Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1889-12-12
I'ALMAGE'S SERMON.
a Discourse Delivered at Joppa,
the Home Of Dorcas.
Lessons to be Learned From the Life of
DOrcas-An Influence that Will Per-
meate All Time and BE
Monument in Eternity.

Dorcas, in the Holy Land, taking for his
text:
And all the widows stood by him weeping,
and showing the coats and garments which
DOrcas made while she was with them.-Acts
tx, g.
Christians of Joppa! Impressed as l
am with your mosque, the first l ever
saw, and stirred as / am with the fact
that your harbOr once flOated the great
RATS of Lebanon cedar from which 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 in all
lands. The disasters to your town when
Judas Maccabeus set it on fire, and Ma
poleon had five hundred prisoners mas
Lacred in yorr neighbOrhOod, can not
make ne forget that one of the most
charities of the centuries
was started in this seaport by Dorcas, a
woman with her needle embroidering
her name ineffaceably into the beneti-
ccnce Of the world. / see her sitting in
wonder 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
mites 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
ha 10
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 street the
cry is heard: "Dorcas is coming" 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 FROM" And they
tell him, 'DOrcas has been here" In
another place a woman is trimming
lamp; Dorcas bought the oil. In
another place, a family that had not
been at table for many a week are
gathered now, for DOrcaS has brought
bread.
But there is a sudden pause in that
woman's ministry. They say: Where
is Dorcas? Why, we haven't seen her
for many a day. Where is Dorcas?"
And one of these poor people goes up
and knocks at the door and finds the
mystery solved. All through the
haunts of Indebtedness the news comes,
''Dorcas is sick!" No bulletin flashing
from the palace gate, telling the stages
of a Kings disease, is more anXiOusly
waited for than the news from this sick
benefactress. Alas for Joppa. there is
wailing, wailing. That voice which
has uttered so many cheerful words is
hushcd: that hand which has made so
many garments for the poor is cold and
still: the stars which had poured light
into the midnight of wretchedness is
dimmed by the binding mists that go
up from the river OF death. In every
God-fOrsallcn place in this town; wher-
ever there is sick child and no balm;
wherever there is guilt and no COM
miseration; wherever there is a broken
heart and no comfort, there are despair
ing looks and streaming eyes and fran
tic gesticulations as they cry:
''Dorcas is dead!'
They send for the apostle Peter, who
happens to be in the suburbs of this
place, stopping with a tanner-Simon
by name. Peter urges his way through
the crowd around the door and stands in
the presence of the dead. What expos
tulation 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 can not
be appeased. The apostle Peter wants
to perform a 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 apostle stands now with the dead.
Oh. it is a serious moment, you know,
when you are alone with lifelesS body.
The apostle gets down on his knees and
prays, and then he comes to the lifeleSs
form of this one all ready for the sepul-
cher, and in the strength of Him who Is
the resurrection he exclaims: ''Tabitha,
ariser There is a stir in the fountains
of life; the heart futters; the nerves
thrill; the cheek flushes; the eye opens;
she sits up,
We see in this subject Dorcas the
disciple, Dorcas the benefactress, Dor
cas- the Iamented, DorcaS the resur-
rected.
If / had not seen that word disciple in
my text, l would have known this wom-
an was a Christian. Such music as that
never came from heart which is not
chorded and strung by Divine grace.
Before ! show you the needlework Of
this woman l want to show you her re-
generated heart, the source of pure
life and all Christian charities. l wish
that the wives and mothers and daugh-
tiers and sisters of all the earth would
initiate DorcaS in her diScipleShip. Be
fore you cross the threshold of the hos
pital, before you enter upon the tempta-
lions and trials of tomorrow, ! charge
YOU, in the name of God, and by the tur-
MOL and tumult of the judgment day,
oh. woman! 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 be an uproar, and wreck of
mountain and continent, and no human
arm can help you. Amidst the rising
of tho dead, and amidst the boiling Of