Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1890-10-04

such characterization.
On the back Of the hills one hundred and
fifty feet high Joppa is lifted toward the
skies 1t is as picturesque as it is quaint and
as much unli-e any city we have ever seen,
as though it were built in that star Mars,
where few nights ago this very September
astronomers, through unparalleled telescopes,
saw snow storm raging. How glad we were
to be in Joppa! Why, this is the city where
Dorcas. that queen of the needle lived and
died and was resurrected. You remember
that the poor people came around the dead
body of this benefactress, and brought speci-
mems of her kind needlework and said:
''Dorcas made this ''Dorcas sewed that"
'Dorcas cut and fitted this" "Dorcas
hemmed that
According to Lightfoot, the commentator.
they laid her out in state in a public room.
and the poor wrung their hands and cried
and sent for Peter, who performed a miracle
by which the good woman came back to life
and resumed her benefactions An especial
resurrection day for one womanl She was
the model by which many women of our day
have fashioned their lives, and at the first
blast of the horn of wintry tempest there APP
pear ten thousand Dorcases-Dorcases OF
Brooklyn, Decreases of New York, Decreases
OF London, Decreases of all the neighborhoods
and towns and cities of Christendom-iust as
good as the Dorcas of Joppa which visited.
*
sharpness and speed and generosity of Dor
cas's needle.
"What is that man doingg' said to the
dragoman in the streets of Joppa "Oh, he
is carving his bed" Multitudes of people
sleep out of doors, and that is the way SO
many in those lands become blind. 1t is from
the dew of the night falling on the eyelds. As
a result of this, in Egypt every twentieth
person is totally blind. In Oriental lands
!. = ],
blanket and pillow, and when the man rises
in the morning he just ties up the three into
bundle and shoulders it and takes it away.
1t was to that the Saviour referred when He
said to the sick man: Take up thy bed and
walk" An American couch or an English
couch would require at least four men to
carry it, but one Oriental can easily manage
his slumber equipment.
But inhale some of the odors of the large
tanneries around Joppa. 1t is there to this
day. a prosperous business, this tanning of
hides. And that reminds me of Simon, the
tanner, who lived at Joppa and was the host
of Peter, the apostle. | suppose the olfac-
tories of Peter were as easily insulted by the
odors of a tanuery as Others But the Bible
says, He lodged with one Simon, the tan
ner." People who go out to do reformatory
and missionary and Christian work must not
be too sensitive. Simon no doubt brought
" LIS AOhcsbrau every HiSHt bhc uioAOuVlS
of the calfshins and OK hides in his tannery,
but Peter lodged in that home, not only be-
cause he may not have been invited to the
houses of merchant princes, surrounded by
redolent gardens, but to teach all men and
women engaged in trying to make the world
better that they must not be squeamish and
fastidious and finical and over particular in
doing the work of the world.
The church of God is diving of fastidious-
We the SrlffprinpS of the
world in hundred dollar pocket handker-
chiefs, and then put cent in the poor box.
There are many willing to do Christian work
among the clearly, and the refined, and the
elegant, and the educated, but excuse them
from taking a loaf of bread down dirty al
ley excuse them from teaching mission
school among the uncombed and the uuwdsh-
ed, excuse them from touching the hand of
one whose finger nails are in mourning for
departed soap. Such religious precisionists
can toll in atmospheres laden with honey
suckle and rosemary, but not in air floating
up from the malodorous watts. No, no, mol
Excuse them from living with one Simon, the
tanner.
During the last war there were in Virginia
some sixty or seventy wounded soldiers in "a
barn, on the second floor so near the roof
that the heat of the August sun was almost
msupportable The men were dying from
sheer exhaustion and sutfocation. A distin-
guished member of the Christian commission
said to the nurse who stood there, Wash the
faces and feet OF these men and it will revive
them" NO" said the nurse, 81 didn't come
into the army to wash anybody's feet"
"Well,' said the distinguished member of the
commission, 'bring me water and towei;
will be very glad to wash their feet" One
was the spirit of the devil, the other the
spirit of Christ.
