Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1898-02-16

| great laWg1ver'S eyes and they closed
and his lungs, and they ceased; and his
heart, and it stopped and commanded,
saying, ITO the skies, thou immortal
| spirit" And then one Divine hand
was put against the back of Moses, and
the other hand against the pulseless
breast, and God laid him softly down
on Mount Nebo, and then the lawgiver,
lifted in the Almighty's arms, was car
ried to the opening Of cave, and placed
in crypt, and one stroke of the Divine
hand smoothed the features into an
everlasting calm, and rock was rolled
to the door, and the only obsequies, at
which God did all the offices OF priest,
and undertaken, and gravedigger, and
mourner, were ended.
| Oh, was not Miriam, the sister OF
Moses, doing good thing, an import
ant thing, glorious thing when she
watched the boat woven of river plants
and made water-tight with asphaltum,
carrying its one passenger? Did she
not put all the ages of time and or
coming eternity under obligation when
she defended her helpless brother from
the perils aquatic, reptilian, and raven
Gus? She it was that brought that
wonderful babe and his mother to-
gether so that he was reared to be the
deliverer Of his nation, when other
wise, If saved at all from the PUSHES
of the Nile, he would have been only
one more Of the God-defying Pharaohs;
for Princess Thermutis of the bathing
house would have inherited the crown
Of Egypt; and as she had no child OF
her own, this adopted child would have
come to coronation. Had there been
no Miriam there would have been no
Moses. What a garland for faithful
sisterhood! For how many lawgiver,
and how many hero, and how many a
deliverer and how many saint are the
world and the church indebted to a
watchful, loving, faithful, godly sister?
| Come up out of the farm-houses, come
up out Of the inconspicuous homes,
come up from the banks Of the Hud-
son and Penobscot, and the Savannah.
and the Mobile, and the Mississippi,
and all the other Niles of America and
| let us see you, the Miriams who
watched and protected the leaders in
law, and medicine, and merchandise.
| and art and agriculture, and mech
| anics, and religion! If I should ask
| all physicians and attorneys and mer-
| chants and ministers of religion and
| successful men of all professions and
| trades, who are indebted to an elder
for an education or prosperous start.
to let it be known, hundreds would
testify. God knows how many of our
| Greek lexicons and how much of our
schooling was paid for by money that
would otherwise have gone for the
replenishing of sisters wardrobe.
While the brother sailed off for a re-
sounding sphere, the sister watched
him from the banks of self-denial.
Miriam was the eldest of the family;
Moses and Aaron, her brothers, were
younger. Oh, the power of the elder
sister to help decide the brothers char
acter for usefulness and for heaven!
She can keep off from her brother more
evils than Miriam could have driven
back waterfowl or crocodile from the
ark of bulrushes. The older sister de-
cides the direction in which the cradle
boat shall sail. By gentleness, by good
sense, by Christian principle she can
turn it toward the palace, not of a
wicked Pharaoh, but of holy God; and
brighter princess than Thermutis
should lift him out of peril even re-
ligion, whose ways are ways of pleas
antness and all her paths are peace
The older sister, how much the world
owes her! Born while yet the family
was in limited circumstances, she had
to hold and take care of her younger
brothers. And il there is anything
that excites my sympathy, it is a little
girl Juggling round great fat child
and getting her ears boxed because
she cannot keep him quiet! By the
time she gets to young womanhood
she Is pale and worn out, and her at
Effectiveness has been sacrificed on the
altar of sisterly fidelity, and she is con-
signed to celibacy, and society calls
her by an unfair name; but in heaven
they call her Miriam. In most families
the two most undesirable places in the
record Of births are the first and the
last; the first because she is worn out
with the cares of a home that cannot
afford to hire help, and the last be-
cause she is spoiled as pet. Among
the grandest equipages that sweep
through the streets OF heaven will be
those occupied by sisters who sacri-
feed themselves for brothers. They
will have the finest Of the Apocalyptic
white horses. and many who on earth
looked down upon them will have to
turn out to let them pass, the char
ioteer crying: Clear the way! A
queen is comingr'
General Bauer, of the Russian cav
airy, had in early life wandered off in
the army, and the family supposed he
was dead. After he gained fortune
he encamped one day In Husam, his
native place, and made banquet; and
Al