Connecticut western news., 1896-07-09

anu HI aiInSnouSe CorrluOF anu Dy prison gate? There may be no royal robe there may be no palatial surroundings. She does not need them, for all charita- ble men will unite with the cracking lips of fever struck hospital and plague blotched lasaretto in greeting her as she passes: "Haill Haill Queen Vashti. |"
 Modest Merit.
 Again, I want you to consider Vashti the yelled. Had she appeared before AhasuerIs and his court on that day with her face uncovered she would have shocked all the delicacies of ori- ental society, and the very men who in their intoxication demanded that she come in their sober moments would have despised her. As some flowers seem to thrive best in the dark lane and in the shadow and where the sun does not seem to reach them, so God ap- points to most womanly natures re- tiring and unobstrusiye spirit God once in awhile does call an Isabella to a throne, or Miriam to strike the tim brel at the front of host, or Marie Antoinette to quell French mob, or 8 Deborah to stand at the front of an armed battalion, crying out: up. upl This is the day in which the Lord will deliver Sisera into thine hand. And when women are called to such outdoor work and to such heroic positions God prepares them for it, and they have iron in their souls and lightning in their eye, and whirlwinds in their breath, and the borrowed strength of the Lord Omnipotent in their right arm. They walk through furnaces as though they were hedges of wild flow CTS and cross seas as though they were shimmering sapphire, and all the har- pies of hell down to their dungeon at the stamp of her womanly indignation. But these are the exceptions Generally Dorcas would rather make a garment for the poor boy. Rebecca would rather fill the trough for the camels. Hannah would rather make coat for Samuel The Hebrew maid would rather give . prescription for Naaman's leproey. The women of Sarepta wouh rather gather few sticks to cook meal for fam ished Elijah. Phoebe would rather carry a letter for the inspired apostle. Mother Lois would rather educate Timothy in the Scriptures
 When I see woman going about her daily duty, with cheerful dignity pre- siding at the table, with kind and gen. tie but firm discipline presiding in the nursery, going out into the world with out any blast of trumpets, following in the footsteps of him who went about doing good, say, This is Vashti with veil on" But when see a woman of unblushing boldness. loud voiced, with tongue of infinite clitter clatter, with arrogant look. passing through the streets with the step of walking beam. gayly arrayed in a very hurricane of millinery, cry out, ''Vashti has lost her veilp' When see a woman of comedy features, and of adroitness of intellect and endowed with all that the schools can do for one, and of high social position, yet moving in society with superciiousness and hauteur, as though she would have peo- pie know their place, and an uHdefned combination of giggle and strut and rhodomontade, endowed with allopathic quantities of talk, but only homeo- pathic infinitesimals of sense, the terror of dry goods clerks and railroad con- ductors, discoverers of significant mean ings in plain conversation. prodigies of badinage and innuendo, say: Hook, looki Vashti has lost her veil. "
 A Sacrificing Spirit.
 Again, want you to consider Vashti the sacrifice. Who Is this see coming out of that palace gate of Shushan? It seems to me that have seen her before. She comes homeless, houseless, friend less, trudging along with a broken heart. Who is she? It is Vashti the sac rifce. Oh, what a change it was from regal position to a wayfarer's crusti A little while ago approved and sought for; now none so poor as to acknowl- edge her acquaintanoeship, Vashti the sacrificed An, you and I have seen it many time!
 Here is home empalaced with beau ty. All that refinement and books and wealth can do for that home has been done, but Ahasuerus, the husband and the father, is taking hold on paths of sin. He is gradually going down. After awhile he will founder and struggle like wild beast in the hunters net farther away from God, farther away from the right Soon the bright apparel of the children will turn to rags; soon the household song will become the sob ping of a broken heart. The old story over again. Brutal centaurs breaking up the marriage feast of Lapith@. The house full of outrage and cruelty and abomi- nation, while trudging forth from the palace gate are Vashti and her children. There are homes that are in danger of such n breaking up. Oh. Ahasuerus, that you should stand in home, by a dissipa.ted life destroying the peace and comfort of that home. God forbid that your children should ever have to wiring their hands and have people point their finger at them as they pass down the street and say, "There goes drunk ard s child" God forbid that the little feet should ever have to trudge the path of poverty and wretchedness. God for bid that any evil spirit born of the wine cup or the brandy glass should come forth and uproot that garden, and with | a lasting, blistering, all consuming curse shut forever the palace gate against Vashti and the children
 During the war went to Hagerstown to look at the army, and stood in the night on hilltop and looked down up on them I saw the canlpfires all through the valleys and all over the hills. It was a weird spectacle. those campfres, and I stood and watched them, and the soldiers who were gather ed around them were, no doubt, talking of their homes and of the long march they had taken and of the battles they were to fight. But after awhile I saw these camprfes begin to lower, and they continued to lower until they were all | gone out and the army slept It was imposing when I saw the campfres; it was imposing in the darkness when I thought of that great host asleep.
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