The western sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1887-1926, 1888-02-23

~dI L"o HOlilCSd SOlOIclo CdiIlS
to Philadelphia ono night, and came I'M
heralded, and they had to extempo,ize a
hospital for them, and the Christian
women of my church and of other
churches went out that night to take care
of the poor wounded fellows. That
night I saw Christian woman go
the wards of the hospital, her
sleeves rolled up ready for hard work,
her hair disheveled in the excitement
of the hour. Her face was plain, very
plain; but after the wounds were
washed and the new bandages were
put round the splintered limbs, and
the exhausted boy fell off into his first
pleasant sleep, she put her hand on his
brow, and he started in his dream and
said: ooh, 1 thought an angel touched
mel" There may have been no classic
elegance in the features of Mrs. Harris,
who came into tho hospital after the
Seven Days awful fight, as she sat
down by a wounded drummer boy and
heard him soliloquize: ga ball through
my body, and my poor mother will never
again see her boy. What pity it is!''
And she leaned over him and said:
''Shall 1 be your mother and comfort
your" And he looked up and said:
eyes, I'll try to think she's here. Please
to write a long letter to her and
tell her all about it, and send
her lock of my hair and comfort her.
But would like to have you tell her how
much sufTered-yes, would like you
to do that, for she would feel SO for me.
Hold my hand while I de- There may
have been no classic elegance in her
features, but all the hospitals of Harri-
sons Landing and Fortress Monroe would
have agreed that she was beautiful; and
if any rough man in all that ward had
insulted her, some wounded soldier
would have leaped from his couch on his
best foot and struck him dead with a
crutch.
Again: advise you not to depend for
happiness upon the batteries of men. It
is poor compliment to your sex that so
many men feel obliged in your presence
to offer unmeaning compliments. Men
capable of elegant and elaborate CONVEX
sation elsewhere, sometimes feel called
upon at the door of the drawing room to
drop their common sense and to dole out
sickening batteries. They say things
about your dress, and about your ap-
pearanco, that you know, and they know,
are false. They say you are an angel.
You know YOU are not. Determined to
tell the truth in Office, and store, and
shop they consider it honorable to lie to
a woman. The same thing that they
told you on this side of the drawing
room three minutes ago they said to some
one on the other side of the drawing
room. Oh, let no one frample on your
self respect. The meanest thing on
which woman can build her happiness
is the batteries of mon.
Again: charge you not to depend for
happiness upon the discipleship of world
illness. / have seen men as vain of their
oldfashioncd and their eccentric hat as
your brainless fop is proud of his dang
ling fooleries. Fashion sometimes makes
reasonable demand of US, and then we
ought to yield to it. The daisies of the
field have their fashion of color and leaf;
the honeysuckles have their fashion of
ear drop; and the snowhakes flung out
of the winter heavens have their fashion
of exquisiteness. After the summer
shower the sky weds the earth with ring
of rainbow. And I do not think we
have right to despise the elegancies and
fashions of this world, especially if they
make reasonable demands upon us; but
the discipleship and worship of fashion is
death to the body, and death to the soul,
am glad the world is improving. Look
at the fashion plates of the Seventeenth
and Eighteenth centuries, and you will
find that the world is not SO extravagant
and extraordinary now as it was then,
and all the marvellous things that
the granddaughter will do will never
equal that done by the grandmother. Go
still farther back, to the Bible times, and
you find that in those times fashion
welded a more terrible scepter. You
l., b, 20 I'll Oh ,fo,
of Isaiah, a portion of the Scriptures
froa which 1 once preached to you a
sermon, to read: Because the daugh-
tiers of Zion are naughty, and walk with
stretched forth necks and wanton eyes,
walking and mincing as they go, and
making q tinkling with their feet; In
that day the Lord will take away the
bravery of their tinkling ornaments
about their feet, and their cauls, and
their round tires like the moon, the
chains, and the bracelets, and the
muff1ers, the bonnets, and the head
bands, and the tablets, and the earrings,
the rings, and the nose jewels, the
changeable suits of apparel. and
the mantles, and the wimr,es, and
the crisping pins, the glasses, and
the fine linen, and the hoods, and the
veils." Only think of woman having
all that onl l am glad that the world is
getting better, and that fashion, which
has dominated in the world so ruinously
in other days, has for a little time, for a
little degree at any rate, relaxed its en-
ergies. All the splendors and the ex-
travaganza of this world dyed into your
robe and flung over your shoulder can
not wrap peace around your heart for a
single moment. The gayest wardrobe
will utter no voice Of coincidence in
the day of trouble and darkness. That
woman is grandly dressed, and only
she, who is wrapped in the robe of
Savior's Righteousness. The home may
be very humble, the hat may be very
plain, the frock may be very coarse, but
the halo in heaven settles in the room
when she wears it, and the faintest
touch of the resurrection angel will
change that garment into raiment ex-
ceeding white, 30 as no fuller on earth
could whiten it. 1 come to you young
women, today, to say that this world
cannot make you happy. I know it is a
bright world with glorious sunshine and
golden rivers, fireworked sunset, and bird
orchestra, and the darkest cave has its
crystals, and the wrathiest wave its foam
wreath, and the coolest midnight its
flaming aurora; but God will put out all
these lights with the blast of his own
nostrfis, and the giories of this world will
perish in the final eenftagratisn, You
will never be happy until you get your
sins forgiven and allow Christ Jesus to
take full possession of your soul. He
will be your friend in every perplexity.
He will be your comfort in every trial.
He viii be your defender in every strait.
do not nsI, Won TO brine ike Marv tbn
spices to tho sepulcllcr of dead Christ,
but to bring your all to the feet Of living
Jesus. His word is peace. Ills look is
lc,.-o L. 4...el.