Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1888-02-24
WIFEI.Y AMBITION.
M Talmage's Sixth Sermon to the Wo-
men of America.

,icc to Your Husbands.
prooKLYN, Feb. 12.-Tn the tabernacle
n;s morning the Rev. T. Dewitt Ialmage,
y. d., preached the sixth of his series of
aSormons to Women of America with I'M
astont Hints for Men," The subject was
llW,ssly Ambition. Good and Bad" and
b, text was from | Kings, xxi, I: "Arise,
.nl eot bread. and let thine heart be merry
I will give thee the vineyard of Naboth. :"
i,r, 1almage said:
~ one day King Ahab, looking out of the
u;n1ow of his palace at Jezebel, said to
We wife Jezebel: eve ought to have
.bose roval gardens enlarged. If we could
only lr' get that fellow Naboth, who owns that
,,ineyard out there. to trade or sell. We
could make it a kitchen garden for our
palace.
of his servants.
The plain gardener, wondering why he
should be called into the presence of his
majesty, comes in, a little downcast in his
modesty and with very obsequious manner
bows to the king.
The King says: "Naboth, want to trade
VINEYARDS with you. l want your vineyard
for kitchen garden, and will give great
deal better vineyard in place of it. or, if
Won prefer money for it, I will give you
cash.
nv little place, nor can [ sell it. It is
The old homestead. got it of my father
and he of his father, and cannot let the
old place go out of my hands"
In great state of petulancy King Ahab
went into the house and flung himself on
the bed, aud turned his face to the wall in
great pout.
His wife Jezebel comes in and she says:
sWhat is the matter with you? Are you
sck:"
ooh, "he says, 81 feel very blue. have
set nv heart on getting that kitchen garden
ant. Naboth will neither trade or sell. and
TO be defeated by a common gardner is
more than l can stand"
ooh. pshaw," says Jezebel, "don't go on
that way. Get up and eat your dinner and
stop moping. 1 will get for you that
kitchen garden"
Then .ezebel borrowed her husband 8
signet ring or seal, for then, as now, in
those lands kings never signed their
names, but had ring with the royal name
engraved on it, and that Impressed on a
royal letter or document was the signature.
She stamped her husbands name on n
proclamation which resulted in getting
Naboth tried for treason against the King,
and two perjured witnesses swore their
souls away with the life of Naboth, and he
was stoned to death, and his property
came to the crown, and so Iezebel got
for her husband and herself the kitchen
garden.
But while the wild street dogs We're rend-
ing the dead body of poor Naboth, Elijah,
tie prophet, tells them of other CANNES
that will after q while have free banquet
saying: where dogs lick the blood of
Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood, even
thine"
And, sure enough, three years later,
Ahab, wounded in battle, his chariot drip
ping with the carnage, dogs stood under it
lapping his life's blood. and little after
ward his wife, JeZebel, who had been his
chief adviser, stands at her palace window
and see Jehu, the enemy, approaching TO
take possession of the palace. And to
make herself look as attractive as posi-
bic and queenly to the very last, she dec
Grated her person and, according TO
Oriental custom, closed her eyes and ran
brush dipped in a black powder along the
long eyelashes, and then from the window
she glared her Indignation upon Jehu. AS
he rode to the gates in his chariot he
shouted TO the slaves in her room: "Throw
her down." But no doubt the slaves halted
moment from such work of assassina-
ton, yet knowing Queen JeZebel could be
no more TO them and the conqueror Jehu
would be everything, rs he shouted again,
Throw her down!" they seized her and
bore her struggling and cursing to the
window easement and hurled her forth till
she came tumbling to the Garth, striking
II Just in time to let Jehu's horses trample
her and the chariot wheels roll over her.
While lehu is inside refreshing himself
after the excitement, he orders his serv-
ants to go out and bury the dead Queen.
but the wild street dogs had for the third
une appeared on the scene, and they re-
moved all her body except those parts
which in all ages dogs are by a strange
instinct Or brutal superstition kept from
touching after death--the palms of the
hands and the soles of the feet.
All this appalling scene Of ancient his
.ory was the result of q wife's bad advice
10 husband, Of n wifes struggle to adj
vance her husbands interests by unlawful
means Ahab and Jezebel got the kitchen
garden of Naboth, but the dogs got them.
Inc trouble all began when TIE mistaken
Vile aroused her husband out of his mel
ancholy by the words of the text: "Arise,
and eat bread, and let thine heart be
merry; will give thee the vineyard of
Naboth"
The influence suggested by this subject
an influence you never before heard dis
eonrsed on ana may never hear again, but
+" 1'oat potent ana Seml-Ol0QlpOlenC luHu.
ence and decides the course of individuals,
families, nations, centuries, and eternities.
Speak of wifely ambition, good and bad.
how important that every wife have her
ambition, an elevated, righteous, and di-
'lne!y approved ambition.
And here let Inc say, that what 1 am
most anxious for is that woman, not wait
ing for the rights denied her or postponed,
promptly and decisively employ the rights
she already has in possession. Some say
she shall be in fair way to get all rights
when she gets the right to the ballot-box.
wish that the experiment may be tried
ana settled. l would like to see all women
vote, and then watch the result. / do not
Know that it would change anything for the
letter. Most wives and daughters and
sisters would vote as their husbands and
fathers end brothers voted. Nearly all
Tue families that 1 know are solidly Re-
publican or Democratic or Prohibition.
nose families all voting would make
more ~ votes but no difference in the result.
besides that, as now ut the poles men are
Fought up by the thousands, women would
De bought up by the thousands. The
nlofe voters, the more opportunity for
pomtlcal corruption. We have several
~ ,llillon more voters now than are for pub