The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1892-12-09

/ lotine. And there would be no END TO
the recital il / attempted to present all
the historical incidents which show that
woman's courage would rouse itself for
great emergency.
But need not go so far. You have
known some one who was considered a
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 a field Of blossoming buckwheat.
But in 1867 financial 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 broken heart.
"She will not work." say they, "and
she is too proud to beg" But the prophe-
cies have failed. Disaster has trans
formed the shining sluggard into prac-
teal worker-happy as q prince y ,
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 muscled for the con-
fict against misfortune, hunger and
poverty and want, and all the other
jackals Rizpah scares from the rock.
THE PATIENT, TOILING MOTHER.
[ saw one in desolate home. Her
merciless companion had pawned even
the children's shoes for rum. From hon
orable 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 trembled at the
staggering step and quailed under ia
theirs curse. Though the heavens were
filled with fierce wings and the thickets
CRASHED 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 rocks.
You pass day by day along streets
where there are heroines greater than
Joan of Arc. Upon that cellar floor
there are conflicts as fierce as Sedan,
and heaven and hell mingle in the fight.
Lifted in that garnet there are tribunals
where more fortitude is demanded than
was exhibited by Lady Jane Grey OF
Mary, queen of Scots.
Now l ask, if mere natural courage
can do so much, what may we not expect
of women who have gazed on the great
sacrifice, and who are urged forward by
all the voices of grace that sound from
the Bible and all the notes of victory
that speak from the sky? Many years
ago the Forfarshire steamer started from
Hull bound for Dundee. After the YES
sci had been out little while the winds
began to rave and pillows rise until a
tempest was upon them. The vessel
leaked, and the fires went out, and though
the sails were hoisted fore and aft she
went speeding toward the breakers She
struck with her bows foremost on the
rock. The vessel parted. Amid the
whirlwind and the.darkness all were lost
but nine.- These aclsas8 TO the VITO s7UuI
the beach.
Sleeping that night in Longs tone
lighthouse was girl of gentle spirit
and comely countenance. AS the morn
ing dawns l see that girl standing
amid the spray and tumult of contend
ing elements looking through glass
upon the wreck and the nine wretched
sufferers. She proposes to her father to
take boat and put out across the wild
sea to rescue them. The father says:
"lt cannot be done! Just look at the
tumbling surfr' But she persisted, and
with her father bounds into the boat.
Though never accustomed to plying the
oar, she takes one and her father the
other. Steady now! Pull away! Pull
away!
The sea tossed up the boat as though
it were bubble, but amid the foam and
the wrath of the sea the wreck was
reached, the exhausted people picked up
and saved. Humane societies rendered
their thanks. Wealth poured into the
lap of the poor girl. Visitors from all
lands came to look ON her sweet face,
and when soon after she launched forth
on dark sea, and Death was the oars
man, dukes and duchesses and mighty
men sat down in tears in Alnwick castle
to think they never again might see the
face of Grace Darling.
THE BATTLE WITH SIN.
No such deeds of daring will probably
be asked of you, but hear you not the
howl of that awful storm of trouble and
sin that hath tossed ten thousand shiv-
cred hulks into the breakers? Know
you not that the whole earth is strewn
with the shipwrecked-that there are
wounds to be healed and broken hearts
to be bound and drowning souls to be
rescued? Some have gone down, and
you come too late, but others are cling
ing to the wreck, are shivering with the
cold, are strangling in the wave, are
crying to you for deliverance. Will
you not, oar in hand, put out today
from the lighthouse?
When the last ships timber shall have
been rent, and the last Longstone bea-
con shall have been Numbered down in
the hurricane, and the last tempest shall
have folded its wings, and the sea itself
shall have been licked up by the tongue
of all consuming fire, the crowns of eter-
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