The Pickens sentinel. [volume] (Pickens, S.C.) 1871-1903, 1893-08-31
people" On. what rebuke to the

How many there are who want tC
get great architecture, and homes fur.
nished with all art, all painting, all
statuary, who have not enough taste
to distinguish between Gothic and BY.
Zantine, and who could not tell Il figure
in plaster of paris from Palmer s
white Captive" and would not know
Il boys pencilIng from Bierstadt's 8
"Y Yosemite"-men who Duy large libra
ries by the squarel foot, buying these
libraries when they have hardly enough
education to pick out the day of the al.
manac. On, how many there are striv-
ing to have things as we'll as their
neighbors, or better than their neigh
bors, and IN the struggle vast fortunes
are exhausted and business firms
thrown into bankruptcy, and men of
reputed honesty rush into astounding
fOrgerieS.
OF course | say nothing against re-
linement of culture. Splendor of abode.
sumptousness Of diet, lavishness in art,
neatness in apparel-there is nothing
against them in the Bible or out of the
Bible. God does not want us to prefer
mud hovel to English cottage, or un-
tanned sheepskin to French broadcloth
or husks to pineapple, or the clumsi
ness OF bOOr to the manners of a gen
gleman. God, who strung the beach
with tinted shell and the grass of the
field with the dews of the night, and
hath exquisitely tinged morning cloud
ana room redbrea5t, wants us to keep
our eye open to all beautiful sights,
ana our ear open to all beautiful ca
dences, and our heart open to nll ele
VaClng sentiments. But what | want
TO impress upon you is that you ought
not to inventory the luxuries of life
as among the indispensables, and you
ought not to depreciate this woman of
the text, who, when offered kingly pre-
ferment responded, 81 dwell among my
own people"
Yes. this woman of the text was
great in her plety. Faith in God, and
she was not ashamed to talk it bef ore
ldolators. All, woman will never ap-
preclate what she owes to Christianity
until she knows and sees the degrnda-
tlon OF her sex under paganism and
Mohammedanism. Her very birth con-
sidered misfortune. S,ld like cattle
in the shambles. Slave of all work. and
at last her body fuel for the funeral
pyre of her husband. Above the shrek
OF the fire worshippers in India and
above the rumbling Of the juggernauts
hear the million voiced groan of
wrong, insulted, broken hearted, down
trOdden woman. Her tears have fall
en- in the Nile and Tigris and the La
rata and on the steppes of Tartary.
She has been dishonored in Turkish
garden and Persian palace and Spanish
alhambra. Her little ones have been
sacrificed in the Ganges. There is not
groan, or dungeon, or an island, or
mountain, or a river, or lake, or a
sea but could tell a story Of the out
RACES heaped upon her.
fh2nlkQ oil
Christianity comes forth, and all the
chains of this vassalage are snapped,
and she rises up from ignomy to ex-
allied sphere and becomes the affection
ate daughter, the gentle wife, the hon
ored mother. the useful Christian. on
II Christianity has done so much for
woman, surely woman will become its
most ardent advocate and its sublimeSt
eXemplilication.
When | come to speak of womanly
Influence, my mine always wanders off
to one model--the aged one, who 81
years ago we but away for the resur-
rection. About 81 years ago, and just
before their marriage day, my father
and mother stood up in the old meeting
house at Somerville. N. j., and took
upon them the VOWS of the Christa in
Though long life of vicissltude she
lived harmles3ly usefully and came to
her end in peace. No child Of want
ever came to her door and was turned
empty away. No one in sorrow
come to her but was cOmfOrted
No asked her the way to one
be saved, but she pointed him to the
cross. When the angle of life came
to a neighbor's dwelling, she was there
to rejoices at the starting of another
immortalespirit. When the ange of
death came to I'll neighbor'S dwelling,
she was there robe the departed for
the burial.
We had often heard her, when lead
lag family prayers in the absence of
my farther, say,"O Lord, j ask not for
my children wealth or honor, but l do
ask that they all may be the subjects
of thy comforting grace!" Her IL child
rem brought into the kingdom of God,
she mad but one more wish, and that
was that she might see her long absent
m missionary son, and when the ship
from China anchored IN New York
harbor, and the long absent one passed
over the threshold of his paternal home
she said, "Now, Lord, lettest thou thy
servant depart in peace, for mine eyes
have seen thy salvation.' The prayer
was soon answered.
1t was an autumnal day when we
gathered from afar and found only the
house from which the soul had fled
forever. She looked very natural, the
hands very much as when they were
employed in kindness for her children.
Whatever else we forget, we never for
get the looks of mothers hands. AS
we stood there by the casket we could
not help but say, "Don't she look beau
tifulp' 1t was cloudless day when
with heavy hearts we carried n or ont
to the last resting place. The withered
leaves crumbled under hoof and wheel
as we passed, and the sun shone on the
Raritan river until it looked like fire.
But more calm and beautiful and radi-
ant was the setting sun of that aged
pilgrims life. NO more toll, no more
tears, no more sickness, no more death.
Dear mother! Beautiful mother!
Sweet is tho slumber beneath the sod
While the pure spirit rest with God.
need not 60 back and show you
LenObia or Semiramis or Isabella, or
even the woman of the text, as won
derS of WOmanlY excellence or great.