The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1888-02-16

| until Justice - done 10 your sex ny ens
laws OF all the States, women Of
America, take the platforms and the pull
pits, and no honorable man will charge
Vashti with having lost her vail.
Again. want you this morning to con.
| slider Vashti the sacrifice. Who Is this
that see coming out of that palace gate
| Of Shushanf 1t seems to me that i have
seen her before. She comes homeless
houseless, friendless, trudging along with
q brokon heart, Who Is shei IL Is Vashti
the sacrifice. o. what a change 1t was
from regal position to a wayfarer's crust.
| A little while ago approved and sought
| for; now none so poor as to acknowledge
her acquaintnnceship. Vashti the sacrihce
| All, you and l have seen IL many
| time. Here Is a home empalaced with
| beauty. All that refinement, and books,
| and wealth can do for that home has been
done; but Ahasuerus, the husband and
the father, Is taking hold on paths Of sin.
| He Is gradually going down. After time
| he will founder and struggle like wild
beast in the hunters net-furthsr away
| from God, further away from the
right. Soon the bright apparel OF the
children will turn to rags; soon the house
| hold song will become the sobblng
| of n broken heart. The old story over
again. Brutal Centaurs breaking up the
marriage feast Of Dapith@. The house
full Of outrage. and cruelty and abomina.
ton, while trudging forth from the palace
gate are Vashti and her children. There
are homes represented in this house this
morning that are in danger Of such
breaking up. o, Ahasuerus, that you
should stand In home, by dissipated
life destroying the peace and comfort of
that home. God forbid that your chill.
Nl,,s- lVs,g rNa
and have people point their finger at
them as they pass down the street
and say: "There goes a drunkard's
child" God forbid that thu lit.
tie feet should ever have TO trudge the
path of poverty and wrotchedneSs. God
forbid that any evil spirit, horn of the
wine cup or the brandy flask, should
come forth and uproot that garden, and,
with blasting, blistering, all-coasuminG
curse, shut forever the pa ace gate against
Vashti and the children.
Oh the women and the men OF sacrifice
are going to lake the brightest coronalS
Of Heaven. This woman of the text gave
up palatial residence, gave up all for
what she considered right. Sacrificed Is
there anything more sublime'
A steamer called the Prairie Ia'e, burn
ing on the Mississippi river, BlndSo, the
engineer, declared he would keep the bow
Of the boat to the shore till all we're off,
and he kept his promise. At his post,
scorched and blackened, he persisted. but
he saved all the passengers. Two verses
Of pathetic poetry describe the scene but
the verses are q little rough, and so j
changed word or two:
Through the hot, black breath Of the burctng
Jim Budso's voice heard,
And they all had trust in his stubbornnesA
And knew he would keep his word.
And sure's you're born, thew all got OF
Afore the smoke-stacks fell:
And Bludsos ghost vert up above
In the smoke OF the Prairie Belle.
He weren't no saint, but at Judgment
Ia run my chance h Jim
'Longside OF some pious gentlemen
That wouldn't shake hands with him.
He'd seen his duty a dead sure thing,
And went for it there and then,
And Christ is not ing to be too hard
On man that died for men.
Once more. l want you to look al
Vashti the silent. You do not hear any
outcry from this woman as she goes forth
from the palace gate. From the very
dignity of her nature you know there will
be no vociferation. Sometimes in life it is
necessary to make a retort; sonnet lines in
| life il is necessary to resist; but there are
crises when the most triumphant thing
to do to keep silence. The philosopher,
confident in his newly d scovered prin.
cple, waited for the coming Of more in.
| tellgent generations, will ng that
men should laugh at the light.
ming rod and cotton gin and
misunderstanding for long years
| through the soothing and philosophical
schools, in grand and magnificent silence.
Calico, condemned by mathematicians,
and monks, and cardinals; caricatured
everywhere, yet waiting and watching
| with his telescope to see the coming up OF
| stellar achievements, when the stars ir
| their courses would fight for the Copper.
| nican system; then 81 ting down in COM
| plete blindness and deafness to wait fol
the coming on of the generations who
would build his monument and bow a
his grave. The reformer, execrated by
| his contemporaries, fastened in pillory,
the slow fires of public contempt burning
under him, ground under the cylinders of
the printing press, yet calmly waiting
for the day when purity of soul and hero
| is m of character will get the sanction OF
of earti4 and the plaudts of Heaven. AT
Fl ction, enduring without any complaint
the sharpness of the pang, and the
violence of the torn, and the heft Of the
| CudlH1 anu tu6 udlhHeSS VI Luo hiSuG-
waiting until a divine hand shall
| be put forth to soothe the
pang and hush the storm, and re-
lease the captive. A wife abused perse.
cuted, and a perpetual exile from every
earthly comfort-waiting, waiting until
the Lord shall gather up his dear CHR
| dren in a heavenly home, and no rool
| Vashti will ever b. thrust out frO1 the
palace gate. Jesus, in silence and an
swering not a word, drinking the gall,
bearing the cross, in prospect of the rapt-
| urous consummation when
Angels thronged His chariot wheel,
| And bore Him to His throne;
Then swept their golden harps and sung
| The glorious work is done.
! An Arctic explorer found ship float
| ing helplessly about among the icebergs,
and going on board he found that the
| captain was frozen at his log-book, and
| the helmsman was frozen at the wheel,
and the men on the lookout were frozen
in their places That was awful, but mag
nificent. All the Arctic blasts and all the
| icebergs could not drive them from theiT
duty. Their silence was louder than
thunder. And this old ship of world
has many ut their posts in the awful
chill of neglect. and frozen of the worlds
scorn, and their silence shall be the
eulogy of the skies, and be rewarded
long after this weather-beaten craft Of a
planet shall have made its last voyage.
thank God that the mightiest infu.