The Chanute times., 1899-09-22

makes you cry?" Tonight while we
men are sound asleep in our beds,
there will be light in yonder loft;
there will be groaning down the dark
alley; there will be cries of distress
in that cellar. Men will sleep, and
women will watch.
Again: woman mas a special right
to take care Of the poor. There are
hundreds and thousands of them all
over the land. There is a kind OF
work that men cannot do for the poor.
Here comes group of little barefoot
children to the door of the Dorcas So
ciety. They need to be clothed and
provided for. Which of these directors
of banks would know how many yards
it would take to make that little girl
a dress? Which of these masculine
| hands could fit a hat to that little girls
| head? Which of the wise men would
know how to tie on that new pair of
shoes? Man sometimes gives his char
ity in rough way, and 1t falls like
the fruit Of a tree in the East, which
| fruit comes down so heavily that II
breaks the skull of the man who is
| trying to gather it. But woman glides
SO softly into the house of destitution,
and finds out all the sorrows of the
| place, and puts so quietly the donation
on the table, that all the family come
out on the front steps as she departs,
expecting that from under her shawl
| she will thrust out two wings and go
right up toward heaven, from whence
she seems to have come down.
o, Christian, young woman! if you
would make yourself happy and win
the blessing of Christ, go out among
the destitute. A loaf of bread or q
| bundle of socks may make a homely
load to carry, but the angels of God
will come out to watch, and the Lord
Almighty will give his messenger hosts
a charge, saying, Look after that
woman; canopy her with your wings,
and shelter her from all harm;" and
while you are seated in the, house Of
destitution and suffering, the little
ones around the room will whisper,
"Who is she?" "Ain't she beautiful"
and if you will listen right sharply, you
will hear dripping down through the
leaky roof, and rolling over the rotten
stairs, the angel chant that shook
Bethlehem: GLORY to God in the
highest, and on earth peace. good will
to men"
Again, have to tell you that it is a
woman's specific right to comfort un-
der the stress of dire disaster. She is
called the. weaker vessel; but all pro-
fame as well as sacred history attests
that when the crisis comes she is bet
ter prepared than man to meet the
emergency. How. often have. you seen
a woman who seemed to be disciple
of frivolity and Incidence, who. III
der one, stroke of calamity, changed to
a heroine? Oh, what great mistake
those business men make who never
tell their business troubles to their
wives! There comes some great loss
to their store, or their companions in
business play them sad trick, and
they carry the burden all alone. He is
asked in the household again ana
again: what is the matter?" But
he believes it sort of Christian duty
to keep all that trouble within his
own soul. oh, sir! your first duty was
to tell your wife all about it. She, per-
haps, might not have disentangled your
finances, or extended your credit, but
she would have helped you to bear
misfortune. You have no right to
carry on one shoulder that which is
intended for two. Business men
know what 1 mean. There came
crisis in your affairs. You struggled
bravely and long: but after a while
there came a day when you said:
Here l shall have to STOP" and you
called in your partners, and you called
| in the most prominent men in your
employ, and you said: eve have got
to STOP" You left the store suddenly.
You could fardly make up your mind
to pass through the street and over
on the ferry boat You felt everybody
would be looking at you, and blaming
you, and denouncing you. You hast
| Gueu uOHle. Ou lUlu your WlLe dll
about the affair. What did she say?
Did she play the butterfly? Did she
talk about the silks and the ribbons
and the fashions? No. She came up
to the emergency. She quailed not
under the stroke. She offered to go
out OF the comfortable house into a
smaller one, and wear the old cloak
another winter. She was the one who
understood your affairs without blam-
ing you. You looked upon what you
thought was thin, weak woman's
arm holding you up; but while you
looked at that arm there came into
the feeble muscles OF it the strength
of the eternal God. No chiding; no
fretting; no telling you about the
beautiful house of her father. from
which you brought her ten, twenty,
or thirty years ago. You said: "Well.
this is the happiest day of my life.
am glad l have got from under my
burden. My wife don't care-I don't
care" At the moment you were ex-
hausted God sent you a Deborah to