The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1895-08-17
SISTERS OF CHARITY
Rev. DR.. Taimaee Talks Upon the
Work of Woman


Ard tho Misslons for which She Has Been
Especially Equipped by God--Her
Influence In the Cause Of
Christ On Earth.
The following discourse was delfv-
cred by Rev. T. Dewitt TalmaEe at
Beatrice, Neb., where the Sabbath
found him during his western trip.
The subject was Sisters OF Charity"
and the text:
This woman was full - Coon sworks -1nu
aImsdeeds which she lid.-Acts tx, 81.
Starting now where l left Off last
Sabbath in reciting woman's oppor-
tunities, have to say that woman has
the special and superlative right OF
blessing and comforting the sick.
What land, what street, what house,
has not felt the smitings OF disease?
Tens of thousands of sick beds! What
shall we do with them? Shall man,
with his rough hand and heavy foot,
and inpatient bearing, minister? No.
He can not soothe the pain. He can
not quiet the nerves. He knows not
where to set the light. His hand is
not steady enough to pour out the
drops. He is not wakeful enough to
be a watcher. The Lord God sent Miss
Dix into the Virginia hospitals, and
the Maid of Saragosa to appease the
wounds of the battle field, has equipped
wife, mother and daughter for this
delicate but tremendous mission. You
have known men who have despised
woman, but the moment disease fell
upon them they did not send for their
friends at the bank, or their partner
in business or worldly associates; their
first cry was: "Take me to my wife. "
The dissipated young man at the col
lege SCOTS at the idea of being under
home influences; but at the first blast
of the typhoid fever on his cheek. he
says: where is mother?" Sir Walter
Scott wrote partly in compliment when
he said:
o woman, in our hour Of ease
Uncertain. coy and hard to please;
When pain and anguish wiring the brow,
A ministering angel thou.
think the most pathetic passage in
all the Bible is the description of the
lad who went out to the harvest-field
of Shunem and got Observation-Disclosures
ing his hands on his temples and cry
ing out: 20, my headl my headr' and
they said: "Carry him to his mother.
And then the record is: ''He sat on her
knees till noon and then died" 1t is
an awful thing to be i'll away from
home in strange hotel, once in
awhile men coming to look at you,
holding their hand over their mouth
for fear that they will catch the con-
tagion. How roughly they turn you
in bed! How loudly they talk!
How You long for the ministries OF
home; / knew one such who went
away from one of the brightest OF
homes for several weeks business alb
sence at the west. A telegram came
at midnight that he was on his death
bed, far away from home. BY express
train the wife and daughters went
westward; but they went too late.
He feared not TO die. but he was in an
agony to live until his family got
there. He tried to bride the doctor to
make him live little while longer.
lie said: Il am willing to die, but
not alone" But the pulses futtered,
the eyes closed, and the heart
stopped. The express trains met in
the midnight; wife and daughters go
ing westward-lifeless remains of hus-
band and father coming eastward. Oh,
| it was sad, pitiful, overwhelming
spectacle! When we are sick we want
TO be sick at home. When the time
comes for us TO die we want to die al
home. The room may be very humble
and the faces that look into ours may
be very plain; but who cares for that
Loving hands to bat e the temples.
Loving voices to speak good cheer.
Loving lips to read the comforting
promises of Jesus.
In our last dreadful war, men cast
the cannon; men fashioned the mus
kerry; men cried to the hosts: For
ward, march, men hurled their bat
talions on the sharp edges of the enc
| my. crying: Charge! charged but
| woman scraped the lint: woman adj
ministered the cordials; woman
watched by the dying couch; woman
| wrote the last message to the home
circle; woman wept at the solitary
burial attended by herself and -four
men with spade. We greeted the
general home with brass bands and
triumphal arches, and wild huzzas
but the story is too good to be writer
anywhere, save in the chronicles Of
Heaven, of Mrs. Brady. who came
down among the sick in the swamps o.
the Chickahominy; of Annie Ross, il
the cooper shop hospital; OF Mar
garet Breckenridge, who came to mer
who had been for weeks with theil
wounds undressed-some OF then
frozen to the ground; and when she
turned them over. those that had ar
arm left waved it and filled the air with
their "hurrah!''- Mrs. Hodge. wht
came from Chicago with blankets and
with pillows, until the men shouted
"Three cheers for the Christian com
mission! God bless the women a.
homes" then sitting down to take the
last message: Tell my wife not t.
| fret about me, but to NEE
me in Heaven; tell her Il
train up the boys whom w
have loved so well; tell her W.
shall meet again in the good land; tel
her to bear my loss like the Christian
wife of Christian soldier" and o
Mrs Shelton, into whose face the con
valescent soldier looked and said
Your grapes and cologne cured me.
Men did their work with shot ant
she'll, and carbine and howitzer; won
en- did their. work with socks, ant