The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-08-21


the genial considerations Of him Does
sorrow come 10 our home and is there
shadow on the cradle there are hundreds
Of hands 10 help, and many who weary
not through the long hight watching, and
hundreds OF prayers going up that God
would restore the sick. Is there burn
ing brimming cup Of calamity placed on
the pastors table, are there not many 10
help him drink OF that cup and who Will
not be comforted because he is strickenl
Oh, for somebody TO write a book about
the rewards Of the Christian ministry
about his surroundings of Christian sym
pathy.
This woman of the text was only a
type of thousands of men and women who
come down from the mansion and from
the cot to do kindness - the Lords ser
wants. suppose the men Of Shunem had
TO pay the bills, but it was the large
hearted Christian sympathies of the
women Of Shunem that looked after the
Lords messenger.
Again, this woman In the text was
great in her behavior under trouble.
Her only son had died on her lap. A
very bright light went out in that house
hold. The sacred writer puts it very
tersely when he says; He sat on her
knees until noon, and then he died" Yet
the writer goes to say that she eX-
perity, this woman was great in trouble.
Where are the feet that have not been
blistered on the hot sands of this great
Sahara2 Where are the shoulders that
have not been bent under the burden of
grief? Where is the ship sailing over
CLASSY sea that has not after a while been
caught in a cyclOnel Where Is the gar
den of earthly comfort, but trouble hath
hitched up its fiery and painting team and
urOna rsOt oh with buTninU nlOnUb-
share of disaster? Under the pelting of
ages of suffering, the great heart of the
world has burst with woe.
NaviCators tell us about the rivers, and
the Amazon and Danube and the Missis-
sippi have been explored, but who can
tell the depth or length of the great river
of sorrow made up of tears and blood roll5
ing through all lands and all ages, bearing
the wreck of families and communities
and of empires-foaming writhing, boil
ing with the agonies of six thousand
years Etna and COtopaM and Vesuvius
have been described, but who has ever
sketched the volcano of suffering retching
up from its depths the lava and
the scoria and pouring them down the
sides to whelm the nations3 Oh, if l
could gather all the heartstrings, the
broken heartstrings into harp, l would
play on it a dirge such as was never
sounded.
Mythologists tell us of Gorgon and
Centaur and Titan, and biologists tell us
of extinct species of monsters; but greater
than Gorgon or Megathereum, and not
belonging to the realm of fable, and not
of extinct species, is monster with iron
jaw and iron hoofs walking across the
nations, and history and poetry and
sculpture in their attempts 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, at is well Though
my property be gone, though my children
be gone, though my home be broken up,
though my health be sacrificed, it is well,
it is wellln There lis 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 consultations of God s
eternal love can illuminate 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 up this way; up this way are
thrones of light and seas of sapphire, and
the splendor of an eternal heaven. Come
up this way"
We may, like the ships, by tempest be tossed
On perllous deeps, but cannot be lost:
Though Satan enrage the wind and the tide,
vide,
/ heard an echo of my text in n very
dark hour when my father lay dying and
the old country minister said TO him:
Mr.. TaImage, how do you feel now as
you are about to pass the Jordan of
deathi" He replied-and it was the
last thing he ever said-"I feel well;
feel very we'll all is well"-lifting his
hand in a benediction, a speechless bene-
diction which pray God may go down
through all the generations. 1t was well !
OF course it was well.
Again, this woman of my text was
great in her application TO domestic du-
ties. Every picture is a home picture,
whether she is entertaining an Elisha, or
whether she is giving careful attention
to her sick boy, or whether she is APP
pealing for the restoration of her prop
erty-every picture in her case is a 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 moth
err of daughter. No faithfulness in pub
lie benefaction can ever atone for domes-
tic negligence.
There has been many a mothe who by
indefatigable toll has reared a large fam
lily of children, equipping them for the
duties of life with good manners and
large intelligence and Christ an principle,
starting them out, who has done more for
the world than many another 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 reputation, by pre-.
senting him very gracefully with bou.
quets of flowers on public occasions; 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 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
saya She declined it. She said: u
dwell among my own people, as much as
to say, Il am satisfied with my lot; all
want is my family and my friends around
| me. ] dwell among my own people"
Oh, what a rebuke to the strife for pre-
cedence 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 figure in plaster of paris
from Palmer's white Captive" and
would not know a boys penciling from
| Bierstadt's - 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