News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1889-12-12
CHARITIES OF THE NEEDLE.
DIR. Talmage breaches IN JOppa on the
Sewing Society.
Christians of Various Denominations Listen
to the Eminent Divines Discourse on
Charity That Had It's Birth in Sacred
Joppa-A Record of Female Benevo-

to the Eminent Divine's Discourse on a
Charity That Had It's Birth in Sacred
Joppa-A Record of Female Benevo-
lence.
Especial dispatch to the Boston Herald.l
JoPPA, Dec. 1, 1SS9-To-day is memorable
in the sacred history of Joppa, Rev. T. De
Witt Talmage, ID. D.. preaching here to a
company of Christian people of various de-
nominations on 1.-The Birthplace of Sewing
Societies" He took for his text Acts tx, 80 |;
"And all the widows stood by him weeping,
and showing the coats and garments which
Dorcas made while she was with Them" The
preacher said:
Christians of Joppa: Impressed as / am
with your mosque, the first / ever saw, and
stirred as / am with the fact that your har-
Dor once floated the great RATS of Lebanon
cedar from WI ich the temples at Jerusalem
were builded, Solomon's oxen drawing the
logs through this very town on the way to
Jerusalem, nothing can make me forget that
this Joppa was the birthplace of the sewing
society that has blessed the poor of all sue
ceeding ages in all lands. The disasters to
YOUR town when Judas Maccabaus set it on
fire, and Napoleon had 500 prisoners massa-
cred In your neighborhood, cannot make me
forget that one of the most magnificent char
tiles of the centuries was started in this sea-
port by Dorcas, woman with her needle
embroidering her name ineffaceably into the
beneficence of the world. / see her sitting in
yonder home. In the doorway, and
around about the building, and in the
room where she sits are the pale faces of
the poor. She listens to their plant, she
pities their woe, she makes garments for
them, she adjusts the manufactured articles
to suit the bent form of this invalid woman,
and to the cripple that comes crawling on his
hands and knees. She gives a coat to this
one, she gives sandals to that one. With the
gifts she mingles prayers and tears and
Christian encouragement. Then she goes
out to be greeted on the street corners by
those whom she has blessed. and all through
the streets the cry is heard "Dorcas is COM
ingp' The sick look up gratefully in her
face as she puts her hand on the burning
brow, and the lost and the abandoned start
up with hope as they hear her gentle voice,
as though an angel had addressed them; and
as she goes out the lane, eyes half put out
with sin think they see halo of light about
her brow and trail of glory in her pathway
That night half-paid shipwright climbs the
hill, and reaches home and sees his little boy
well clad, and says: "Where did these
clothes come fromfn And they tell him,
.Dorcas has been here.n In another place,
family that had not been at table for many
q week are gathered now for Dorcas has
brought bread.
But there is sudden pause in that wo-
mans ministry. They say: "Where is Dor
cass, Why. we haven't seen her for many
a day. Where is DorcasW And one OF
these poor people goes up and knocks at the
door and finds the mystery solved. All
through the haunts of wretchedness the
news comes, "Dorcas is sickr' No bulletin
flashing from the palace gate, telling the
stages of Kings disease, is more anxiously
waited for than the news from this sick
benefactress. Alas for Joppal there is wall
ing, wailing. That voice which has uttered
so many cheerful words is hushed, that hand
mute
poor is cold and still, the star which had
poured light into the midnight of wretched-
ness is dimmed by the binding mists that go
up from the river of death. In every God
forsaken place in this town, wherever there
is a sick child and no balm, wherever there
is hunger and no bread, wherever there
is guilt and no commiseration, wherever
there is a broken heart and no comfort,
there are despairing looks and streaming
eyes and frantic gesticuations as they cry:
''Dorcas is dead !"
They send for the apostle Peter, who hap
pened to be in the suburbs of this place, stop
ping with tanner by the name of Simon.
