The Opelousas courier., 1890-02-08
TALMAGE'S TRIP.
TEE BROOKLYN DlYINEpS SUNDAY
SERI0E.

TEXT: "And all the ,ridows stood By him
accepting, and shouting the coats and gar
11entS tchich DorcdS made 1Chtte size 1caS
aOith them."-Acts tx, 80.
Christians Of Jorpa! Impressed as | am
with your mosque, the first [ ever saw, and
stirred as | am with the fact that your har-
Dor once tloated the great RATS of Lebanon
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 succeeding agesin
all lands. The disasters TO your town when
Judas MaccabPus set it on fire, and Napoleon
had five hundred prisoners massacred in
your neighhorhood, cannot make me forget
that one of the most magnificent charities OF
the centuries was started in this seaport by
Dorcas, a woman with her needle embrolder-
ing her name intellectually in the beneficence
of the world. | sec 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 arti-
cles to suit the bent form of this Invalid
woman, and 10 the cripple that comes crawl
ing on his hands and knees. She gives a
coat to this one, she gives sandals to that one.
With the gifts she mingles prayers atid tears
and Christian encouragement. Then she
goes out to be greeted on the street corners
by those whom she blessed, and all through
the street the cry is heard: "DorcaS is COM
| ingn' The sick look up gratefully in her
face as she puts her hand on the burn
ing 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 q halo of light about her brow, and a trail
of glory in her pathway, That night a halt
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 a
lamp; Dorcas brought the oil. In another
place, a family that had not been at table
for many a week are gathered now, for Dor
cas- 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 wretchednesS, the news comes;
'Dorcas is sick" No bulletin flashing from
the palace gate, telling the stages ola Kings
| disease, is more anxionsly awaited for than
| the news from this sick benefactress. Alas!
for Joppal there is w~ailing, wailing. That
voice which has uttered so many cheerful
! words is hushed: that hand which
! had made so many garments for the
which had poured light into the midnight of
wretchedness is dimmed by the binding
mistS that 20 up from the river of death. In
every God forsaken place in this town,
wherever there is q sick child and no balm;
Rehrever there is hunger and no bread:
wtnqiever there is guilt and no eommiseration;
wherever there is a broken heart and no
comfort, there are despairing looks and
streaming eyes, and frantic gesticulations
as they cry; 'Dorcas is deadr' They send
for the apostle Peter, who happens to be in
the suburbs of this place, stopping with a
tanner by the name of Simon. Peter urges
his way through the crowd around the door,
and stand in the presence of the dead. What
ex~postulation 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 a mira
Gle. 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 q 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 lifeless
form of this one all ready for the sepulcher,
and in the strength Of Him who is the resur-
roction he excIaims: "Tabitlla, . ariseT'
There is a stir in the fountains of life: the
heart f~lutters; the nerves thrill; the cheek
flushes; the eye opens; she sits upi
We see in this subject Dorcas the disciple;
Dorcast the benefactress: Dorcas the lamented
Dorcas the reSurrected.
If ] had not seen that word disciple in my
text. | would have known this woman was a
/ ftrictInrH CY,oh, r,,H1eia nc fhot axya oon,o
from a heart which is not chorded and
strung by divine grace. Before I show you
the needIe-work of this woman, I want to
show you her regenerated heart, the source
of a pure life and of all Christian charities.
l wish that the wives and mothers and
daughters and sisters Of all the earth would
initiate Dorcas in her disciplesilip. Before you
cross the threshold Of the hospital, before you
enter upon the temptations and trials
name of God, and by the turmoil and
tumult of tile Judgment day, oh, women
that you attend to the first last ane
greatest duty of your life@the seeking
Ior God and being ct peace with Him.
When the trump slian sound. there
vii trhsetW uproaasrd. a wreck of mount
ain and continent, n no human arm
/ can help you. Amidst the rising OF the
dead, and amidst the boiling of yonder
sea, and amidst the live, leaping thunders
of the flying heavens, calm and PLACID
will be every woman's heart who hath
nut her trust in Christ: calm notwithstand-
ing all the tumult, as though the fire In the
heavens were only the gildings OF an autumn
nal sunset, as though the peal OF the trumpet
were only the harmony of an orchestra, as
though the awful voices of the sky were but
a group Of friends bursting through a gate
way at eventime with laughter, and shout
ing "Dorcas, the disciple" Would God that
every Mary and every Martha would this
day sit down at the feet of Jesus!
Further, VIC see Dorcas the benefactress
History has told the story of the crown; the
epic pet has sung of the sword; the pastoral
poet, with his verses full of the redolence Of
clover topseand a-rustle with the silk OF The
you the pBfses of the needle. From the TIC
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 benefactlon.. Ii
adorned the girdle of the high priest; 1t fash,
Toned the curtains in the ancient tabernacle
it cushioned the chariots of King Solomon:
it provided the robes of Queen Elizabeth
and in high places aud in low places, by the
fire of the pioneers back log and under the
flash of the chandelier, everywhere, it has
clothed nakedness, it has preached the Cos.
pei, it has overcome hosts Of perjury and
want with the war cry of Stitch, stitch,
stitch y The operatives have found q hveli
hood by it, and through it the mansions Of
the employer have been constructed
Amidst the greatest triumphs in al
ages and lands, / set down the con
quests Of the needle. I admit its crimes.
admit its cruelties. Tt has had more martyr!
than the fire; it has punctured the eye; it ha'
pierced the side; it has struck weakness intt
the lungs; it has sent madness into the brain
it has filled the potter's field; it has pitched
whole armies Of fine suffering into crime anf
wretchedness and woe. But now that | au
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