The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1898-07-06


point their finger at them as tkey 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 wretch
edness! God forbid that any evil spirit |
born of the wine cup or the brandy
glass should come forth and uproot
that garden, and with a lasting, blister
ing, all consuming curse shut forever
the palace gate against Vashti and the
children.
One night during our civil war
went to Hagerstown to look at the
army and l stood on hilltop and
looked down upon them. l saw the
campfres all through the valleys and
over the hills 1t was weird spec
tacle, those campfires, and 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 battles they were to fight, but
after awhile saw these campfres be-
gin to lower, and they continued to
lower until they were all gone out,
and the army slept 1t was imposing
when l saw the campfres- 1t was
imposing in the darkness when
thought of that great host asleep. Well,
God looks down from Heaven and He
sees the fresides of Christendom and
the loved ones gathered around these
firesides These are the camp fires
where we warm ourselves at the close
of day 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
continue to lower until finally they
are eXtinguished and the ashes of con-
sumed hopes strew the hearth of the
old homestead it may be because we
have
Gone to sleep that sleep
From which none ever wake to weep.
Now we are an army on the march ct
life. Then we shall be an army
bivouacked in the tent of the grave.
Once more, l 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 vociferation.
Sometimes in life it is necessary to
make resist; but there are crisis
when the most triumphant thing to
do is to keep silence. The philoso.
pher, confident in his newly discover
ed principle, waiting for the coming
of more intelligent generations, will
ing that men should laugh at the
/ lightning rod and cotton gin and
steamboat and telegraph, waiting for
long years through the scoffing of
philosophical schools in grand and
magnificent silence.
= Galileo, condemned by mathemati-
clans and monks and cardinals, carica-
tured everywhere, vet waiting and
watching with his telescope to see the
coming up of stellar re-enforcements,
when the stars in their courses would
fight for the Copernican 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 at his
grave. The reformer, eXecrated by
| his contemporaries, fastened in pill
lory, 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 heroism of char
acter will get the sanction of earth
and the plaudits of Heaven. Affliction
enduring without any complaint the
sharpness of the pang, and the vio-
lence of the storm, and the heft of the
chain, and the darkness of the night,
waiting until divine hand shall be
put forth to soothe the pang. and hush
the storm, and release the captive. A
wife abused, prosecuted and a perpet-
ual exile from every earthly comfort,
waiting, waiting until the Lord shall
gather up his dear children in Heav-
enly home, and no poor Vasht will be
thrust out from the palace gate. Jesus
in silence and answering not word,
drinking the gall, bearing the cross, in
prospect of the rapturous consumma-
tion when
Angels thronged his chariot wheel
| And bore him to his throne,
Then swept their golden harps and sung,
THE glorious work is done"
Oh, woman, does not this story of
Vashti the queen, Vashti the veiled,
Vashti the sacrifice, Vashti the silent,
move your soul? My sermon converges
into the one absorbing hope that none
of you may be shut out of the palace
gate of Heaven. You can endure. the
hardships, and the privations, and
the cruelties, and the misfortunes
of this life if you can only gain ad.
mission there. Through the blood of
the everlasting covenant you go
through those gates or never go
through at all God forbid that you
should at last be banished from the
society of angels, and banished from
the companionship of your glori.
fed kindred, and banished forever
Through the rich grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ may you be enabled to
initiate the example of Rachel and
Hannah and Abigail and D, borah and
Mary and Esther and Vashti.
CoURTHoUsEs were built with little
regard for the needs of the counties
Out in Western Kansas is courthouse
costing 100000 With scarcely load
of wood in the county there is hand
some fireplace in every Office. The to-