Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1892-12-16

shining ladder. Israel In the desert beneid
the marshaling of the fiery baton. John on
barren Patmos heard trumpeting, and the
clapping of wings, and the stroke OF sera-
phfc fingers ON golden hafps, and nothing
but heavenly strength nerved RIZoah Tor her
appalling mission amid the scream or WHO
birds and the stealthy tread OF hungry mon
srers, The grandest visions OF glory, the
most rapturous experiences o. Christian
love the greatest triumphs of grace have
come to the tried, and the hard pressed, and
the betrayed and the crushed. God sSoop-
ing down from heaven to comfort RIzPah on
the rock.
Again, the tragedy Of the text display,
the courage Of woman amid great emergen-
cies. What mother or sister or 'daughtei
would dare to go out to fight the cormorant
and jackal' Rizpah did it. And 50 would
you IL an emergency demanded. Woman i
naturally timid and shrinks from exposure
and depends on stronger arms for the achieve
ment of great enterprises. And she is often
troubled lest there might be occasions de-
manding fortitude when she would fail. Not
so. Some OF those who are afraid TO look
out OF the door after night-faI, 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 invulner
able.
God has arranged it so that that woman
needs the trumpet of some great contest of
berlng courage. Then she will stand under
the crossfre 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 pes
thence. Deborah goes out to sound terror
into the hearts of Gods enemies. Abigail
throws herself between raiding party Of
Infatuated men and her husbands vineyards.
Rizpah fights back the vultures from the
rock.
swooped and lifted child to its eyrie far up
on the mountains. With the spring OF
panther the mother mounts hill after hill
crag above crag, height above height the
fire OF her own eye Outdashlng the glare Of
the eagles, and with unmailed hand stronger
than the iron beak and the terrible claw she
hurls the wild bird down the rocks, In the
French revolution Cazatte was brought out
to De- executed, when his daughter threw
herself on the body Of her father and said:
Strike, barbarians! You cannot reach my
father but through my hearth The crowd
parted, and linking arms father and daugh-
ter walked out free.
During the siege of Saragossa, Augustine
carried refreshments to the gates. Arrlv-
ing at the battery of Portillo she found that
all the garrison had been killed. She snatched
a match from the hand Of a dead artillery
Ieaped 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 bar had been taken away SO as to
facilitate the entrance Of the assassin! She
thrust her arm into the staple. The MUIR
derers rushing against it, her arm was shat
tered. Yet how many have since lived and
died who never heard the touching, self
sacrificing, heroic story of Catharine Doug
las and her poor, shattered arm
You know how calmly Nine Roland went
to execution and how cheerfulIy Joanna Of
Naples walked to the castle of Mura, and
how fearlessly Nine. Grimaldi listened to
her condemnation, and how Charlotte Cor
day smiled upon the frantic mob that pur-
sued her to the gullotine. And there
to present all the historical incidents which
show that woman's courage would rouse it
self for great emergency.
But l need not go so far. You have
known some one who was considered mere
butterfly in society. Her hand had known
no toll. Her eye had wept no tear over
misfortune. She moved among obsequious
admirers as careless as an insect in field of
poisoning buckwheat But in 1867 fnan-
clal tempest struck the husbands 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 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 a princess, though compelled to
hush her own child to sleep and spread her
own table and answer the ringing Of her
Cwn doorbell. Her arm had been muscled
for the conflict against misfortune, hunger
and poverty and want, and all the other
jackals Rizpah scares from the rock.
saw one in desolate home. Her mer-
ciless companion had pawned even the
chlidren'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 a strong heart, to which her
children ran when they tr9mbled at the
step and quailed under fathers
curse. Though the heavens were filled with
fierce wings and the th!ckets gnashe1 with
rage Rizpah watched faithfully day after
day and year after year, and wolf and CON-
GRANT by her God strengthened arm were
hurled down the rocks.
You pass daY by day along streets where
Gnere are nerOlneS greater IMAM y Oan or Arc.
Upon that cellar floor there are conflicts as
fierce as Sedan, and heaven and hell min.
gle in the fight. Lifted in that garrett there
are tribunals where more fortituds is de-
manded than was exhibited by Lady Jane
Grey or Mary, Queen of Scots.
Now ask, If mere natural courage can
do so much, what may we not expect of wo-
men who have gazed on the great sacrifice,
and who are urged forward by all the voices
Of grace that sound from the Bible ami all
the notes OF victory that speak from the sky?
Many years ago the Forfarshire steamer
from, Q,,u hound fo.