The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-07-16
THE LOOMS OF GOD.

I'LL LUUMO vi UUDt
1.-THE years of man are the looms of God, let
down from the place of the SUM-
Wherein we are weaving blindly, till the mys-
tic web is done.
Weaving hlindly, but weaving surely, each
for himself his fate;
We may not tell how the right side looks, we
can only weave and wait
But looking above for the pattern, no weaver
hath need to fear,
Only let him look clear into heaven, the per
feet pattern is there.
For if he keep the face Of the Savior forever
ana always in sight,
His toll shall be sWeeter than honey, his
work is sure to be right;
And when the work is ended, and the web is
lOOsed and turned,
He shall hear the voice of the Master, IL shall
say to him, Well done
And the whitewinged angels Of heaven to
bear him thence shall come down,
And God shall give him gold for his hire, not
coin, but crown"
Alone in the hospital linen room I sat
marking the clothing of some new pa
tients patients too forlorn to think of or
care for such matters, with garments too
worthless to tempt one to Appropriate;
patients who were not likely to get things
lost in the wash, for when washed, they
very likely did it themselves.
Among the familiar names common to
that class. Maries, Margarets, Sarahs,
AIMS, etc, which l wrote on the gar
ments, poorly fashioned, worn and rag
ged, reminding one of the dire poverty of
the owners, l found a heap of superior ar
ticles, with a singular name pinned to the
parcel; garments not fine, but some pie
ces Of real linen, neatly sewed, beautiful
ly patched and darned, the stitches so
fine where the mending came in, it was
difficult to detect the patch from the fab
ric, threadbare, worn, but even
in old clothes, there is some per-
sonality, and somehow these ar
ticles impressed me. Then thename, 'Tch
Diem" Pavoni, the strong German words,
not a proper name either, attached to the
soft Italian surname; translated 81
Serve" Pavoni Writing and rewriting,
ponder over it. The heir to England's
throne wears Ich Diem upon his princely
shield, descending to him from the first
| Edward and what singular fancy pos
sessed a parent to transform such
superscription into child's name3 and
where did the parent come upon it?
! The work completed, still conjecture
| who and what Ich Diem PaVOni is but in
| the hard, grinding life of hospital nurse,
| few opportunities of intercourse with
| others than those needing our services
present themselves, and not until my turn
for night nursing came round, did 1 dis
| cover the owner of the singular name.
OF course ! knew she was in the char
ity ward, and friends, l always write the
word ''cnarity-the greatest of the three
with lOathing; why} Because the re-
cipient of charity is one set apart, brand
ed. We take patient to the hospital
carry her into the charity ward we are
not satisfied until we put charity in large
letters on the door; we put there the
hardest beds, the most cOmfOrtless chairs
send there the coarse table ware; if there
is any crOwding, the charity wards are
the ones, the pay patients must not be
crowded. 'BeggarS should not be chOoS-
ers'' is a coarse expression, but we exem-
plify it in our daily life when connected
with charity. God pity the poor, we say;
we do not want them to suffer, of course.
But, friends there is a keener suffering
than that of the body. We say: "Their
beds are hard at home, their
cups and plates, if they have any at all,
are coarse-we give them food and medi-
cine and nursing, they owe us thanks.
All too true; but do you never think how
keen the suffering is before one has to &C
cept this charity?
In my mind there is a paraphrase ever
of the grand old words, CHARITY en-
dureth all things" Yes, the recipient of
charity does endure all things, has en-
dured all physical woe before the spirit is
subdued sufficiently to accept the charity,
and when it comes TO the charity hos
pital ward-only when the flesh at last
gives way, the proud spirit is conquered
at last. Don't you know we could almost
insert Leave all hope behind" beneath
the brazen lettering, Charity" in the
hospital ward3
Understand me, not that there is not
kindness and love and pity, but the in
mates have had to such a great extent
to lay aside all self respect, the spirit is
broken, and no wonder the mortality in
the charity wards is so proportion
ately great. A weak and suffering body,
borne down by broken spirit, broken
heart
You offer the cup of cold water in His
name, but to her who drinks of the
cup
How can you help it2 I don't know;
one of the inscrutable mysteries. Only
we might suggest that you take down the
lettering Charity" from the ward doors,
place on them the name of some sanity
man or woman, some one who has shared
poverty and suffering, clarifying both
IcGlDltulS JHtluSGlN Go VI tlldIlbys
just one little matter among so many
that touched my heart, l can mention, |
that l heard poor woman ask one day if
she could drink out of 'oneOf those pretty
little cups"-these were for the pay pa
tieuts," and the nurse who gratified the
request was sharply reprmanded. Only
a small thing but it seemed hard to have
to refuse such a small favor to a dying !
fellow creature.
Sometimes in your offerings, if you |
would add a little china cup, a dainty |
glass, let the poor parched lips have a lit |
tie of the luxury surrounding their fellow !
patients in the other wards
These last could better do without them |
for season, in order to give a little pleas |
ure to the ones who never have them.
Another point, the moral effect is good: |
if ever so lightly, cover up the line be-
tween the pay patient" and her sister, |
the charity one. Put yourself in the |
charity patients place, try to make her
feel that she is not so far removed from |
being your sister, uphold, as much |
as possible, her self-respect. You
good woman, who do your best. need not |
be reminded of her of whom divine lips
said: She hath done what she could"
She brought sweet ointment to anoint
him for burial, but do you forget she