The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1891-02-25

tuOe - Longitude Oh. W nat DO Won
mean?' [ asked He said: L was sit
ting on deck, and out of bundle of papers
beloro me / pulled one of Surgeons
sermons. | began to read il. As l read
| saw the truth and received Jesus in my
heart. thought il were on shore I
would know where l was saved, and why
should | not know at sea? And so l took
my latitude and longitude"
Last week we called attention to the
marvellous growth and scope of the Christ
ian endeavor movement. There is an
other organization about equally worthy
of study and commendation-so practical,
withal, that it might be called league of
serviceableness.
On January day in the year of grace.
1886. group of serious, sweet-faced wo-
men sat talking in parior, not of the
latest fashionable fad nor of the newest
thing in bonnets, nor OF the insolence of
servants, nor of the incapability OF dress
makers. but of womanhood, its needs,
possibilities and responsibilities. Out of
their talk grew purpose to band them
selves together in a loving ssterhood
of service, and pledge to do
whatever reasonable thing might be
needed by friend, stranger, or enemy,
without question or delay-to do it "in
His name" One of the group suggested
that they call themselves Kings
Daughters" and another proposed that
the symbol of the order should be tiny
Maltese cross of silver tied with the royal
color. Then they knelt, and a voice was
lifted up in supplication and benediction.
The women dispersed and FASTENED in
divers directions through the wintry dusk,
never dreaming that at the outcome OF
that little meeting and whispered prayer
a Worldwide sisterhood would issue forth,
embracing women OF all ranks and nation
alities and religious belief; that the fac
tory girl would Join hands with the society
belle 10 make life easier and the world
| happier. But those women repeated the
story of their pledge to their friends, who,
in their turn, repeated it to Others. Little
| silver crosses began to flash out, some
times upon breasts brilliant with jewels,
and sometimes against the squalid tatters
| of poverty on other bosoms. These
wearers OF the cross were organized
in ten by the original ten, who
were named the Central council, and were
the nucleus about which the rest radiated.
Soon the membership grew so large that
! ten was an insufficient number TO COM
prise a circle, which sometimes contained
! fifty or hundred Today there are 1885,
| 600 members, and the end is not yet.
As we have said, the special sphere of
| the sisterhood is the doing constant and
numberless little acts of kindness and
goodwill. The Kings Daughters" rep
resent embodied sunshine. God bless the
order OF willing hands and eager feet
| the hands constructed to help, and the
| ieet speeding upon errands OF sympathy!
II seems strange that it should be
necessary in this last decade of the nine
teenth century to introduce bill into the
legislature OF Indiana that any man
proved TO have whipped his wife shall
| himself receive sixty lashes, and that the
| public shall be admitted into the iail-vard
TO see the brute logged. IT'S well that
the wife-beater should not enjoy a no
nOpOly though.
In an excellent paper on "Dante as
Moral Teacher" Caroline X. Sherman
says: An essential requisite OF every
| great work OF art is that it shall not only
portray what is individual and character
| isiic OF a certain time and place, but il
must also transcend ali three of these
| limitations and represent that which Is
not the exclusive trait of any individual,
| but OF a class that which does not belong
alone to particular time and place, but,
| with certain notifications, is character
| istic of all times and places. 1t is exactly
this feature ofthe "Divine Comedy" which
constitutes its real greatness, for the vision
| of Dante is not simply hell, purgatory and
heaven as the church portrayed them in
the fourteenth century, it is the he'll,
| purgatory and heaven which every man
| feels in his own heart.
An important feature OF Dantes Infer
no" is its graduated character. The
| protestant hell, unlike the catholic, was
not differentiated. The soul that sinned
most was on a par with the soul that
sinned least. In this there was an obvious
/ unfairness which tended to subvert rather
| than to promote morality.
In a general way Dante divides his
Inferno" into three distinct parts, distin-
| gushing between sins of sense, sins of in
tellect and of will. Sins of sense are least
/ offensive because more instructive less the
result OF premeditatIon. They are lighter,
too. in their effect upon society. Sins of
intelligence take a middle place because
they are partly involuntary, partly the re-
suit of choice. Sins Of the will, that is
sins committed with malicious intention,
are worst Of all, being more injurious to
the individual and also to society.
Another important feature of Dante's
"Inferno" is the correspondence of the pun
ishment to the nature OF the offense. In
each round of the Inferno" the peculiar
punishment is the natural outcome of the
peculiar sin. In other words. each sinner
creates his environment. The misers and
spendthriits are alike condemned Each
suffers the same doom, being compelled to
roll great weights against each other, with
mutual upbraiding. Dante is true to nat
ure in Furnishing gloom, which has too
often been regarded az a virtue instead OF
sin. He places the gloomy in the
Stygian lake. "Once they were sad in the
sweet air made gladstone by the sun now
in murky settling they are sad" Who
ever cherishes gloomy spirit will soon
| find himself shut out from all sunlight.
Mature" says Emerson, always wears
| the color of the spirit"