The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1894-06-08
THE EYE OF A NEEDLE
REV. DR.. TALMAGE SPEAKS FOR WOM-
EN- WHO TOLL.

The Blessing and the Blight of Work-Body
and Soul Upon the Rack-Men and Wom-
en- Oppressors- Highest Adorn-
ment.
BROOKLYN, June Brew. T. De Witt
Talmage, who is now ON his round the
world journey, has chosen as the subject
for today Martyrs of the Needle" the
text being Matthew xix, "a, cit is
easier for a camel to go through the eye
of needle.
Whether this "eye of the needle" be
the small gate at the side of the big
gate at the entrance of the wall of the
ancient city, as is generally interpreted,
or the eye of a needle such as is now
handled in sewing a garment l do not
lay. In either case it would be tight
thing for a camel to go through the eye
of a needle. But there are whole cara
vans of fatigues and hardships going
through the eye of the sewing woman's
needle
Very long ago the needle was busy.
1t was considered honorable for women
to toll in olden time. Alexander the
Great stood in his palace showing gar
ments made by his own mother. The
finest tapestries at Bayeux were made
by the queen of William the Conqueror.
Augustus, the emperor, would not wear
any garments except those that were
fashioned by some member of his royal
family. So let the toiler everywhere be
respected
4, > The greatest blessing that could have
happened to our first parents was be-
ing turned out of Eden after they had
done wrong Adam and Eve, in their
perfect state, might have got along
without work Or only such slight en-
ployment as perfect garden, with no
weeds in it, demanded. But as soon as
they had sinned the best thing for them
was to be turned out where they would
have to work. We know what wither-
ing thing it is for man to have moth
ingto do. Good old Ashbel Green, at
fourscore years, when asked why he
kept on working, said, 81 do so to keep
out of mischief" We see that man
who has a large amount of money to
sand prosperous and honorable men that
you know, 900 had to work vigorously
at the beginning
The Idle Woman.
But l am now to tell you that indus
try is Just as important for woman's
safety and happiness. The most unhap-
DIV women i'll our communities today are
those who have no engagements to call
them up in the morning; who, once
having risen and breakfasted, lounge
through the dull forenoon i'll slippers
down at the heel and with disheveled
hair, reading the last novel, and who,
having dragged through wretched
forenoon and taken their afternoon
sleep, and having spent an hour and
half at their toilet, pick up their cardcase
and go out to make calls, and who pass
their evenings waiting for somebody to
come in and break up the monotony.
Arabella Stuart never was imprisoned in
so dark dungeon as that.
There is no happiness i'll an idle wom-
an. 1t may be with hand, it may be
with brain, it may be with foot, but
work she must or be wretched forever.
The little girls of our families must be
started with that idea. The curse of
our American society is that our young
women are taught that the first, second,
third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh,
tenth, fiftieth, thousandth thing in their
life is to get somebody to take care of
them. Instead of that the first lesson
should be how, under God, they may
take care of themselves The simple
fact is that a majority of them do have
to take care of themselves, and that,
too, after having, through the false no.
lions of their parents, wasted the years
in which they ought to have learned
how successfully to maintain them
selves. We now and here declare the
inhumanity, cruelty and outrage of that
father and mother who pass their daugh-
tiers into womanhood, having given
them no facility for earning their liveli
hood. Nine. de Stael said, cit is not
these writings that l am proud of, but
the fact that have facility in 10 occu-
pations, in any one of which 1 could
make livelihood.
A Word to Parents.
You say you have fortune to leave
them. o man and woman, have you
not learned that, like vultures, like
hawks, like eagles, riches have wings |
and fly away? Though you should be
successful in leaving a competency be-
hind you, the trickery of executors may
swamp it in a night, or some elders or
deacons of our churches may get up
fictitious company and induce your or
phans to put their money into it, and
If it be lost prove to them that it was
eternally decreed that that was the way
they were to lose it, and that it went |
in the most orthodox and heavenly style. |
Oh, the damnable schemes that pro-
fessed Christians will engage in-until
God puts his fingers into the collar of |
the hypocrite's robe and rips it clear
down to the bottoml You have no right, |
because you are well off, to conclude
that your children are going to be as
we'll off. A man died, leaving a large
fortune. His son fell dead in Phila-