Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1893-08-25


ward her for her hospitality by ask
ing some preferment from the king,
what did she say? She declined IT..
She said: ~ dwell among my own
people," as much as TO say, II am sat
isfied with my lot; all | want is my
family and my friends around me. l
dwell. among my own people" Oh,
what a rcbuke to the strife for prece-
dence in all ages.
How many there are who want to
get great architecture, and homes fur
nished with all art, all painting, all
statuary, who have not enough taste
to distinguish between Gothic and
byzantine, and who could not tell a
figure in plaster of paris from Palmer's
"White Captive, and would not know
boys pencilling from BierstadCs
yosemite. Men who buy large
libraries by the square foot, buying
these libraries when they have hardly
enough education to pick out the day
of the almanac! Oh, how many there
are striving to have things as well as
their neighbors, or better than their
neighbors, 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-
fnement or culture. Splendor of
abode, sumptuousn, SIS of diet, lavish
ness 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 cot
tage, or untanned sheepskin to French
broadcloth, or husks TO pine 'pple, or
the clumsiness of a boor to the man
ners of gentleman. God, who strung
the beach with tinted shell. and the
grass of the field with the dews of the
night, and hath eNqu sitely tinged
morning cloud and robin red
breast, ants us to keep our eve open
to all beautiful sights, and our ear
open to all beautiful cadences, and our
heart open to all elevating sentiments.
But what | want to impress upon YOU,
is Fat you ought not TO inventory the
luxuries of life as among the indispen-
sables. and you ought not to depre-
ciate this woman of the text, who,
when offered kindly preferment, re-
sponded, 81 dwell among my own peo-
pie.
Yea, this woman of the text was
great in her piety. Faith in God, and
she was not ashamed to talk about it
before idolaters. All, woman will
never appreciate what She owes to
Christianity until she knows and sees
the degradation of her SEX under
Paganism and Mohammedanism Her
very birth cousidere misfortune.
Sold like cattle in the SHAMELESS. Slave
of all work, and at last. her body food
for the funeral pyre of her husband.
Above the shrek of the fire worship
pers in India and above the rumb'
ling of the luggernauts, ! hear the
mlllion-voiced groan of wronged, in
suite /, broken hearted. down trodden
woman. Her tears have fallen in the
Nile and Tigris and the La Plata and
on the steppes of Iartary. She has
been dishonored in turkish garden
and Persian palace and Spanish Al
hambra. Her little ones have been
sacrificed in the Ganges. There is not
a groan, or a dungeon. or an island,
or mountain, or river, or a lake,
or sea but could tell n story
of the outrages heaped upon her.
But thanks TO God, this glorious
Christianity comes forth, and all the
chains of this va salage are s. snapped,
and she rises up from ignominy TO eX-
ted sphere, and becomes the atfec-
Tomato daughter, the gentle wife, the
hOnored mother the useful Christian.
Oh, if Christianity has done so much
for woman, surely woman will become
its most ardent advocate and its sub
FINEST exemplitication.
/ When ! come to speak of womanly
influence, my mind always wan
ders off to enc model-the aged
one who, twenty-seven years ago, we
put away for the resurrection. About
eighty-seven years ago, and just be-
fore their marriage day, my father
and mother stood up in the old meet
! ing house at Somerville, New
Jersey, and took upon them
the vows of the Christian.
/ Through long life of vicissi-
tude she lived harmlessly and use
fully and came 10 her end in peace.
/ No child of want ever came to her
door and was turned empty away. No
one in sorrow came to her but was
comforted. No one asked her the
way to be saved but she pointed him
TO the cross. When the angel of life
came 10 a neighbours dwelling she
was there to rejoice at the starting of
another immortal spirit. When the
angel of death came to a neighbor'
ohC was thClC W iOpC blC NC
parted Tor the burial.
We had often heard her, when lead
ing family prayers in the absence OF
my father say: 80, Lord, ask not
for my children wealth or honor, but
/ do ask that they all may be sub
jects of thy comforting peace!" her
eleven children brought into the king
dom of God. she had but one more
wish, and that was that she might see
her long absent 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 soJr
answered.
1t was an autumnal day when we
gathered from afar and found only the
house from which the soul had fec
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 look of mothers hands A.
we stood there by the casl1et, we could
not help but say: Don't she lool
beautiful" 1t was cloudless day
when with heavy hearts, we carried
her out to the last resting-place. The
withered leaves crumbled under hoo