Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1892-12-08

cditfiltiFS SiItc tutll nave Hlddr dtoJcttite
charge upon you. Darkness has come
Sorrows have swooped like carrion birds
from the sky and banked like iackals from
the thicket You stand amid your slain
anguished and woe struck. Rizpah on the
rock
So it has been in all ages. Vashti mus,
doff the spangled robes of the Persian court
and 90 forth blasted from the palace gate
Hagar exchanges oriental comfort for the
wilderness Of Beersheba. Mary, queen OF
Scots, must pass out from tiattery and
pomp to suffer ignominious death in the
| castle of Fotheringay. The wheel of for
/ tune keeps turning and mansions and huts
exchange, and he who rode the chariot
4 pushes the barrow, and instead of the glare
of festal lights is the simmering of the peat
/ fire. and in the place of Sauls 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
Z 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.
TIE 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 iackal? 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 ave wine to the wounded. Then she
will carry into prison and dark lane the
message of salvation Then she will brave
the pestilenee. Deborah goes out to sound
terror into the heart of Gods enemies.
Abigail throws herself between a raiding
party of Infatuated men and her husband
vineyards, Rizpah fights back the vul-
lures from the rock
Among the Orkney islands an eagle
swooped and lifted child to its 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 outhashes the glare
of the eagles, and with unmailed hand
stronger than the iron beak and the ter
rible claw she hurls 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
my hearth The crowd parted and linking
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 a match from the hand of dead
artilleryman and fired off "A twenty-siN
FOUNDER, then .eaped 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 CT
the enemy.
The life OF James | Of Scotland was
threatened. Poets have sung those times. /
and able pens have fingered upon he 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. I
but found the Oar had been taken away 50 1
as to facilitate the entrance of the assassin I
She thrust her arm into the staple The /
murderers rushing against it, her arm was 4
shattered. Yet low many have since lived /
and died who never heard the touching, f
self sacrificing, heroic story of Catharine +
Douglas ami her poor shattered arm.
You know how calmly Mime. Roland
went 20 execution, ana how cheerfully Jo
anna of Naples walked to the castle Of
Muro, and how fearlessly Mime. 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 IL
] attempted to present all the historical in
cidents which show that woman's courage
will rouse itself for great emergency.
THE WILD BEASTS OF WANT AND POVERTY.
But lneed not 20 so far. You have known
some one who was considered "a mere but
terfy in society. Her hand had known no
toll; her eye had wept 10 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-seyen financial tempest
struck the husband 5 estate Before he had
time TO reef sail and make things snug the
ship capsized 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
broken heart.
''She will not work, " say they, land She
Is too proud to beg" But the prophecies
nave failed. Disaster has transformed the
shining sluggard into a practical worker.
Happy as princess though compelled to
hush her own child to sleep, and spread
her own table, and answer the ringing Of ,
nor own doarheIl Har ar,,, bod t..a.,, 49,. !