Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1892-12-05


pushes the barrow, and instead of the,glare
OF festal lights is thesimmering of the peat
1re, and in the place of Saul's palace is the
rock-the cold rock, the desolate rock.
But that is the place to which God comes.
Jacob, with his head on a stone, saw the
shining ladder. Israel in the desert beheld
the marshaling of the fiery baton. John
on barren Patmos heard trumpeting, and
the clapping of wings, and the stroke OF
seraphic fingers on golden harps, and
nothing but heavenly strength nerved Riz-
pah for her appalling mission amid the
scream Of wild birds and the stealthy tread
of hungry monsters. The grandest visions
OF glory, the most rapturous experiences OF
Christian love, the greatest triumphs OF
grace have come to the tried, and the hard
pressed, and the betrayed, and the crushed
God STOPPING down from heaven to comfort
Rizpah on the rock.
THE HERoIsM OF WOMAN.
Again the tragedy of the text displays
the courage of woman amid great emer-
gencies. What mother or sister or daugh-
ter would dare to go out to fight the cor
morant and jackal? Rizpah did it. And
SO would you if an emergency demanded.
Woman is naturally timid and shrinks
from exposure and depends on stronger
arms for the achievement Of great enter
prises And she is often troubled lest
there might be occasions demanding forti-
tude when she would fail. Not So Some
of those who are afraid to look out of door
after nightfall, and who quake in the
darkness at the least uncertain sound, and
who start at the slam of the door and turn
pale in thunderstorm, If the day of trial
came, would be heroic and invulnerable.
God has arranged it so that woman needs
the trumpet of some great contest of prin-
ciples or affection to rouse up her slumber-
ing courage. Then she will stand under
the cross fire of opposing hosts at Chalons
to give wine to the wounded. Then she
will carry into prison and dark lane the
message Of salvation. Then she will brave
the pestlence. Deborah goes out to sound
terror into the heart of Gods enemies
Abigail throws herself between Il raiding
party of Infatuated men and her husbands
vineyards. Rizpah fights back the yul-
lures from the rock.
Among the Orkney islands an eagle
swooped and lifted child to it's eyrie far
up on the mountains With the spring Of
a panther the mother mounts hill above
HILL crag above crag, height above height
The fire of her own eye outfashes the glare
of the eagles, and with unmailed hand
stronger than the iron beak and the ter
ribe claw she hurts the wild bird down
the rocks! In the French revolution Ca
zotte was brought out to be executed, when
his daughter threw herself on the body of
her father and said: Strike, barbariansl
You cannot reach my father but through
TI,,,S cd nd
arms father and daughter walked out free
During the siege of Saragossa Augustine
carried refreshments to the gates Arriv
ing at the battery of Portillo, she found
that all the garrison had been killed. She
snatched match from the hand % dead
artllcryman and fired off a twentys!Y
FOUNDER, then 1eaped on it and vowed she
would not leave it alive. The soldiers
looked in and saw her daring and rushed
up and opened another tremendous fire on
the enemy.
The life of James | of Scotland was
threatened. Poets have sung those times,
and able pens have fingered upon the story
of manly endurance, but how few to tell
the story of Catharine Douglas, one of the
queens maids, who ran to bolt the door,
but found the har had been taken away so
as to facilitate the entrance OF the assassin,
She thrust her arm into the staple. The
murderers rushing against 1t, her arm was
shattered. Yet how many have since lived
and died who never heard the touching,
self sacrificing, heroic story of Catharine
Douglas and her poor shattered arm.
You know how calmly Nine. Roland
went to execution, and how cheerfully 10
anna of Naples walked to the castle OF
Muro, and how fearessly Nine. Grimaldi
listened to her condemnation, and how
Charlotte Corday smiled upon the frantic
mob that pursued her to the guillotine.
And there would be no end to the recital If
| attempted to present all the historical ill
cidents which show that woman's courage
will rouse itself for great emergency
THE WILD BEASTS OF WANT Ard POVERTY.
But need not go so far You have known
some one who was considered mere but
terhy in society. Her hand had known no
toll; her eye had wept no tear over mis-
fortune. She moved among obsequious
admirers as careless as an insect in a field
of blossoming buckwheat. But in eighteen
hundred and sixty-seven financial tempest
struck the husbands estate. Before he had
time to reef sail aud make things snug the
ship capszed and went down. Enemies
cheered at the misfortune and wondered
what would become of the butterfly Good
men pitied and said she would die Of a
broken heart.
''She will not work." say they, land she
is too proud to beg" But the prophecies
have failed. Disaster has transformed The
shining sluggard into practical worker.
Happy as princess, though compelled to
hush her own child to sleep, and spread
her own table and answer the ringing Of
her own doorbell Her arm had been mus
cled for the conflict against misfortune.
Hunger and poverty and want and all the
other jaclals Ri2pah scares from the rock.
saw one in IA desolate home. Her mer-
CHESS companion had pawned even the
Children's shoes for rum. From honorable
ancestry she had come down to this The
cruise of oil was empty and the last candle
gone out. Her faded frock was patched
with fragments of antique silk that she
had worn on the bright marriage day.
Confident in God, she had strong heart
to which her children ran when they trem-
bled at the staggering step and quailed I'M
der a fathers curse. Though the heavens
were filled with fierce wings, and the
thickCts guashed with rage, Rizpah
watched faithfully day after day and year
after year, and wolf and cormorant by her
God strengthened arm were hurled down
the rock.
You pass day by day along the streets
where there are heroines greater than Joan
of Arc. Upon that cellar floor there are
conflicts Us fierce as Sedan, and heaven and
hell mingle in the fight. Lifted in that
garnet there are tribunals where more for
ttude is demanded than was exhibited by
Ladt Jane Grey or Mary, queen of Scots.
TUE CHRISTIAN HEROINE.
Nov 7 nsk if mere natural courage can