Peter urges his way through the crowd
n-ound the door, and stands in the presence
of the dead. What eXpostulation and grief
all about him! Here stand some of the
poor people, who show the garments which
this poor woman had made for them. Their
grief cannot be appeased. The apostle Peter
wants to perform miracle. He will not do
it amidst the excited crowd, so he kindly
orders that the whole room be cleared. The
door is shut against the populace. The apos-
tie stands now with the dead. Oh, it is a
serious moment, you know, when you are
alone with a lifeless body! The apostle gets
down on his knees and prays, and then he
comes to the lifeIess form of this one all
ready for the sepulchre, and in the strength
of him who is the resurrection, he eXclaimS
''Tabitha, ariser' There is a stir in the foun-
tains of life; the heart fiutters; the nerves
thrill; the cheek flushes; the eye opens; she
sits up!
Dorcas the benefactress, Dorcas the lamented,
Dorcns the resurrected
If had not seen that word disciple in my
text would have known this woman was a
Christian. Such music as that never came
from heart which was not chorded and
strung by divine grace. Before l show you
the needlework of this woman want to show
YOU her regenerated heart, the source of a
pure life and of all Christian charities. / wish
that the wives and mothers and daughters
and sisters of all the earth would initiate
Dorcas in her discipeship. Before you cross
the threshold of the hospital, before you
enter upon the temptations and trials of to-
morrow, L charge you, in the name of God,
and by the turmoil and tumult of the judg-
ment day, women! that you attend to the
first, last and greatest duty of your life-the
seeking for God and being at peace with him.
When the trumpet shall sound, there will
Il
continent. and no human arm can help you.
Amidst the rising of the dead, and amidst
the boiling of yOnder sea, and amidst the
live leaping thuuders of the flying heavens,
calm and placid will be every woman's heart
who hath put her trust in Christ; calm, not
withstnnding all the tumut, as though the
fire in the heavens were only the gildings of
an autumnal sunset, as though the peal of the
trumpet were only the harmony of an orches-
ira, "a: though the awful voices of the sky
were but group of friends bursting through
gateway at eventime, with laughter, and
shouting 'Dorcas, the disciple!" Would
God that every Mary and every Martha would
this day sit down at the feet of Jesus!
Further, we see Dorcas the benefactress.
History has told the story of the crown; the
epic poet has sung of the sword? the pastoral
poet. with his verses full of the redolence of
clover tops, and a-rustie with the silk of the
corn, has sung the praises of the plough. /
tell you the praises of the needle. From the
fg Leaf robe prepared in the garden of Eden
TO the last stitch taken on the garment for the
poor, the needle has wrought wonders of
kindness, generosity and benefaction. 1t
adorned the girdle of the high priest; it
fashioned the curtains in the ancient taber-
nacle; it cushioned the chariots of King
Solomon; it provided the robes of Queen
Elizabeth; and in high places and in low
places, by the fire of the pioneers back log
and under the flash of the chandelier, every
where, it has clothed nakedness, it has
preached the gospel, 1t has overcome hosts
of penury and want with the war cry of
''Stitch, stitch stitch!"
The operatives have found livelihood by
it, and through it the mansions of the en-
poyer have been constructed. Amidst the
greatest triumphs in all ages and lands [ set
down the conquests of the needle. ! admit
its crimes; l admit its cruelties. 1t has had
more martyrs than the fire; it has punctured
the eye; it has pierced the side; it has struck
weakness into the lungs; it has sent madness
into the brain; it has filed the potter's field;
it has pitched whole armies of the suffering
into crime and wretchedness and woe. But
now that l am talking of Dorcas and her
ministries to the poor, shall speak only of
the charities of the needle.
This woman was a representative of all
those women who make garments for the
destitute, who knit socks for the barefooted,
who prepare bandages for the lacerated, who
fix up boxes of clothing for missionaries, who
go into the asy lums of the suffering and des-
titute bearing that gospel which Is sight for
the blind and hearing for the deaf, and which
makes the lame man leap like a hart, and
brings the dead to life, immortal health
bounding In their pulses. What contrast
between the practical benevolence of this
woman and great deal of the charity of this
day. This woman did not spend her time
idly planning how the poor Of your city of
Joppa were to be relieved: she took her
needle and relieved them. She was not like
those persons who sympathiZe with imagin-
ary sorrows, and go out In the street and
laugh at the boy who has upset his basket of
cold victuaIs, or like that charity which makes
rousing speech on the benevolent platform,
and goes out to kick the beggar from the
step, crying: "Hush your miserable howl