Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1898-07-04

who put her all 1nCO the LOfu IfoaS-
uIy; or of Jephthah's daughter, who
made demonstration of unselfish pa
triotism; or of Abigail, who rescued the
herds and hocks Of her husband; or Of
Ruth, who toiled under a tropical sun
for poor, old, helpless Naomi; or of
Florence Nightingale, who went at
midnight to stanch the battle wounds
OF the Crimea; Or of Mrs. Adoniram
Judson, VINO kindled the lights Of sal
vation amid the darkness of Burma;
or of Mrs. Eemans, who poured out her
Aho1y soul in words which will forever
be associated with hunters horn, and
captive's chain, and bridal hour, and
1ute's throb and curfeW's knell at the
dying day, and scores and hundreds of
women unknown on earth, who have
given water to the thirsty, and bread to
the hungry, and medicine to the sick,
and smiles to the discouraged, their
footsteps heard along dark lane, and in
government hospital, and in almshouse
corridor, and by prison gate? There may
be no royal robe, there may be. no pala
tial surroundings. She does not need
them, for all charitable men will unite
with the cracking lips of fever struck
hospital and plague blotched lazaretto
in greeting her as she passes: ''Hail,
hail, Queen Vashti!'
Stamp of womanly Indignation.
Again. 1 want you to consider Vashti
the yelled Had she appeared before
Ahasuerus and his court on that day
with her face uncovered she would have
shocked all the delicacies of oriental So
ciety, and the very men who in their
intoxication demanded that she come
III their sober moments would have de-
spised 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 appoints to most
womanly natures retiring and unob-
trusive spirit. God once in awhile does
call an Isabella to throne or a Miriam
to strike the timbrel at the front of a
host or a Marie Antoinette to quell
French mob Or a Deborah to stand at
the front of an armed battalion, crying
out: Cup, up! This is the day in which
the Lord will deliver Sisera into thy
hands - And when the women are call
ed to such outdoor work and to such
heroic positions, God prepares them for
it, and they have iron i'll their soul and
lightnings 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
flowers, and cross seas as though they
were shimmering sapphire, and all the
harpies of hell down to their dungeon
at the stamp Of womanly indignation.
But these are the exceptions. Gener-
ally, Dorcas would rather make q gar
ment for the poor boy; Rebecca would
rather fill the trough of the camels;
Hannah would rather make a coat for
Samuel; the Hebrew maid would rath-
er give prescription for Naaman's lep-
rosy; the woman of Sarepta would rath-
er gather few sticks to cook meal
for famished\ Elijah; Phebe would rath-
er carry letter for the inspired apos-
tie; Mother Lois would rather educate
Timothy in the Scriptures. When [ see
a woman going about her daily duty,
with cheerful dignity presiding at the
table, with kind and gentle but firm
discipline presiding in the nursery, 60
ing out into the world without any
blast of trumpets, following in the foot
steps of him who went about doing good
I say, ''This is Vashti with veil on
But when I see a woman of unblush-
ing boldness, loud voiced, with tongue
of infinite Glitter clatter, with arrogant
look, passing through the streets with
the step of walking beam, gayly ar
rayed i'll very hurricane of millinery,
cry out, "Vashti has lost her veil!''
W hen 1 see a woman, struggling for po-
litical preferment, trying to force her
way on up to conspicuity amid the mas
culine demagogues who stand with
swollen fists and bloodshot eyes and
pestiferous breath to guard the polls,
wanting to go through the loaferism
and deflement of popular sovereigns
who crawl up from the saloons greasy
and foul and ver1nin covered to decide
questions of justice and order and civil
lization-when see a woman, I say,
who wants to press through all that
horrible scum to get to public place and
power, I say: "Ah, what pity! Vashti
has lost her veil!''
When [ see q woman Of cOmely fea-
lures and Of adroitness Of intellect and
endowed with all that the schools can
do for her and of high social position,
yet moving in society with supercilious-
ness and hauteur as though she would
have people know their place, and with
all underlined combination Of giggle and
strut and rhodomontade, endowed with
allopathic quantities of talk, but only
homeopathic infnitesimals of sense, the
terror of dry goods clerks and railroad
conductors, discoveries of significant
meanings in plain conversation, prodi-
gies of badinage and innuendo, I say,
''Vashti has lost her veil -
4 QueenIy Sacrifice.
Again, 1 want you this morning to
consider YaShti the sacrifice Who is |