But reference to Peter reminds me that we
must go to the housetop in Joppa where he
was taught the democracy of religion That
was about the queerest thing that ever hap
pened. On our way up to that housetop We
passed an old well where the great stones
were worn deep with the ropes of the buck
cts, and it must be a we'll many centuries
old. and think Peter drank out of it. Four
or five goat or calfskins filled with water lay
about the yard. We soon got up the steps
and on the housetoo. 1t was in such plaza
in Joppa that Peter one noon while he was
waiting for dinner had hungry fit and
tainted away, and had vision or dream or
trance. L said to my family and friends on
that housetop, Listen while l read about
what happened here" And opening tae
Bible we had the whole story.
1t seems that Peter on the h1usetop
dreamed that a great blanket was let down
| out of heaven, and in it were sheep and goats
and cattle and mules and pigeons and buzz
yards and snakes and all manner of creatures
that fly the air, or walk the field, or crawl
the earth, and in the dream voice told him
as he was hungry to eat, and he said. II can
not eat Things unclean." Three times he
dreamed it. There was then heard a knock
ing at the gate Of the house on the TOP of
which Peter lay i'll a trance, and three men
| asked, SIS Peter here:" Peter, while vet
wondering that his dream meant, descends
the stairs and meets these strangers at ths
| gate, and they tell him that good man by
the name of Cornelius in the city of C5esaree,
has also had dream and has sent them foI
! Peter and to ask him to come and preach
/ At that call Potter left Joppa for CBsarea
The dream ne had just had prepared him tc
| preach for Peter learned by il to reject nc
| people as unclean, AMI whereas he previously
thought he must preach only TO the Jews
now ne goes to preach to The Gentiles, whc
were considered unclaan.
! Notice how the two dreams meet-Peter';
/ dream on the housetop, Cornelius dream at
| Caesarea. So l have noticed providencs,
meet, distant events meet dreams meet
| Every dream is hunting up some other dream
and every event is searching for some other
| event In the Fifteenth century Q492) tha
| great event was the discovery OF America
| The art of printing, born in the same century,
! goes out to meet that discovery and make
| the New World an Intelligent world. Taa
| Declaration of Independence, Announcing
/ equal rights meets Robert Burnss
| Amn's MN for a that.
The United States was getting too large to
| be managed by one Government, and tel
| graphy wasinvented TO compress within an
! hour the whole continent. Armies i'll thC
/ Civil War were to be fitted out with clothing,
and the sewing machine invention came out
/ to make it possible Immense farming acre
age is presented in this country, enough to
! support millions of our native born and
/ millions of foreigners; but the Il style of
] Diow and scythr and reaper and tAresheT
| cannot do the WORK, ana there come steam
| plows, steam harrows, steam reapers, steam
rakes, steam threshers, and the work is ae-
! complished. The forests of the earth fail to
| afford sufficient fuel, aud SO tine coal mines
surrender a sufficlency. The cotton crop.
| were luxuriant, but of comparatively little
! value, for they could not be managed; and
, SO, at just the right time, hargreaves came
| with his invention of the spinning jenny,
/ then Arkwright with his roller, and hitney
! with his cotton gin The world, after pot
/ tering along with tallow candles and wlae
oil, was crying for better light and more OF
/ it, and the hill of Pennsylvania poured oul
/ rivers of oil, and kerosene itllmined the M
I tons. But the oil wells began to fail and
/ then the electric light CONES forth to turn
! night into day.
So all events are woven together, and tle
world is magnifcently governed, because it
| is divinely governed. We criJ-cise things
and think the divine machinery is going
wrong, and put our fingers amid the wheel.
| only to get them crushed. But | say, HANDS
| off Things are coming out gloriously. Cor,
| nelius may be in Casare1, and Peter in
| Joppa, but their dreams meet. 1t is one
hand that is managing the world, and that is
Gods hand; and one mind that is planuin 8