Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1888-02-17
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
The Weekly Discourses of the Great
Brook Ign Preacher.
Suhiecn "'The Fall of NIOdesty."

seldom, if ever, gets sermonic recognition.
- We stand amid the palaces OF Shushan.
The pinnacles are aflame with the morning
hight. The columns rise fsstooned aud
wreathed, the wealth Of empires flashing
from the grooves; the ceilings adorned with
images OF bird and beast and scenes of
| pfoweSs and conquest. The walls are hung
with shields, and emblaZoned until it seems
that the whole round of splendors is ex
hausted. Each arch Is mighty leap of
architectural achievement. Golden stars,
SHINING down on glowing arabssque. Hang
lngs OF embroidered work, in which mingle
the blueneSs of the sky, the greenness of
| the grass and the whteness of the sea foam.
tapestries hung on silver rings, wedding to-
gether the pillars of marble Pavilions
reaching out in every direction. These for
repose, filed with luxuriant couches, in
winch weary limbs sink until all fatigue is
submerged. These for carousal where Kings
Drink down kingdom at one swallow
amazing spectaclel Light of silver dripping
Gown over stairs of ivory on shields of gold.
Floors of stained marble, sunset red and
night black, and inlaid with cleaning pearl.
WY IL seems as If heavenly vision of
amethyst, AMI iacinth, and topaz, and
chrysoprasus had descended and al;ghted
upon ShuShan. 1t seems as il a billow
Oh celestial glory had dashed clear over
/ heaven battleinents upon this metrop-
olis OF Persia. In connection with this
there Is garden, where
seated at banquet Under the spread of
OAK, and linden, and acacia, the tables are ar
ranged The breath IF honeysuckle and
irankincense fills the air. Fountains leap up
into the light, the spray struck through with
iainnows falling in crystalline baptism upon
towering shrubs-then rolling down through
onaii li OF marble, and widening out here
anu there INTO pools swirling with the iinny
trlpes OF foreign Hquarums bordered with
ScdLIeC anemones, hypericums and many col
ored ranunculGs Meats of Threst bird and
Deast smoking up amid Hreaths of aromatcs
INC INC vases filled with apricots and almonds.
j Inc basket piled up with apricots, and
yates ana figs and oranges and pomegran-
aSeS Melons taStefully twined with leaves
OF OF. acacia. The bright waters of Eulpus
nlhng the urns, and sweating outside the
rim In flashing beads amid the traceries.
WINE from the royal watts of Ispahan and
ShiraZ, IN bottles of tinged shell, and lily
SNAPPED cups of silver, and fiagons and tank
a a,,d . Oh sold gold The music rises higher,
| ana the revelry breaks out into wilder trans
port; and the wine has flushed the cheek and
touched the brain, and louder than all other
VOICES are the hiccough of the inebriates the
ards.
In another part of the palace Queen Vashti
| is entertaining the princesses of Persia at a
banquet Drunken Ahasuerus SAYS to his
servants: You go out and fetch Vashti
from that banquet with the women, and
| Drlng her to this banquet with the men, and
ie1 me display her beauty" The servants
immediately start to obey the kings COM
mand, but there was rule in Oriental soci-
e .H;t t Cnat no woman might appear in public
without having her face yelled. Yet here
was mandate, that no one dare dispute, de-
mandlng that Vashti come in unveiled 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 revenue of Persia,
winch commanded her to disobey the order
OF the King; and SO all the righteousness
and holiness and modesty of her nature
rises up into one sublime refusal. She
says: II will not go into the banquet
unveiled" OF course, Ahasuerus was
lnfurated; and Vashti, robbed of her po-
slGlon ana her estate, is driven forth in
poverty and ruin to suffer the scorn
Oh a nation, and yet to receive the
applause of after generations, who
snail rise up to admire this martyr to
kngly 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 destroyed, and Shushan is ruin; but
as long as the world stands there will be
multltudes of men and women, familiar with
the Bible, who will come into this picture
gallery OF God and admire the divine portrait
| OF VaShti the Queen, Vashti the vei.ed,
Vashti the sacrifice, Vashti the silent
~ In the first place, want you to look upon
Vashtl the Queen. A blu9 ribbon, rayed
with white, drawn around her forehead, in
dlcated her queenly position. 1t was no
small honor to be queen IN such q realm as
that. Hark to the rustic OF her robes! See
the blaze of her jewels! And yet, my friends,
1t Is not necessary to have palace and regal
robe in order to be queenly. When l sec
woman with stout faith in God putting her
foot upon all meanness and Selfishness, and
goddess display, going right forward to serve
Christ and the race by grand and glorious
service, say: THAT woman is a queen"
and the ranks of heaven look over the
battlementS upon the coronation: and
whether she come up from the shanty on
the commons or the mansion of the
fashionable square, | greet her with the
shout: "All hail Queen Vashti" What
glory was there on the brow of Mary, of
Scotland; or Elizabeth, of England or
Margaret, of France, or Catharine Of Rus
Sla, 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
treasurys-or of Jephthah's daughter, who
madea demonstration of unselfish patriotism?
| or OF Abigail, who rescued the herds and
hocks of her husband?-or of Ruth, who
toiled under tropical sun for poor, old
helpless Naomi?-or of Mrs. Adoniram Jud-
son, who kindled the lights of salvation amid
the darkness of Burnah!-or of Mrs. Hemans,
who poured out her whole sole in words
which will be forever associated with
hunters horn, and captive's chain, and
bridal hour, and lutes throb, and curfew's
knell at the dying dayF-and scores and nun
dreds of women, unknown on earth, who have
given water to the thirsty, and bread to the
hungry, and medicine to the sick, and smiles
to the discouraged-their footsteps heard
along dark lane, and in government hospital,
and in almshouse corridor, and by prison
gate! There may be no royal robe-there
may be no palatial surroundings. She does
not need them; for all charitable men will
unite with the cracking lips of fever struck
hospital and plague blotched lazaretto in
greeting her as she passes: "Haill hail
Queen Vashti."
Among the queens whom honor are the
female day school teachers of this land.
put upon their brow the coronet They are
the sisters and the daughters of our towns
and cities, selected out of q vast number OF
applicants, because of their especial intel
telectual and moral endowments. There are
in none of your homes women more worthy
These persons, some of them, come out from
afiue1k homes, choosing teaching as a usefu
profession others, finding that fatheris Older
than he used to be, and that his eyesight ant
strength are not as good as once, go to teach
ing to tighten his load. But l tell you the
history of the majority of the female teach
ers in the public schools when | say: "Fathel
is dead.n After the estate was settled, the
family, that were comfortable before, art
thrown on their own resources.
1t is hard for men to earn living in thi
day, but it is harder for women-their health
not SO rugged, their arms not SO strong
their opportunities fewer. These persons
after tremblingly going through the ordea
of an examination as to their qualifications II
teach, half bewildered step over the sill o
the public school to do two things-instruct
the young and earn their own bread. He
work is wearing to the last degree. TIL
management of forty or fifty fidgety ana in
tractable children, the suppression o