Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1898-06-16
DIR. TALMAGES SERMON.
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE BY THE NOTED
DIVINE.
The Choice of q Wife-From n Rustic
Bible Scene is Drawn Practical and
Inspiring Lesson For All Glasses Of
People-The Calling For SDecIal Work.

People-The Calling For Special WORK.
TEXT: "Now Moses kept the flock OF
Jethro. his father-in-law, tho priest Of
indian. EXODUS ill.,, 1.
In the southea astern part of Arabia man
is sitting by WE'LL 1t is the arid country
and water is scarce, SO that we'll is OF
great value, and fiocks and herds are
driven vast distances to have their thirst
Stacked: Jethro, q Midianite sheik and
priest, was so fortunate as to have seven
daughters, and they are practical girls,
and yonder they come, driving the sheep
the watering. They lower the buckets
and then pull them up, the water plashing
on the stones and chilling their feet. and
the troughs are filed. Who is that man
out there, sitting unconcerned and looking
on? Why does he not come and help the
women in this hard work of drawing water?
But no sooner have the dry lips and pant
ing nostrils of the fiocks begun to cool a
little in the brimming trough of the we'll
than some rough Bedouin shepherds break
in upon the scene. and with clubs and
shouts drive back the animals that were
drinking and alright these girls until they
fly in retreat, and the fiocks or these ILL
hammered shepherds are driven to the
troughs, taking the places OF the other
flocks.
Now that man sitting by the we'll begins
to color up, and his eye flashes with indig.
nation, and all the gallantry of his nature
is aroused. It is Moses who naturally had
quick temper, anyhow, as he demon
strated on one occasion when he saw an
Egyptian depressing an 1sraelite and gave
the Egyptian n sudden clip and buried him
in the sand, and as he showed afterward
when he broke all the Ten Commandments
ut once by shattering the two granite slabs
on which the law was written. But the in.
justice of this treatment of the seven girls
sets him on fire with wrath and he takes
this shepherd by the throat, and pushes
back another shepherd till he falls over the
trough, and aims a stunning blow between
the eyes of another as he cries, "Begone,
you villainsi' and he boots and roars at
the sheep and cattle and camels of these
invaders and drives them back; and hav-
ing cleared the place of the desperadoes,
he told the seven girls of this Midianite
sheik to gather their focks together and
bring them again to the watering.
The fact that it took the seven daughters
to drive the flocks to the we'll implies that
they were immense focks, and that her
father was man Of wealth. What was
the use of Zipporahs bemeaning herself
with work when she might have reclined
on the hillside near her fathers tent and
plucked buttercups, and dreamed out ro-
mances, and sighed idly to the winds, and
wept over imaginary songs to the brooks.
No, she knew that work was honorable,
and that every girl ought to have some
thing to do, and so she starts with the
bleatiug and lowing and believing and
neighing droves to the well for the watering.
Around every home there are focks and
droves of cares and anxieties, and every
daughter of the family, though there be
seven, ought to be doing her part to take
care of the fiocks. In many households,
not only is Zpporah but all her sisters,
without practical and useful employments.
Many of them are waiting for fortuua
and prosperous matrimonial alliance, but
some lounger like themselves will come
along, and after counting the large mum.
ber OF father Jethro's sheep and camels
will make proposal that will be accepted;
and neither of them having done anything
more practical than to chew chocolate
caramels, the two nothings will start on
the road OF life together every step more
and more failure. That daughter OF the
Midianitish sheik will never find her Moses
There is a question that every father and
mother ought TO ask the daughter at break
fast or tea table, and that all the daugh-
ters OF the wealthy sheik ought to ask each
other: what would you do IL the family
fortune should fail, IL sickness should
prostrate the breadwinner, II the Hocks OF
Jethro should be destroyed by a sudden ex-
eursion OF wolves and bears and hyenas
from the mountain? What would YOU do
for living? Could YOU support yourself?
Can you take care OF an invalid mother or
brother or sister as well as yourself?" Yea,
bring it down to what any day might come
TO a prosperous family. Can you cook IA
dinner IL the servants should make a strike
for higher wages and leave that morning?"
There needs to be peaceful, yet radical
revolution among most OF the prosperous
homes of America, by which the elegant
do-nothings may ybetransformed into prac-
tical do-somethings. Let useless women
go to work and gather the hocks. Come.
Zipporah. let me introduce you to Moses,
See In this call OF Moses that God has a
great memory. Four hundred years before
He had promised the deliverance of the op-
pressed lsraelites of Egypt. The clock OF
time has struck the hour, and now Moses
is called to the work of rescue. Four hun.
dred years is very long time, but YOU see
God can remember promise four hundred
years as we'll as you can remember four
hundred minutes.
No one realizes how great he is for good
or for evil. There are branchings out and
rebounds, and reverberations, and elab-
srations of influence that can not be estl.
mated. The fifty or one hundred years Of
our earthly stay is only small part of our
sphere. The flap Of the wing of the de-
stroying angel that smote the Egyptian
oppressors, the wash of the Red Sea over
the heads OF the drowned Egyptians, were
all fuif1llments OF promises four centuries
old. And things occur in your life and in
mine that we can not account for. They
may be the echoes of what was promised
in the sixteenth or seventeenth century.
Oh, the prolongation ofthe divine memoryl
Notice, also that Moses was eighty years
OF age when he got this call to become the
lsraelitish deliverer Forty years he had
lived IN palaces as n prince, another forty
years he had lived in the wilderness OF
Arabia. Nevertheless, he undertook the
work, and if we want to know whether he
succeeded, ask the abandoned brick-kilns
OF Egyptian taskmasters, and the splint-
cred chariot wheels strewn ON the beach of
the Red Sea. and the timbrels which Miriam
ciapped for the Israeites passed over and
the Egyptians gone under.
Still further, watch this spectacle OF
genuine courage. No wonder when Moses
scattered the rude shepherds, he won Zip
porah's heart. What mattered 1t to Moses
whether the cattle Of the seven daughters
OF Jethro were driven from the troughs by
the rude herdsmen? Sense Of justice fired
his courage; and the world wants more Of
the spirit that will dare almost anything to
see others righted. All the time at wells
OF comfort, at wells Of JOY at wells OF re-
ligion, and at wells OF literature there are
outrages practiced, the wrong herds get
ting the first water. Those who have the
previous right come In last, II they come
In at oil. Thank God, we have here and
there strong man to set things right