The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1888-02-02

only twist your neck. Better pull ahead
The world is full OF people who made mis-
takes about many things, and among
other things about betrothal and mar
riage, and yet have been tolerably
happy and very, useful In the strength
OF God, and by the grace promised
in every time of need for those who seek it
conquer the disadvantageous circumstances
! am acquainted with lovely women married
to contemplate men, and genial men yoked
with termagants inspired Of the devil And
| yet under these disadvantages my friend.
are useful and happy God helps people in
other kinds Of martyrdom and to sing in the
flame, and he will help you in your lifelong
misfortune.
Remember the patience Of job What a
wife he had At time when he was one
great blotch of eruptions and his property
was destroyed by tornado. and, more than
all, bereavement had come and the poor man
needed all wise counsel, she advises him to
go to cursing and swearing. She wanted
him to poultice his boils with b'aspheny.
But he lived right on through his marital
disadvantages, recovered his health and for
tune and raised a splendid family and the
closing paragraph of the Book of Job has
such jubiance that wonder people do not
oftener read it:
$50 the Lord blessed the latter end of Job
more than his beginning, for he had four
teep thousand sheep, and six thousand camels,
and thousand yoke of oxen, and thou
sand she asses. He had also seven sons
and three daughters. And he called the
name of the first Jemima, AMI the name OF
the second Keza and the name of the third
kerenhappuch. And in all the land were no
women found so fair as the daughters of job,
and their father gave them inheritance among
their brethren. After this lived Job one
hundred and forty years, and saw his sons,
and BIS sons sons, even four generations
So Job died, being old and full of days"
Now, my badly married friend Of either
sex, il Job could stand it by the help of God
then you can stand it by the same divine
reinforcement. You have other relations,
oh, woman, beside the wifely relation. II you
are mother, train up your children for God
and heaven. 1t you are member of a
church, help move on its enterprises You
can get so much of the grace of God In your
heart that oil your home trials will seem in
significant. How little difference does It
make what your unrighteous husband calls
you, II God calls you his child and you are
an heiress of whole kingdoms beyond the
sky?
Immerse yourself in some kind of outside
Usefulness, something that will enlist your
prayers, your sympatties, yolr hand, your
needle, your voice. Get your heart on fire
with love to God and the disenthrallment of
the human race and the troubles of your
home will be blotte1 out in the glory of your
consecrated life cry out to you. oh woman,
as Paul exclaims in his letter to the Cor
inthians: "What knowest thou, oh, wife
whether thou shalt save thy husband" And
II you cannot save him you can help in the
grander, mightier enterprise of helping save
the world. Out of the awful mistake of your
marriage rise into the sublimest life of self
sacrifice for God and suffering humanity.
Instead of settling down to NOPE over your
domestic woes, enlist your energies for the
worlds redemption.
Some parts of Holland keep out the ocean
only by dykes or walls Of stout masonry.
The engineer having these dykes in charge
was soon to be married to maiden living in
one of the villages, the existence of which
depended on the strength of these dykes.
And there was to be a great feast in one of
the villages that approaching evening in
honor OF the coming bridegroom. That day
a great storm threatened the destruction Of
the dykes, and hence the destruction of
thousands of lives in the villages shell
tered by that stone wall The ocean
was in full wrath, beating against the dykes,
and the tides and the terror were still
rising. "Shall ! go to the FEAST" says the
engineer, "or shall I go and help my work.
men take care of the dykess" "Take care of
the dykes" he said to himself; 81 must and
will" AS he appeared on the wall the men
working there were exhausted and shouted.
"Here comes the engineer. Thank God!
Thank Godn The wall was giving way,
stone by stone, and the engineer hal rope
fastened around his body, and some of the
workmen had ropes fastened around their
bodies and were let down amid the wild
surges that beat the wall Everything was
More mortar!" But the answer came:
There is no more" Then" cried the
engineer, .stake of your clothes and
with them stop the holes in the
wall" And SO, in the chill and dark
ness and surf it was done, and with
the workmen's apparel the openings in the
wall were partially filed. But still the tide
rose, and still the ocean reared itse'f for more
awful strokes. and for the overwhelming Of
thousands of lives in the villages. "Now we
have done all we can" said the engineer;
down on your knees, my men, and pray to
God for help" And on the trembling and
parting. dykes they prayed till the wind
changed and the sea subsided and tho vii
lages below. which, knowing nothing of the
peril, were full OF romp and dance and hilar-
1ty. were gloriously slved
Now, what we want in this work of wal|inc
back the oceans of poverty and drunkenness
and impurity and sin is the help of more
and manly hands. Oh how the
tides come in! Atlantic surge of sorrow
after Atlantic surge of sorrow, and the tenn
pests of human hate and satanic fury are in
full cry. Oh, woman of many troubles. what
are ali the feasts of worldly delight. if thew
were offered You, compared with The oppor
tunity of helping build and support barriers
which sometimes seem giving way through
mans treacbery and the worlds assault2 On.
woman. to the dykesl Bring PRAYER, bring
tears. bring cheerful words! Help. Helpi
And having done all, kneel with US on the
quaking wall until the God Of the wind and
the sea shall hush the ons and silence the
other. 10 the dykes! Sisters, mothers
wives, daughters of America, to the dykes!
The mightiest catholicon for all the wounds
and wrongs of woman or man is complete
absorption in the work to rescue others,
Save some man, some woman. soma child!
In that effort you will forget or be helped
TO bear your own trials, and in little while
God will take you up out OF your disturbed
and narrowing coniuyal relation of earth
into heaven all the happier. because of pre-
ceding distress. When Queen Elizabeth of
England was expiring it was arrang ii that
The exact moment of her death should be
';gnaled to the people by the dropping OF a
sapphire ring from window into the hands
of an officer, who carried it at the top Of his
'peed to King James of Scotland. But your
departure from the scene of your earthly
woes, if you are ready to CO. viii not b. the
iropping OF sapphire to the ground, but
ne setting Of jewel in kings coronet.
3lessed be His glorious name foreverl