The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1893-08-23

Wei; feel very well; all Is welP'-
lifting his hand in a benediction. .
speechless benediction, which pray
God may go down through all the gem
erations. 1t was welll OF course 1t
was we'll.
Again, this woman of my text was
great in her application to domestic
duties. Every picture is a home pict-
ture, whether she is entertaining an
Elisha, or whether she is giving care
ful attention to her sick boy, or
whether she is appalling for the resto-
ration OF her property--every picture
In her case is home picture. Those
are not disciples of this Shunemite
woman who, going out to attend to
outside charities, neglect the duty of
home-the duty of wife, Of mother, of
daughter. No faithfulness in public
benefaction can ever atone for domes-
tic negligence .
There has been many mother who
by indefatigable toll has reared large
family Of children, equipping them for
the duties of life with good manners
and large intelligence and Christian
principle, starting them out, who has
done more for the world than many an
other woman whose name has sounded
through all the lands and through all
centuries.
remember when Kossuth was in
this country there were some ladies
who got reputation, honorable reputa-
ton, by presenting him very gracefully
with bouquets of flowers on public oc-
casions; but what was all that COM
pared with the work of the plain Hun
garian mother who gave to truth and
civilization and the cause of universal
liberty a Kossuth? Yes, this woman of
my text was great in her simplicity.
When this prophet wanted to reward
her for her hospitality by asking some
preferment from the king what did
she sayP She declined it. She said,
Il dwell among my own people," as
much as to say, 81 am satisfied with
my lot; all want is my family and my
friends around me. dwell among my
own people," o, what rebuke to the
strife for precedence 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 taste to dis
tinguish between Gothic and Byzan-
tine, and who could not tell a figure in
plaster of paris from Palmer's "White
Captive" and would not know boys
penciling from Bierstadt's yosemite"
Men who buy large libraries by the
square foot, buying these libraries
when they have hardly enough educa-
tion to pick out the day of the almanacl
0, 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 bank
ruptcy, and men of reputed honesty
rush into astounding forgeries.
OF course, say nothing against re-
finement or culture. Splendor of abode,
sumptuousness of diet, lavishness in
art, neatness in apparel-thero is moth
ing against them in the Bible or out of
the Bible. God does not want us to
prefer mud hovel to English cottage,
or untanned sheepskin to French
broadcloth, or husks to pineapple, or
the clumsiness of a boor to the man
ners Of a gentleman. 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 and robin redbreast,
wants MS to keep our eye open to all
beautiful sights, and orr ear open to
all beautiful cadences, and our heart
open to all elevating sen timents. But
what | want to impress upon you, is
that you ought not to inventory the
luxuries Of life as among the indis-
pensables, and you ought not to depre-
ciate this woman Of the text, who,
when offered kingly preferment, re-
sponded: 81 dwell among my own
people"
Yea, this woman of the text was
great in her piety. Faith in God, and
she was not ashamed to talk about II
before idolaters. All, woman will never
appreciate what she owes to Christian
ity until she knows and sees the degra.
dation of her sex under Paganism and
Mohammedanism. Her very birth con-
sidered misfortune. Sold 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 worshipers in India and
above the rumbling Of the juggernauts,
/ hear the million-voiced groan of
wronged, insulted, broken-hearted,
woman. Her tears have
fallen in the Nile and Tigris and the
La Plata 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
a groan, or dungeon, or an island, or
a mountain, or river, or a lake, or a
sea but could tell story of the out
RACES heaped upon her.
But thanks to God, this glorious
Christianity comes forth, and all the
chains of this vassalage are snapped,
and she rises up from ignominy to ex-
alted sphere, and becomes the affec-
tionate daughter, the gentle wife the
honored mother, the useful Christian.
0, II Christianity has done so much for
woman, surely woman will become It's
most ardent advocate and its sublimest
exemplifcation.
When / come TO speak Of womanly
influence my mind always wanders off