Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1892-12-05


nature hath never leaned against carved
pillar and made utterance of woe? Gall
is not less better when quaffed from
golden chalice than when taken from
pewter mug Sorrow is often attended
by running footmen and laced lacleys
mounted behind. Queen Anne Boleyn
is desolate in the palace of Henry VIII.
Adolphus wept in German castles
over the hypocrisy of friends. Pedro
among Brazilian diamonds shivered with
fear of massacre Stephen of England
sat on a rocking throne. And every
mast of pride has bent in the storm, and
the highest mountains of honor and fame
are covered with perpetual snow. Sick
ness will frost the rOsiest cheek, wrinkle
the smoothest brow and stiffen the
sprightliest step. Rizpah quits the court
ly circle and sits on the rock.
Perhaps you look back upon scenes
different from those in which now from
day to day you mingle. You have ex-
changed the plenty and luxurlance OF
your fathers house for privation and
| trials known to God and your own
heart. The morning of life was flushed
with promise Troops of calamities
since then have made desperate charge
upon you. Darkness has come. Sorrows
have swooped like carrion birds from
the sky and barked like jackals from
the thicket You stand amid your
| slain anguished and woe struck. Riz-
| pah on the rock.
So it has been in all ages. Vashti must
doff the spangled robes of the Persian
court and go forth blasted from the pal
ace gate. Hagar exchanges oriental
comfort for the wilderness of Beer
sheba. Mary, queen of Scots, must pass
out from fattery and pomp to suffer
ignominious death in the castle of Foth-
eringay. The wheel of fortune keeps
turning, and mansions and huts e1-
change, and he who rode the chariot
pushes the barrow, and instead of the
glare of festal lights is the simmering
of the peat fire, and in place of Sauls
palace is the rock-the cold rock, the
desolate rock.
VERY PRESENT HELP IN TIME OF
TROUBLE.
But that is the place to which God
comes. Jacob, with his head on 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 Rizpah for her appalling
mission amid the scream Of wild birds
and the stealthy tread Of hungry mon
sters 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.
Ag&n, the tragedy of the text dis
plays the courage of woman amid great
emergencies What mother or sister OF
daughter would dare to go out to fight
the cormorant and jackal? Rizpah die
it. And so would you if an emergency
demanded. Woman is naturally timiG
|, and shrinks from exposure and depends
on stronger arms for the achievement oi
great enterprises. And she is Otter
troubled lest there might be occasion:
demanding fortitude when she would
fail. Not so. Some Of those who are
, afraid to look out of the door after night
fall, and who quake in the darkness a
| the least uncertain sound, and who star
| at the slam of the door and turn pale
| in a thunderstorm, if the day OF tria
came, would be heroic and invulneTable
, God has arranged it so that that WON
an needs the trumpet of some great con
test of principle or affection to rouse III
her slumbering courage. Then she vii
, stand under the crossfre of opposin:
! | hosts at Chalons to give wine to tn
, wounded. Then she will carry int
, prison and dark lane the message of sal
: vation Then she will brave the pest
lence. Deborah goes out to sound ter
t ror into the hearts of Gods enemies
: Abigail throws herself between raidin
party of Infatuated men and her hus
{ bands vineyards. Rizpah fights bacl
g the vultures from the rock.
Among the Orkney islands an eagl
e swooped and lifted a child to its eyri
q far up ON the mountains. With TIL
$ spring of a panther the mother mount
4 hill above hill, crag above crag, heigh
r above height, the fire of her own ely
outfashing the glare of the eagles, an
}. with unmailed hand stronger than tn
s iron beak and the terrible claw sh
d hurls the wild bird down the rocks
d In the French revolution Gazette wa
d brought out to be executed, when hi
q daughter threw herself on the body {
t her father and said: ssStrike, barbarian
a You cannot reach my father but throug
n my hearth The crowd parted, and linl
h ing arms father and daughter wake
out free.
s. During the siege of Saragossa Angus
s tina carried refreshments to the gate
4 Arriving; at the battery of Portillo sh
q found that all the garrison had bee
!. killed. She snatched a match from til
s hand of a dead artilleryman and fired 0
# a twenty-six FOUNDER, then 1eaped on
). and vowed she would not leave it aliv,
h The soldiers looked in and saw her da