Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1888-02-16
TALMAGE,S SERMON.
Fifth Discourse of the Series to the
Women Of America.

| 4AtA 010COuI00 "a tU0 0oII00 w Va y
/ Women Of America.
| Beauty of This virtu. rs Illustrated
| ~ Scripture Charaeter-A Writ
| no Not Fully Understood.
| Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage preached the
fifth Of the aSeries Of Sermons to the
Women Of America, with Important Hints
to Men," His subject was "The Vail OF
| Aodesty," and his text:
The Queen Vashti refused to come.-Esther,
L.,
II you will accept my arm will escort
you into . throne room. In this fifth
s,rmon Of the series Of sermons there arc
certain wcmanly excelencies which
| wish to commend, but instead of putting
them In dry abstraction, present you
their impe:sonation in one who seldom,
| il ever, gets sermonic recos milton.
We stand amid the palaces OF Shust an.
Tho pinnacles are afame with the morn.
ing light The columns rise festooned and
| wreathed, the wealth of empires flashing
| from the grooves; the ceilings adorned
| with images Of bird and bea It, and scenes
of prowess and conquest. The walls are
| hung with shields and emb!azoned until
| it seetns that the whole round OF splen'
| doris is exhausted. Each arch is mighty
leap of architectural achievement. Gold.
en- stars, shining down on glowing
arsbesque. Hangings of embroidered
work, in which mingle the blueness of
| the sky, the greenness Of the grass, and
the whiteness of the sea foam. Tapes
tries lung on silver rings, wedding to.
gether the pillars of marble. PavIlions
reaching out in every direction. These
for repose, filed with luxuriant coucaes,
in which weary limbs sink unit all IA
tigue Is submerged. These for carousal,
where kings drink down kingdom at one
swallow. Amazing spectacle! Light of
silver dripping down ovsr stairs of ivory
On shields of gold. Floors of stained
marble, sunset red and night black, and
inlaid with cleaning pearl. Why, it
seems as if heavenly vision of ame-
thyst, and jacintb, and topaz, and chrys.
opre sus had descended and alighted upon
Shushan.
In another part of the palace, Queen
Vashti Is entertaining the Princesses of
Persia at banquet. Drunken Ahasusrus
says to his servants: "You go out aud
fetch Vashti from the banquet with the
women and bring her to this banquet with
the men, and let her display her beauty"
The servants Immediately started to obey
the Kings command, but there was
rule in Oriental society that no woman
light appear in public without having
her face vailed. Yet, here was
q mandate that no one dare dis.
pute, demanding that Vashti come
in unvailsd before the multitude.
However. there was in Vashti's soul
principle more regal than Ahasuerus,
more brilliant than the gold of Shushan,
of more wealth than the realm Of Persia,
which commanded her to d'sobey this
order of the King; and so all the right
| eousness, and holiness and modesty of
her natures rise up into sublime refusal.
She says: ~ will not go into the ban.
quet unvailed." OF course Ahasuerus
was infur;ated; and Vashti, robbed Of her
position and her estate, is driven forth in
poverty and ruin to suffer the scorn
of a nation and yet to receive
the applause of after genor-
atoms who shall rise up to admire this
martyr to kingly insolence. Well, the
last vestige of that feast is gone; the last
garland has faded; the last arch has
fallen; the last tankard has been de.
stroyed. and Shu shan is q ruin; but as
| long as the world stands there will be
multitudes of men and women, familiar
| with the Bible, who willcome into this pict.
ure gallery Of God and admire the divine
portrait OF Vashti the Queen, Vashti the
vailed, Vashti the sacrifice, Vashti the
silent.
In the first place, want you to look
| upon Vashti the Queen. A blue ribbon,
rayed with white. drawn around her
forehead, indicated her queenly position.
It was no small honor to be Queen in such
a realm as that. Hark to the rustic of
her robes! See the blazs of her jewelsi
And yet, my friends, it is not necessary
to have palace and regal robe in order to
be queenly. When l ses q woman with
stout faith in God putting her foot upon
all meanness. and selfishness, and god
less display, going right forward to serve
Christ and the race by grand and glori-
Gus service. say: "That woman Is
queen" and the ranks of Heaven look
over the battlements upon the coron alton,
and whether she come up from the
shanty on the commons or the
mansion of tho fashionable square,
I greet her with the shout: "All hail!
Queen Vashti." What glory was there
on the brow of Mary Of Scotland, or
Ell zabeth of England, or Margaret of
France, or Catherine of Russia compared
with the worth of some of our Christian
mothers, many of them gone into glory!
--or OF that woman mentioned in the
Scriptures who put her all into the Lords
treasury!-or of Jephthah's daughter,
Rho made . demonstration of unselfish
Datriotism?-or of Abigail, who rescued
the herds and fiocks Of her husband?-
or of Ruth, who toiled unler q tropical
sun for poor, old. helpless Naomi?-or of
Mrs. Adomrain Judson. who kindled the
lights Of salvation amid the darkness Of
Burmah?-of of Mrs. Hemans, who
poured out her holy soul in words
which will forever be associated
with hunters horn, and captive's chair,
and bridal hour, and lute's throb, aud cur
few's knell at the dying day?-and scores
and hundreds of women, unknown on
earth, who have given waterto the thirsty,
and bread to the hungry, and medi.
cine to the sick, and smiles to the dis
couraged-their footsteps heard along
dark lane, and In government hospital,
and in alms-house corridor, and by pris-
on gatei There may be no royal robe
there may be no pa'atial surroundings.
She docs not need them, for all charita-
bic mon will unite with tho cracking
lips of fever-struck hospital and plague
blotched laxaretto in greeting her a. she
passed: Hail! hail! Queen Vashti."
Among the queens whom Honor are the
female day-schoolf teachers Of this land. l
put upon their brow the coronet They
are tho sisters and the daughters Of our
towns and cities. selected out Of vast
number Of applicants, because of their