The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1898-05-06
THE BEAUTIFUL QUEEN.
Synopsis of DR.. Drivers Sunday
Mornings Sermon.

DR.. Drivers ssermon Sunday
morning, and the fine music rendered
by the new choir, in which connec-
tion Mrs. Ewing deserves credit, COM
bined to make the service a delight
full one.
DR.. Drivers sermon had distinct
literary flavor. In opening he said:
"Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Poet Laurie
ate of England, has crooned to US his
Dream of Fair Women in language so
dainty, delicate and Intoxicating that
we 90 back and read it again and
again, as the victim of the drowsy
drug or of the beading bowl hastens
back to his sensual entertainments un.
able to resist the deadly spell. Like
wise Lord Byron has celebrated the
charms OF the Maid of Athens, Owen
Meredith of the rare Lucille, and
Shakespeare of herOines almost with
out number. Dickens compels US to
fall in love with the devoted Agnes,
in David Coppertield, Thackery
paints the consTancy and sweetness of
Amelia Sedley, in Vanity Fair, while
the knightly and chivalrous SIT
Walter Scout gives many dainty and
loving touch 10 MS pOrGraiture of the
fair and stately ROwena, III IvanhOe.
Nor are The women OF our American
dreameTs any the less exquisite and
and divine. Who can ever forget
Longtellom's Priscilla, Evangeline,
and Mary Ashburton, the latter who,
as the gracious and winsome Fanny
Appleton, after a passionate wooing
of seven long years, became the poets
wife. And Hawthorne's ill-starred
Hester Prynne, and the nameless
loves of Lowell and John Greenleaf
Whittier, and the rare wooing of
Wendell Phillips, the very prince of
American orators?
But my idyl today is of a daughter
Of Israel, in her maldenhoOd the
great-grand, daughter of a slave; in
her womanhood the wife and queen
OF the mightiest monarch in the
world. In her .maidenhOod she was a
silent and unknown violet, blooming
a-down the hedgerow, wasting her
sweetness on the desert air; in her
womanhoOd she was the imperial
flower of Paradise, the most illustri-
Gus woman of her time and one of the
most illustriOus, women of all times.
In the morning her life was but
single simple strain, melody with
out accompaniment or other part:
but by high noon an empire had be.
come her orchestra, all humanity her
chorus, and all the loftiest spirits of
the world her soloists, and at the
waving Of her hand or the in
clination of her head, they all
broke forth in oratorios of redemp-
tion. In her mothers arms a price
was on her head; but when she stood
alone she became the pillar of PEG.
pies hopes, the center of a worlds
desire, leading her people out of the
valley of the shadow of death-a
glor ious messiah, saviour of her
people, in certain sense saviour of
the world. Hear me, then, an hour
while give you new idyl, the idyl
of a queen, the fairest queen OF all
the east"
The Doctor then rapidly sketched
the fall Of the Assyrian and Baby
lOuld tuplIcs duu Uuc TlSc VI Uuc Gill
pire of the mighty Cyrus, weaving in
with deft and dainty touches the
thrilling and dramatic episode in
which Ahasueris, Mordecai, Illegal,
Haman, Zeresh and Queen Esther con-
stituted the dramatis peTsonae. pay
ing, in passing, glowing tribute to
the discarded Vashti. The last half
hour of the sermon was a vivid char
acterization of Esther the beautiful
queen. He spoke of her beauty, her
ancestry, her high ambition, her
peerless heroism, her simple and fer
vent piety, her fragrant memory, and
her glorious Immortality. The great
audience was profoundly moved. The
ser mon was delivered under the aus
picies of the Young Mems Christian
Association of the State Normal Col
lege.