Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1891-11-05

| for. More straw and then better bricks.
But in all departments there are Pha
raohs; sometimes Capital Pharaoh and
sometimes Labor a Pharaoh. When Cap.
ital prospers, and makes large percentage
on its investment and declines to consider
the needs of the operatives, and treats them
rs so many human machines-their nerves
no more than the bands on the factory
wheel-then Capital is a Pharaoh. On the
other hand, when workmen, not regarding
the anxieties and business struggles OF the
firm employing them. and at r time when
the firm are doing their best to meet an i'm
portant contract and need all hands busy
to accomplish it, at such time to have his
employees make q strike and put their en-
ployers into extreme perplexity and severe
loss-then Labor becomes a Pharaoh of1the
worst oppression, and must look out for
the judgments Of God.
THERE ARE STILL PHARAoHs.
| When in Decem Der of 1889, at the Museum
at Boulac, Egypt, looked at the mum
mics Of the old Pharaohs, the very mis-.
creants who diabolized centuries, and l
saw their teeth and hair and finger nails
and the flesh drawn tight over their cheek
bones, the sarcophagi Of these dead
monarcbs side by side, and / was so fasci-
mated could only with difficulty get away
from the spot, was not looking upon the
last of the Pharaohs. All over the world
old merchants playing the Pharaoh over
young merchants, old lawyers playing the
Pharaoh over young lawyers, old doctors
playing the Pharaoh over young doctors,
old artists playing the Pharaoh over young
artists, old ministers playing the Pharaoh
over young ministers.
Let all oppressorS whether in homes, in
churches, in stores, in offices, in factories,
In social life or political life, in private life
| or public life know that God hates oppres-
sors, and they will all come to grief here
| or hereafter. Pharaoh thought he did
fine thing, cunning thing, decisive thing
| when for the complete extinction of the
Hebrews in Egypt he ordered all the He.
brew boys massacred but he did not find
it so fine thing when his own first born
that night Of the destroying angel drop
ped dead on the mosaic floor at the foot OF
the porphyry pillar Of the palace. Let all
the Pharaohs take warning. Some Of the
worst of them are on small scale in
households, as when man, because his
arm is strong and his voice loud domi-
mates his poor wife into domestic slavery.
There are thousands of such cases where
the wife is a lifetime serf, her opinion disre
garded, her tastes insulted, and her exist
! tuCe u WTetCueuUeSS, llOupu uuo
may not know it. 1t is Pharaoh that sits
at the head of that table, and a Pharaoh
that tyrannizes that home. There is no
more abhorrent Pharaoh than a domestic
Pharaoh. There are thousands Of women
to whom death is passage from Egypt to
Canaan, because they get rid of cruel
taskmaster. What an accursed monster is
that man who keeps his wife in dread
about family expenses, and must be eau
tious how she introduces an article Of mil
linery or womanly wardrobe without hui
initiating consultation or apology.
Who is that man acting so? For six
months-in order to win that womau's
heart-he sent her every few days bouquet
wound with white ribbon and an endear-
ing couplet, and took her to concerts and
theaters, and helped her into carriages as
though she were princess, and ran ACROSS
the room to pick up her pocket handker-
chief with the speed Of an antelope, and on
the marriage day promised all that the
liturgy required, saying Il will!' with an
emphasis that excited the admiration of
all spectators But now lie besrudges her
two cents for postage stamp. and Won
ders why she rides across Brooklyn bridge
when the foot passage costs nothing.
He thinks now she is awful plain, and he
"Whcre did you get that new hat from?
That's where my money goes. Where's
my breakfast? Do you call that coffee?
Didn't l tell you to sew on that button?
Want to see your mother, do you? You
are always going to see your mother!
What are you whimpering about! Hurry
up now and get my slippers! Where's the
newspaper" The tone, the look the i'm
patience-the cruelty of a Pharaoh. That
Is what gives so many women a cowed
down look. Pharaoh! you had better take
your iron heel of that womans neck or
God will help you remove your heel.
She says nothing. For the sake of avoid
ing scandal she keeps silent, but her tears
and wrongs have gone into a record that
you will have to meet as certainly as Pha-
raoh had to meet hail and lightning and
darkness and the death angel. God never
yet gave 10 any man the right to tyrannize
a woman, and what sneak you are to ia Ike
advantage OF the marriage VOW and be-
c;S'e she cannot help herself, and under
the shelter of your own home out Pharaoh
the Egyptian oppressor. There is some
thing awrully wrong in a household where
the woman is not considered of as much
Importance as the man. No room in this
world Tor any more Pharaohs!
SIN HAS BEEN OUR TASKMASTER
But 1t rolls over on me with great power
the thought that we have all been slaves
down in Egypt, and sin has been our task
master, and again and again we have felt
its lash. But Christ has been our Moses
to lead us out of bondage, and we are for
ever free. The Red sea of a Saviours sac
riiice rolls deep and wide between us and
our aforetime bondage, and though there
may be deserts yet for us to cross, we are
on the way to the Promised Land Thanks
be unto God for this emancipating Gospel
Come up out Of Egypt all We who are yet
enslaved. What Christ did for us he will
do for you. "Exodus" is the word. Ex-
odusl Instead of the brick kilns of Egypt
come into the empurpled vineyards of God,
where one cluster of grapes is bigger than
the one that the spies brought to the Is
raelites by the Brook Eshcol, though that
cluster was SO large that it was borne "be-
tween two upon staff"
Welcome all by sin oppressed
Welcome to his sacred rest;
Nothing brought him from above,
Not hip,r h,,t aIaat ,ipf, l,,,n