The Union times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1894-1918, 1898-05-20
FAMILY F|RES|DE SERMON.
PREPARED ESPECIALLY FOR
YOUNG AND OLD.

seoplc~Ihc Caiung ror Speciah "o'N'
TEXT: ..Now Moses kept the flock OF
Jethro. bts father-tn.law, tho priest OF
AIidiau. EXODUS ill.,, 1.
In the southeastern part OF Arabia !. man
Is sitting by we'll. 1t is the arid country
aud water is scarce. so that u we'll Is OF
great value. and flocks and herds are
driven vast distances to have their thirst
Stacked. Jethro. Midianite sheik and
priest, was so fortunate rs to have seven
daughters, and they are practical girls,
and yonder they come, driving the sheep
and cattle and cnmels Of their father to
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
cn2 Why does he not come md help the
women in this hard work OF drawing water?
ing nostrils Of the focks begun to cool
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 aud alright these girls until they
tiy in retreat and the focks or these ILL
hammered shepherds are driven to the
troughs, taking the places OF the other
focks.
Now that man sitting by the well begins
to color up. and his eve dnshes with indig-
nation, and all the gallantry OF his nature
is aroused. 1t is Moses who naturally had
a quick temper, anyhow, as he demon
strated on one occasion when he saw an
Egyptian expressing an Israeltte and gave
the Egyptian n sudden clip and buried him
in the sand, and rs he showed afterward
when he broke all the Ten Commandments
at 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 tin he falls over the
trough, and aims n stunning blow between
the eyes OF another. as he' cries, "Begone,
you villainsI' and he hoots and roars Mt
the sheep and cattle and icamels 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 flocks together and
bring them again to the watering.
The fact that 1t took the seven daughters
to drive the flocks to the we'll implies that
they were immense focks. and that her
father was q man OF wealth. What was
the use OF Zipporah's 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 go she starts with the
blenting and lowing and believing and
neighinC droves to the well for the watering.
Around every home there are fiocks 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 Zipporah, but all her sisters,
without practical aud useful employments.
Many OF them are waiting for fortunate
and prosperous matrimonial alliance, but
some lounger like themselves will come
along, and after counting the large num-
Der 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 a failure. That daughter of the
Midianitish sheik will never lnd her Moses.
There is n question that every father and
mother ought TO ask the daughter at break
fast or tea table, and that all tho daugh-
ters OF the wealthy sheik ought to ask each
other: what would you do II the family
fortune should fail. if sickness should
PROSTATE the breadwinner. IL the fiocks OF
Jethro should be destroyed by n sudden eX-
cursion 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 we'll as yourself?'' Yea.
bring it down to what any day might come
to Il prosperous family. Can you cook
dinner IL the servants should make 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-
ticai 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 q
great memory. Four hundred years before
He had promised the deliverance of the op-
pressed Israelites 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 a very long time but you see
God can remember promise four hundred
years as well 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-
orations OF influence that can not be estl-
mated. The fifty or one hundred years Of
our earthly stay is only q small part of our
sphere. The flap OF the wing of the de-
stroving angel that smote the Egyptian
oppressors, the wash of the Red Sea over
the heads Of the drowned Egyptians, were
all fulhllments 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 memory!
Notice. also that Moses was eighty years
OF age when he got this call to become the
lsraclitish deliverer. Forty years he had
lived in palaces as prince, another forty
years he had lived in the wilderness OF
Arabia. Nevertheless, he undertook the
work. and ii 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 tmbrels which Miriam
clapped for the Israelites 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 daugh ghters
ofJctbro were driven from the troughs by
the rude herdsmen? Sense OF justice fired
his courage; and the world wants more OF