The news and herald. (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1877-1900, 1895-06-29
REV. DR.. TALMAGE
THE BROOKLYN DIVINES
SU NDAY SERMON.

have to say that woman has the specia! and
superlative right Of blessing and comforting
the sick. What land. what street, what
house, has not felt the smitinSs Of disease?
Tens Of thousands Of sici0edsi What shall
we Go with them? Shall man. with his rough
hand and heavy foot md impatient bearing.
minister? No. he cannot sooIhe the pain. He
cannot quiet the nerves. He knows not
where 10 set the light His hand is not
steady enough to pour out the drops. He IS
not wakeful enough to be watcher. The
Lord GOD sent Miss Dix into the Virginia
hospitals, and the Maid Of Saragossa to ap-
pease the wounds OF the battlefield. and mas
equipped wife. mother and daughter for this
delicate but tremendous mission. You have
known noen who have desp!Sed women. but
the moment disease fell upon them they did
not send for their friends at the bank. or
their partner in business, or their worldly
associates. Their first cry was, Take me to
my wifei' The dissipated young man at the
college 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 Walter Scott wrote partly in
satire and partly in compliment when he
said
0 woman, in our hour Of ease.
Uncertain, coy and hard to please:
When pain and anguish wiring the brow,
A ministerinS 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
sunstruck-throwins his hands on his tenn
piles and crying out: ''Oh, my head! My
mother" And then the record is. "He sat
on her knees till noon, and then died" It
is an awful thing to be i'll away from home
in strange hotel, once in awhile men COM
ing to look at you, holding their hand over
their mouth for fear that they will catch the
contagion. 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 absence at
the West. 4 telegram came at midnight that
he was on his deathbed far away from home.
BY express train the wife and daughters
went westward, but they went TOO late. he
feared not to die, but be was in an agony to
live until his family got there. He tried to
.bribe the doctor to make him live little
while longer. He said. II am willing to die,
but not alone" But the pulses futtered,
the eyes closed and the heart stopped. The
express trains met in the m!dniSht--wife and
daughters going westward. HfelesS remains
Of husband and father coming eastward. Oh.
1t was sad, pitifui, 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 at home. The room may be
very humble, and the faces that look into
ours may he very plain. but who cares for
that? Loving hands to bathe 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 can
non; men fashioned the musketry; men cried
to the hosts, '!Forward, march, men haried
their battaIors on the sharp edges Of the
enemy, crying, charge, charge!" but
woman scraped the lint; woman admins
tered the cordials; woman watched by the
dying couch; woman wrote the last message
to the homo circle; woman wept at the soli-
tary 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
written anywhere, save in the chronicles OF
heaven, of Mrs. Brady. who came down
among the sick in the swamps ofthe Chicka-
honiny; Of Annie Ross, in the cooper shop
hospital; OF Margaret Breckinridge, who
came to men who had been for weeks with
their wounds undressed, some Of them frozen
to the ground. and when she turned them
over those that had an arm left waved it and
filed tho air with their ''Hurrah!' OF Mrs.
Hodge, who came from Chicago with b!an-
kets and with pillows, until the men shouted:
"Three cheers for the Christian commission!
God bless the women at home;" then. sit
ting down 70 take the last message: Tell
my wife not to fret about me, but to meet me
In heaven. Tell her to train up the boys
whom we have loved so well. Tell her we
! shall meet again in the good land. Tell her
to bear my loss like the Christian wife OF a
Christian soldier and Of Mrs. Shelton, into
whose face the conyalesent solder looked
and said, "Your grapes and cologne cured
me-" Men did their work with shot and
shell and carbine and howitzer, women did
their work with socks and slippers and
bacdages, and warm drinks. and Scripture
texts, and gentle strokings Of the not temples,
and stories of that land where they never
have any pain. Ien knelt down over the
wounded and said, "On which side did YOU
fisht?' Women knelt Gown ovur the wo,,ut-
ed and said: Where are you hurt? What
nice thing can I make for you to eat? What
makes YOU cry?' Tonight, while we men
are sound asleep il our beds. there will be a
| light in voLder loft: there will be grooming
in that dark alley; there will be cries OF dis
tress in that cellar. Hen viii sleep. and
women will watch.
Again. woman has superiatire right to
take care .! tae pooc. There are hundreds
and thousands of thc!n il ali our cities.
There is Z Kind oI work that men cannot do
for the poor. nero comes 4 group Of little
barefoot children 10 the door Of the Dorcas
| Society They need to be clothed and pro-
v;ded for Which OF these directors OF
banks would know how many yards it would
take to make that little girl 4 dress? Which
Of these masculine hands could fit hat to
that little girls head? Which Of the wise
men would know how to tie on that new
pair OF shoes? Man sometimes gives his
| charity in q rough way. and it falls like the
| fruit of g tree in the East, which fruit comes
down so heavily that it breaks the skull ot
the man who is trying to gather it. But
woman GliaeS so softly into the house 0!
destitntion, and finds out all the sorrows OF
the place. and puts 50 quietly the donation
on the table, that all the family come out or
| the front steps as she departs. expecting that
from under her shawl size will thrust out two
wings and so right up toward heaven, from
whence she seems to have come down.
Christian Young wonaD. if you would make
yourself happy and win tho blessing o.
Christ, 90 out among the destitute. LOAF
Of bread or bundle Of socks may make O
| homely load to carry. but the angels Of Goo
will come out to watch. and the Lord
! Almighty will give His messenger hosts q
charge. saying: 'Look after that woman.
Canopy her with your wings and shelter hel
from all HARM" and while you are seated il
the house OF destitution and suffering the
little ones around the room will whisper
"Who is she? Amt sne beautiful?'' and i
| you listen right sharply. you vii! hear drip
! ping down the leaky roof and rolling ovel
tae rotten stairs the angel cnant that shool
bethlehem. ''Glory to God in the highest: ant
| on earth peace. good will to men" Ca1
! YOU tell me Eny Christian woman, going
down among tho naunts Of ipiquity on {
| Christian errand. never meets with an.
ind:rni.y? I stood in the chapel of Heller
! Chalmers. the daughter Of the celebrated DR.
Chalmers. in the most abandoned part Of the
city OF Edinburgh. and I said to her as
looked around upon the fearful surround
! ings OF that place. "Do YOU come here night:
! to hold seryice?" "Oh. yes" she said
| Can it he possible thatyou never meet Will
Al insult while performing this Christian er
/ ha Of