Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1898-08-22


were possessed by the devil, as
suppose she was; never doing him
kindness until the day she ran away
SO that he wrote in his diary these
words: 81 did not forsake her: | have
not dismissed her." Planting one foot
upon outside persecution, and the other
foot on home trouble, John Wesley
climbed up into the heights of Chris
tian joy, and after preaching 10000 SER
mons and travelling 100000 miles,
reached the heights of Heaven, though
in this world he had it hard enough
"a sharp rock on the one side, and
sharp rock on the other"
Again, that woman stands in the
crisis of the text who has bereavement
and struggle for livelihood at the
same time Without mentioning
names, l speak from observation. All,
it is a hard thing for woman to make
an honest living, even when her heart
is not troubled, and she has fair
cheek, and the magnetism of an ex-
quisite presence. But now the hus-
band, or the father, is dead. The ex-
penses of the obsequis have absorbed
all that was left in the saviags bank;
and, wan and wasted with weeping
and watching, she goes forth-a
grave, a hearse, coffin behind her
to contend for her existence and the
existence of her children. When see
such battle as that open | shudder at
the ghastliness of the spectacle. Men
sit with embroidered slippers and
write heartless essays about woman's
wages; but that question is made up
Of tears and blood, and there is more
blood than tears. Oh, give women
free access to all the realms where she
can get livelihood, from the tele-
graph Office to the pulpit! Let mems
wages be cut down before hers are
cut down Men have iron in their
souls and can stand it. Make the
way free to her of the broken heart.
May God put into my hand the
cold, bitter cup of privation, and
give me nothing but windowless hut
for shelter for many years, rather than
that after I am dead there should go
out from my home into the pitiless
world woman's arm to fight the Get
tysburg, the Austerlitz, the Waterloo
of life for bread! And yet, how many
women there are seated between the
rock of bereavement on the one side
and the rock of restitution on the
other! Bozez and Seneh interlocking
their shadows and dropping them upon
her miserable way. "There is sharp
rock on the one side, and a sharp rock
on the other side"
What are such to do? Somehow, let
them climb up into the heights of the
glorious promise: Leave thy father
less children will preserve them
alive, and let thy widows trust in me. !"
Or get up into the heights of that other
glosious promise: "The Lord pre-
serVeth the stranger, and relieveth the
widow and the fatherless." 0 We sew
ing women, on starving wages! 0 ye
widows, turned from the once beauti-
full home! O ye female teachers, kept
on niggardly stipend! 0 We de-
spairing women, seeking in vain
for work, wandering along the
docks, and thinking to throw your
selves into the river last night! o We
women of weak nerves, and aching
sides, and short brea tn, and broken
heart, you need something more than
human sympathy; you need the SYM
pathy of God. Climb up into His arms.
He knows it all, and He loves you more
than father, or mother, or husband
ever could or ever did; and, instead of
sitting down, wringing your hands in
despair, you had better begin to climb.
There are heights Of consolation for
you, though now there is a sharp rock
on one side, and a sharp rock on the
other side"
Again, that man is in the crisis of
the text who has a wasted life on the
one side and an rnilluminated eternity
on the other. Though a man may all
his life have cultured deli beration and
self-poise, ii he gets into that position,
all his self-possession is gone. There
are all the wrong thoughts of his ex-
istence, all the wrong deeds, all the
wrong words-strata above strata,
granite, ponderous, overshadowing.
That rock call Bozez On the other
side are all the retribu5ions of the
future, the thrones of Judgment, the
eternal ages; angry with his long de-
6ance. That rock [ call Seneh. Be-
tween these two rocks 10000 times TO-
600 have persisted.
Oman immortal, man redeemed, man
blood-bought, climb up out of those
shadows! Climb up by the way of the
Cross. Have your wasted life for
given; have your eternal life secured.
This hour just take the look to the
past, and see what it has been;
and take one look to the future,
and see what it threatens to
be. You can afford to lose your health,
you can afford to lose your property,
you can afford to lose your reputation;
but you can not afford to lose your
soul That bright, cleaning, glorious,
precious, eternal possession you must
carry aloft in the day when the earth
burns up and the heavens burst.
You see from my subject that when
a man gets into the safety and peace
Of the Gospel, he does not demean him
self. There is nothing in' religion
hot do