The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1896-12-18


and queens whom the world does not
recognize. They sit on no throne OF roy
atty, they ride in no chariot, they elicit
no huzza, they make no pretense, but by
the grace of God they are princesses and
they are queens. Sometimes in their
poverty, sometimes in their self denial,
sometimes in their hard struggles of
Christian service, God knows they are
queens. The world does not recognize
them. Royalty passing III disguise!
Kings without the crown, conquerors
without the palm, expresses wlthout
the jewell You saw her yesterday or
the street. You saw nothing important
in her appearance, but she is Iegnan'
over a vast realm of virtue and goodness
"a realm vaster than Jeroboam even
looked at You went down into the
house of destitution and want and sur
fering. You saw the story OF trial writ
ten on the wasted hand of the mother,
ON the pale cheeks of the children, on
the empty bread tray, on the fireless
hearth, on the broken chair. You would
not have given dollar for all the fur
niture in the house. But by the grace OF
God she is princess. The overseers OF
the poor come there and discuss the case
and say, "It's pauper. They do not
realize that God has FURNISHED for her a
crown, and that after she has got
through the fatiguing journey from T1r-
zah to Shiloh, and from Shiloh back to
Tirzah there will be throne OF royalty
on wi ich she shall rest forever Glory
yelled, afflnence hidden, eternal rap
lures hushed up, queen in mask, a
princess in disguise!
When you think Of queen, you do
not think of Catherine Of Russia or Ma
ria Theresa of Austria or Mary, queen
of Scots When you think OF queen,
you think of plain woman who sat op-
posite your father at the table or walked
with him down the path Of life arm in
arm-sometimes to the Thanksgiving
banquet, sometimes to the grave, but
always side by side, soothing your little
sorrows and adjusting your little quar-
rels, listening to your evening prayer,
toiling with the needle or at the spin
ming wheel and on cold nights tucking
you up snug and warm, and then on
that dark day when she lay a-dying,
putting those thin hands that had toiled
for you so long-putting them together
in dying prayer commencing you to
that God in whom she had taught You
to trust. Oh, she was the queen-she
was the queen! You cannot think OF her
now without having the deepest emo
tions of your soul stirred, and you feel
as if you could cry as though you were
now sitting in infancy on her lap, and
if you call her back to speak your name
with the tenderness with which she once
spoke, you would be willing now to
throw yourself on the sod that covers
her grave, crying, Mother, motheri"
All, she was queen! Your father knew
it. You knew it. She was the queen,
but the queen in disguise. The world
did not recognize it,
A Grand Disguise.
But there was grander Disgusting
The favorite of great house looked out
of the window of his palace and he saw
that the people were carrying heavy
burdens and that some of them were hob
bling on crutches, and he saw some ly-
ing at the gate exhibiting their sores,
and then he heard their lamentation and
he said, II will just put on the clothes
of those poor people, and Twill go down
and see Whit their sorrows are, and
will sympaIhize with them, and | will
be one of them, and l will help them. "
Well, the day came for him to start.
The lords of the land came to see him
off. All who could sing joined in the
parting song, which shook the hills and
woke up the shepherds. The first few
nights he has been sleeping with the
hostlers and the camel drivers, for no
one knew there was a king in town. He
went among the doctors of the law, as
founding them, for, without any doc
tors gown. he knew more law than the
doctors. He fished with the fishermen,
he smote with his own hammer In the
carpenters shop, he ate raw corn out OF
the field, he fried fish on the banks of
Gennesaret. He was howled at by crazy
people in the tombs, he was splashed OF
the surf of the sea, pilgrim without
any pillow, sick man without any
medicament, mourner with no sym.
pathetic bosom in which he could pour
his tears. Disguise completed know
that occasionally his divine royalty
flashed out, as when in the storm Oh
Galilee, as in the red wine at the we'd
ding banquet, as when be freed the
shackled demoniac of Gadara, as when
he turned whole school Of fish into the
net of the discouraged boatmen, as when
he throbbed life into the shTiveled arm
of the paralytic; but for the most part
he was in disguise. No one saw the
kings jewels in his sandal; no one saw
the royal robe i'll his plain coat; 10 one
knew that that shelterless Christ owned
all the mansions in which the hierarchs
of heaven had their habitation; none
knew that that hungered Christ owned
all the olive groves and all the harvests
which shook their gold on thghllls of
Palestine; no one knew that he who
said, II thirstl' poured the Euphrates
out of his own chalice; no one knew
that the ocean lay in the palm of his
hand like a dewdrop in the vase of a
lily; 10 one knew that the stars and
moons and sans and galaxies and con-
stellations that marched on age after