overshadowing That rock call Bozez.
| On the other side are all the retributions
of the future, the thrones of judgment,
the eternal ages, angry with his long de-
Gance. That rock l call Seneh. Between
bhese two rocks Lord Byron perished, and
Alcibiades perished, and Herod perished.
and ten thousand times ten thousand
1 have perished. o! man immortal, man
redeemed, man blood-bought, climb up
out of those shadows. Climb up by the
way of the cross. Have your wasted
life forgiven; have your eternal life Sc
cured. This morning just take one look
to the past and see what it has been, and
take one look to the future and see what
it threatens to be. You can afford to
lose your health, you can afford to lose
your property, you can afford to lose
your reputation; but you cannot afford
to lose your soul. That bright, glean-
ing, glorious, precious, eternal possession
you must carry aloft in the day when
the earth burns up and the heavens
burst.
| You see from my subject that when a
man goes into the safety and peace OF
the Gospel, he does not demean himself
There is nothing in religion that leads
to meanness or unmanliness. The Cos
pei of Jesus Christ only asks you tt
climb as Jonathan did-climb toward
God, climb toward heaven, climb int
the sunshine of Gods favor. To become
a Christian is not to go meanly down
it is to come gloriously up-up into th'
communion of saints, up into the peace
that passeth all understanding, up int
the companionship of angels. He live
up; he dies up.
o! then, accept the wholesale invita-
ton which make this morning to all tn,
people. Come up from between you
invalidism and financial embarrassments
Come up from between your bereave
ments and your destitution. Come III
from between wasted life and an unil
lumined eternity. Like Jonathan, climl
with all your might, instead of sttin.
down to wiring your hands in the SHADOW
and in the darkness-''a sharp rock OF
the one side, and sharp rock ON til