Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1898-07-20
NO. 80

carry letter for the inspired apostle;
Mother Lois would rather educate Timothy
In the Scriptures. When L see woman
going about her daily duty, with cheerful
dignity presiding at the table, with kind
| and gentle but firm discipline presiding In
the Eursery, going out into the world with
out any blast of trumpets, following In the
footsteps of Him who went about doing
eood-f saw: 'This is Vashti with veil
on
But when 1 see woman OF unbluShing
boldness, loud voiced, with tongue OF In
finite clitter-clatter, with arrogant look,
passing through the streets with the step
Of a walking beam, gayly arrayed in a very
hurricane of millinery, l cry out: "Nashtt
has lost her veili' When 1 see woman
struggling for political preferment-trying
to force her way on upto conspicuity, amid
the masculine demagogues, who stand
with swollen fists and bloodshot eyes and
pestiferous breath, to guard the polls
wanting to go through the loaferism and
! defilement of popular sovereigns, who
! crawl up from the saloons greasy and foul
and yermin covered, to decide questions of
/ Justice and order and civilization-when
see q woman, say, who wants to press
/ through all that horrible scum to get TO
! public place and power, say: All, what
/ a pity! Vashti has lost her yeil!
When l see a woman OF comely features,
! and of adroitness of intellect, and endowed
I with all the schools can do for her, and or
! high social position, yet moving in society
with superciliousness and hauteur, as
though she would have people know their
place, and with an underlined combination
/ Of giggle and strut and rhodomontade, en-
| dowed with allopathic quantities OF talk,
but only homeopathic infinitesimals OF
sense, the terror of dry-goods clerks and
railroad conductors, discoverers of signi1-
cant meanings in plain conversation. prod
/ igies of badinage and innuendo-l say:
"Vashti has lost her veil"
Again, want you this morning to con-
! slider Vashti the sacrifice. Who Is this that
( see coming out OF that palace gate or
/ Shushan? 1t seems to me that have seen
! her before. She comes homeless, house,
! less. frendless, trudging along with
| broken heart. Who is she? 1t is Vashti
| the sacrifice. Obi what change 1t was
! from regal position to a wayfarer's crustl
/ A little while ago, approved and sought for;
| now none so poor as to acknowledge her
acquaintanceship. Vashti the sacrifice!
Ali you and have seen 1t many time.
! Here is IA home empalaced with beauty.
All that refinement and books and wealth
! can do for that home has been done; but
| Ahasuerus, the husband and the father, Is
taking hold on paths of sin. He is gradu-
! ally going down. After awhile he will
founder and struggle like a wild beast In
/ the hunters net-further away from God,
/ further away from the right. Soon the
| bright apparel of the children will turn to
rags: soon the household song will become
! the sobbing of a broken heart. The old
/ story over again. Brutal Centaurs break
ing up the marriage feast of LapithR. The
house full of outrage and cruelty and abom-
ination, while trudging forth from the
/ palace gate are Vashti and her children.
/ There are homes in all parts of this land
that are in danger of such breaking up.
! Oh, Ahasuerus! that you should stand in a
| home, by a dissipated life destroying the
peace and comfort of that home. God for
| bid that your children should ever have to
wiring their hands, and have people point
| their finger at them as they pass down the
street, and say, "There goes "A drunkard's
| child God forbid that the little feet
| should ever have to trudge the path of
poverty and wretchedness God forbid
| that any evil spirit born of the wine-cup or
| the brandy-glass should come forth and
| uproot that garden, and with lasting,
| blistering, all-consuming curse, shut for
ever the palace gate against Vashti and
| theschildren.
One night during our Civil War went to
! Hagerstown to look at the army, and L
stood on a hilltop and looked down upon
them / saw the eamp-ires ali thrclgh
4 the valleys and all over the hills. 1t was
| weird spectacle. those camp-hres, and l
! stood and watched them; and the soldiers
| who were gathered around them were, no
doubt, talking of their homes, and of the
| long march they had taken, and of the bat
ties they were to fight; but after awhile
saw these camp-fires begin to lower and
] they continued to lower until they We're all
gone out, and the army slept. 1t was i'm
| posing when l saw the camp-Ares; it was
| imposing in the darkness when thought
! of the great host asleep. Well, God looks
| down from Heaven, and III = sees the fire.
sides of Cnrstendom and the loved ones
| gathered around these ilresiies. There are
| the camp-fires where we warm ourselves at
! the close of Gay, and talk over the battles
| of life we have fought and the battles that
are yet to come. God grant that when at
last these fires begin to go out, and con-
tinue to lower until finally they are ex-
III. 4
hope strew the hearth of the old hOme-
stead, it may be because we have
Gone to sleep that last ,l,ep,
From which none ever wake to weep.
Now we are an army on the march OF
| life. Then we shall be an army bivouacked
in the tent of the grave.
Once more: | want you to look at Vashti
the silent You do not hear any outcry
from this woman as she goes forth from
| the palace gate. From the very dignity Of
her nature, you know there will be no vo-
| ciferatiOn. Sometimes in life it is neces-
sary to make retort: sometimes in life 1t
| is necessary to resist; but there are crises
! when the most important thing to do is to
keep silence. The philosopher, confident
in his newly discovered principle, waiting
! for the coming of more Intelligent genera
| tions, willing that men should laugh at the
lightning rod and cOtton-gin and steam
! boat and telegra phi waiting for long
years through the scoffng of philosophical
! school. IN grand ana magnificent silence.
Calico condemned by mathcmaticians
| and monks, and cardinals, caricatured
| everywhere, yet waiting and watching
| with his telescope to see the coming up of
stellar reinforcements, when the stars in
| their courses would fight for the Coperni-
| can system; then sitting down in complete
blindness and deafness to wait for the
| coming on OF the generations who would
! build his monument and bow mt his grave.
! The reformer, eXecrated by his conlempo-
raries, fastened in pillory, the slow fires
of public contempt burning under him,
ground under the cylinders of the printing
press yet calmly waiting for the day when
| purity OF soul and herOsm of character
will get the sanction of earth and the
plaudts of Heaven. Afliction enduring
without any complaint the sharpness of
the pang, and the violence of the storm,
aud the heft of the chain. and the darkness
| OF the night-waiting until a divine hand
shall be put forth to 500 he the pang, and
| hush the storm, and release the captive.
| A wife abused, prosecuted, and perpetual
| exile from every earthly ycomfort-waiting,
waiting, until the Lord shall gather up
| His dear children in Il Heavenly home, and
40 poor Vashti will ever be thrust out
from the palace gate. Jesus, in silence
and answering not u word. drinking the
gail. and bearing the Cross, in prospect of
he rapturous consummation when
Angels thronged His chariot wheel,
And bore Him to His throne;
Then swept their golden harps and sung,
The glorious work is doncl'
Onrt I.x~ q