Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1893-09-01

and gone through 1t with burning plowshare
Oh disaster? Under the pelting OF ages Of
suffering the great heart of the world has
| burst with woe
| Navigators tell us about the rivers, and the
Amazon and the Danube and the Mississippi
have been explored, but who can tell the
depth or length of the great river of sorrow
made up Of tears and blood rolling through
all lands and all ages, bearing the wreck Of
families and OF communities and of empires
--foaming, writhing, boiling with the agon-
les OF 5000 years2 Etna and Cotopaxi and
Vesuvius have been described, but who has
ever sketched the volcano of suffering reach
ing up from its depths the lava and the scoria
and pouring them down the sides to whelm
/ the nations2 Oh, il / could gather all the
J heartstrings, the broken heartstrings, into
harp would play on 1t dirge such as was
never sounded.
Mythologists tell us of Gorgon and Gen.
| taur and Titan. and biologists tell US of ex-
| tinct species OF monsters, but greater than
Gordon or megatherium, and not belonging
| TO the realm Of fable, AMI not Of an extinct
| Species is monster with iron jaw and iron
hoofs walking across the nations, and his
tory and poetry and sculpture, in their at
tempt to sketch it and describe it, have
seemed to sweat great drops of blood.
But, thank God, there are those who can
conquer as this woman of the text conquered
and say ut Is we'll Though my property
be gone, though my children be gone, though
my homo be broken up, though my health
be sacrificed, it is we'll, IT is WELL" There is
no storm on the sea but Christ Is ready to
rise in the hinder part of the ship and hush
it. There is no darkness but the constella-
tions Of Gods eternal love can illumine it,
and though the winter comes out OF the
northern sky you have sometimes seen the
northern sky all ablaze With auroras that
seem to say "Come DIP this way Up this
way are thrones Of light, and seas Of sap
phire, and the splendor of an eternal heaven.
Come up this way"
We mag, Ike the ships, by tempest be tossed
% perilous depths but cannot I've lost
Though satan enrage the wind and the toe,
TIE promise assures us the Lord Will provide
heard an echo Of my text in a very dark
hour, when my father lay dying, and the old
country minister said to him, "Mr. Talmage,
how do you feel now as you are about to pass
the Jordan Of death? He replied--and 1t
was the last thing he ever said-'I feel well
feel very well all is we'll. lifting his hand
IN a benedicton, a speeches. benediction,
which pray God may go down through all
the generations. 1t is well OF course it
was well.
Again. this woman Of my text was great
in her application TO domestic duties. Every
picture is a home picture. whether she Is
entertaining an Elisha or whether she is CIV
Ing careful attention to her sick boy, or
whether she is appealing for the restoration
of her property-every picture in her case is
home picture. Those who are not disci-
pies of this Shunemite woman who, going
out to attend to outside charities, neglect the
duty of honie-the duty of wife, OF mother,
OF daughter. No faithfulness in public BEN
efaction can ever atone for domestic negli-
gence.
There has been many mother who by in
defatigable toll has reared large family OF
children, equipping them for the duties OF
life with good manners and large intelli-
gence and Christian principle, starting them
out, who has done more for the world than
MANY another woman whose name has
sounded through all the lands and all the
centuries.
remember when Kossuth was In this
country there were some ladies who got
regulations by presenting him very grace
fully with bouquets of flowers on public oc-
casons. but what was all that compared with
the work OF the plain Hungarian mother who
gave to truth and civilization and the cause
OF universal liberty Kossuth? Yes, this
woman of my text was great in her simplicity.
When the prophet wanted to reward her
mert from the king. what did she say2 She
declined 1t. She said II dwell among my
own people," as much as to say II am
satisfied with my lot. All l want Is my
family and my friends around me. dwell
among my own people," Oh, what rebuke
, to the strife for precedence in all ages
How many there are who want to get great
architecture and homes furnished 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 Palmers
"White CAPTIVE" and would not know a boys
penciling from Bierstadts 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 we'll as their neighbors, or
better than their neighbors. and in the strug-
gle vast fortunes are exhausted and business
firms thrown into bankruptcy, and men OF
reputed honesty rush into astounding for
geries.
OF course say nothing against refinement
or culture. Splendor of abode, sumptuous-
ness Of diet, layishness In art, neatness in ap'
parel-there is nothing against them in the
f3ible or out of the Bible. God does nc.
want us to prefer mud hovel to English cot
tage. or Unframed sheepskin to French
broadcloth, or husks to pineapple, or the
clunsiness of a boor to the manners OF
gentleman. God, VINO strung the beach with
tinted she'll and the grass Of the field with
the dews of the night and hath exquisitely
Hinged morning clou1 an robin red brelst,
wants us to keep our eye open TO all beauti-
full sights, AMI our ear open to all beautiful
cadences, and our heart open 70 all elevating
sentiment But what want tt imp ess upon
vo, is that you ought not to inventory the
Injuries Of life as among the iadispensable5,
and you ought not to deprecis TO this woman
of the text. WAC, when offered kinyly prefer
ment. responded, II dwell among my own
people"
Yes. this woman Of the text was great in
her piety, faith in God, and she was not
ashamed to talk about it before idolaters. An,
woman will never appreciate what she owes
TO Christianity until she knows and sees the
degradation of her sex under plganlsn ana
Mahommedanism. Her very birth considered
a misfortune. Sold like cattle In the saam'
bles Slave OF all work, and at last her bo1y
fuel for the funeral pyre OF her husband.
Above the shrek OF the fire wor5hiper5 In
India and above the runbling OF the luyger-
nauts | hear the million voiced groan OF
wronged, insulted, broken hearted, down
trodden woman. Her tears have fallen In the
Nile and Tigris and the La Plata AMI on the
steppes of Tartary. Sac has been dishon-
ored in Turkish garlen and Persian palace
and Spanish Alhambra. Her little ones nave
been sacrificed in the Gauges. There is not
groan, or dungeon, or an islani. or
mountain or q river, or a SEA but could tell
a story of the outrages heaped upon her.
But. thanks to Col, this glorious Chris
tianity comes forth, and all the chains OF
this vassalage are snapped. AMI sac risesup
from ignominy to exalted sphere and be-
comes the affectionate daughter. the gentle