Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1888-02-15
in grand and magnificent silence. Galileo,


and cardinals, caricatured everywhere, ye
waiting and watching with his telescope
see the coming up of stellar reinforcements
when the stars in their courses would figh
for the Copernican system then sittin
down in complete blindness and deafnes
to wait for the coming on of the geners
tions who would build his monument an
bow at his grave. The reformer, execrate
by his contemporaries, fastened in pill
lory, the slow fires of public contemp
burning under him, ground under tn
cylinders of the printing press, yet calml
waiting for the day when purity of soul an,
heroism of character will get the sanction
of earth and the plaudits of heaven. Attic
tion, enduring without any complaint tn
sharpness of the pang, and the violence o
the storm, and the heft of the chain, ant
the darkness of the night-waiting until
divine hand shall be put forth to sooth
the pang, and hush the storm, and releas,
the captive. A wife abused, prosecuted
and perpetual exile from every earthly
comfort-waiting, waiting, until the Lore
shall gather up His dear children in {
heavenly home, and no poor Vasbti viii
ever be thrust out from the palace gate
Jesus, in silence, and answering not {
word, drinking the gall, bearing the cross
in prospect Of the rapturous consumma
tion 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 a ship floating
helplessly about among the icebergs, anc
going on board he found that the captain
was frozen at the log book, and the helms
man was frozen at the wheel, and the mer
on the lookout were frozen in their places
That was awful, but magnificent. All the
Arctic blasts and all the icebergs could moi
drive them from their duty. Their silence
was louder than thunder. And this ole
ship of a world has many at their posts ir
the awful chill of neglect, and frozen oi
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 it's last voyage.
I thank God that the mightiest influences
are the most silent. The fires in furnace
of factory or of steamship roar, though
they only move few shuttles or few
thousand tons, but the sun that warns a
world rises and sets without a crackle OF
faintest sound. Travellers visiting Mount
Etna, having heard of the glories of sunrise
on that peak, went up to spend the night
there and see the sun rise next morning,
but when it came up it was SO far behind
their anticipations they actually hissed it.
The mightiest influences to-day are like
the planetary system-completely SILENT
Don't hiss the sun
o, woman does not this story of Vashti
the queen, Vashti the veiled, Vashti the
sacrifice, Vashti the silent, move your
soul? My sermon converges into the one
absorbing hope that none of you may be
shut out of the palace gate of Heaven
You can endure the bardships, and the
privations, and the cruelties, and the mis-
fortunes of this life, if you can only gain
admission there. Through the blood of
the everlasting covenant you go through
those gates, or never go at all.
When Rome was besieged, the daughter
of its ruler saw the golden bracelets on the
left arms of the enemy. and she sent word
to them that she would betray her city and
surrender it to them if they would only
give her those bracelets on their left arms,
They accepted the proffer, and by night
this daughter of the luler of the city opened
one of the gates. The army entered, and
keeping their promise, threw upon hel
their bracelets, and also their shields, unit
under their weight she died. Alas, that al
through the ages the same folly has beer
repeated, and for the trinkets and glitter
ing treasures of this world men and women
swing open the portals of their immortal
soul for an everlasting surrender, and die
under the shining submergement.
Through the rich grace of our Lore
Jesus Christ may you be enabled to imi.
tate the example of Rachel, and Hannah,
and Abigail, and Deborah, and Mary, and
Vashti. Amen