Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1899-12-06
SERMON
Rev. DR.. CaIflaee

Rev. Dr. Cdlfl1dge
subject: Victories of Peace-The Many
Machinery Has LiRhtened
Burdens-God Sent the Wheel.
Copyright. Louis Klopsch. 1891
WASHINGTON, D. C.-This discourse Of d {.
ralmage is a sermon OF preparation for the
national observance and in an unusual way
calls for the gratitude Of the people; the
text, Ezekiel K, Is, "As for the wheels. II
was cried unto them in My hearing, O
wheell'
The last Thursday of the eleventh month
oy proclamation Of President and Cover
nors, is observed in thanksgiving for
temporal mercies. With what spirit shall
we enter upon it? For nearly year AMI n
half this nation has been celebrating the
triumph OF the sword and gun and bat
terry. We have sung martial airs and
cheered returning heroes and sounded the
requiem for the slain In battle. Methinks
1t will be heaithful change II this Thanks
giving week, in church and hom stead, We
celebrate the victories of peace, for moth
ing was done at Santiago or Manila that
was of more importance than that which
In the last year has been done in farmers
field and mechanics shop and authors
study by these who never wore an epaulet
or shot a Spaniard or went a hundred
miles from their own doorsill. And now
call your attention to the wheel OF the
text.
Man, a small speck in the universe, was
set down in a big world, high mountains
rising before him. deep seas ARE .ting his
pathway and wild beasts capable Of his
destruction, yet he was to conquer. 1t
could not be by physical force, for COM
pare his arm with the ox's horn and the
elephants tusk, and how weak he is! 1t
could not be by physical speed, for CON-
pare him to the antelope's foot and ptar-
could not be by physical capacity to soar
or plunge, for the condor beats him in one
direction and the porpoise in the other.
Yet he was to conquer the world. Two
eyes, two hands and two feet were insuffl-
Client. He must be re-enforced, so God
sent the wheel.
Twenty-Five times is the wheel men.
toned in the Bible, sometimes, as In
Ezekiel, illustrating providential move
ment; sometimes, as in the Psalms, crush
ing the bad; sometimes. as in Judges, rep.
resenting Gods charioted progress. The
wheel that started in Exodus rolls OF
through Proverbs, thr1 ugh Isaiah, through
Jeremiah, through D aniel through Nahum
through the centuries, all the time gather
ing momentum and splendor, until seeing
what 1t has done for the worlds progress
and happiness, we clap our hands in thanks
giving and employ the apostrophe of the
text, crying, 90 wheeir'
call on you in this Thanksgiving week
to praise God for the triumphs Of machin
cry, which have revolutionized the world
and multiplied its attractions. Even para
disc, though very picturesque, must have
been comparatively dull. hardly anything
going on, no agriculture needed, for the
harvest was spontaneous; no architecture
required, for they slept under the trees; no
manufacturers loom necessary for the
weaving of apparel, for the fashions were
exceedingly simple. To dress the garden
Having nothing t do, they got into mis-
chief and ruined themselves and the race.
1t was a sad thing to be turned olt of par
adise, but, once turned out, beneficent
thing to be compelled to work. To help
man up and on God sent the wheel. II
back. the race retreats. To arouse your
R-s.s'--'7"rd ~exalt you--s--aise I would
-, trl
domestic werld, for tn.
for the travelling world, for the literary
world. "As for the wheels, 1t was cried
unto them in my hearing, o wheell"
In domestic life the wheel has wrought
has shattered the housewives bondage and
prolonged woman's life and added immeas-
urable advantages. The needle for ages
had punctured the eyes and pierced the
side and made terrible massacre. Te pre-
pare the garments of the whole household
In the spring for summer and in the au-
tumn for winter was an exhausting pro-
cess. "Stitch, stitch, stitchi'' Thomas
Hood set it to poetry, but millions of per-
sons have found 1t agonizirg prose.
Slain by the sword, we buried the hero
with the ''Dead March" in "Saul' aud flags
at half mast. Slain by the needle, no one
knew it but the household thu. watched
her health giving way. The winter after
that the children were ragged and cold
and hungry or in the almshouse. The hand
that welded the needle had forgotten its
cunning. Soul and body had parted at the
seam. The thimble had dropped from the
palsied finger. The thread of life had
drop into the grave, The spool was all un-
wound. Her sepulcher was digged not
with sections spade, but with a sharper and
shorter Implements needle. Federal and
Confederate dead have ornamented graves
at Arlington Heights and Richmond and
Gettysburg, thousands by thousands, but
it will take the archangel's trumpet to find
the million graves Of the vaster army Of
women needle slain.
Besides all the sewing done for the house,
hold at home, there are hundreds Of thou
sands Of sewing women. The tragedy OF
the needle is the tragedy Of hunger and
cold and insult and home-sickness and sui.
ctde-five acts.
But hear the rush OF a wheel, woman
puts on the band and adjusts the instru-
ment, puts her foot on the treadle and be-
gins. Before the whir and rattle pleurisies,
consumptions, headaches, backaches,
heartaches, are routed. The needle, once
and rumble and roar until the
family wardrobe is gathered, and winter is
defied, and summer Is welcomed, and the
ardors and seventies of the seasons are
overcome; winding the bobbing, threading
the shuttle, tucking, quilting, ruffiing,
cording, embroidering, under -braiding set
to music; lock stitch, twisted loop stitch.
crocket stitch, fascinating ingenuitv.
No wonder that at some of the learned
institutions, like the New Jersey State
Normal school, and Rutgers Female insti-
tute, and Elmira Female college, acquaint-
ance with the sewing machine is requisi-
ton, a young lady not being considered
educated until she understands it. Winter
Is coming on, and the household must be
warmly clad. "The Last Rose of Summer"
will sound better played on a sewing ma
chine than on piano. Roll on, o wheel
of the sewing machine, until the last
,hackled woman OF toll shall be emanci-
pated! Roll oni
Secondly, / look into the agricultural
world to see what the wheel has accom-
plished. Look mt the stalks OF wheat and
oats, the one bread for man, the other
bread for horses. Coat off and with IL
cradle made out Of five or six fingers of
wood and one of sharp steel, the harvester
went across the field. stroke after stroke,
rolling down forehead and
cheek and chest, head blistsred by the con-
suming sun and lip parched by the merci-
less August air, at noon the workmen living
half dead under the trees. One OF my most
painful boyhood memories is that OF my
father in harvest time reeling from ex-
haustion over the doorstep, too tired to
eat, pale and fainting as he sat down. The
grain brought to the barn, the sheaves
were unbound and spread on a threshing
floor. and two men with fails stood oppo-
site each other, hour after hour and day
after day, pounding the wheat out OF the
stalk. Two strokes, and then a cessation
Of sound. Thump, thump, thump. thump,
thump, thumpi Pounded once and then
turned over to be pounded again, slow,