The Lexington dispatch. [volume] (Lexington, South Carolina) 1870-1917, 1899-01-18
Shunem that looked after the Lords
messenger.

ASdtI, luIS "ollitiiA VA SiiS eS-NS 't>S
great in her behavior under trouble.
Her only son had died on her lap. A
very bright light went out in that
household The sacred writer puts 1t
very terscly when he says, ''He sat on
her knee until noon, and then he died.
Yet the writer goes on to say that she
exclaimed, 1T is wellI' Great in pros
perity. this woman was great in trouble.
Where are the feet that have not been
blistered on the hot sands Of this great
Sahara2 Where are the soldiers that
have not bent under the burden of
grief3 Where is the ship sailing over
CLASSY sea that has not after awhile
been caught in cyclone9 Where is the
garden of earthly comfort. but trouble
hath hitched up its fiery and painting
team and gone through it with burning
plowshare of disaster? Under the pelt-
ing of ages of suffering the great heart
of the world has burst with woe Nayl-
gators tell us about the rivers. and the
Amazon. and the Danube, and the
Mississippi have been explored. but who
can tell the depth or the length Of the
great river Of sorrow, made up of tears
and blood. rolling through all lands
and all ages, bearing the wreck of fam
lilies, and of communities, and of en-
pires, foaming. writhing, boiling with
the agonies of 5000 years. Etna, Coto-
paxi and Vesuvius have been described,
but who has ever sketched the volcano
of suffering retching up from its depths
the lava and scoria, and pouring them
down the sides to whelm the nations?
Oh. if I could gather all the heart
strings, the broken heartstrings, into a
harp would play on it dirge such as
was never sounded Mythologists tell
us of gorgon and centaur and Titan.
and geologists tell us Of extinct species
Of monsters but greater than gorgon
or negatherium, and not belonging to
the realm of fable, and not of an extinct
species. monster with an iron jaw and
a hundred iron hoofs has walked across
the nations and history and poetry and
sculpture, in their attempt to sketch it
Suu OcSCIlUc IL, AdSo SSS1ilSO W S"Nt'e
great drops of blood. But, thank God,
there are those who can conquer rs this
woman Of the text conquered, and say:
1T is we'll Though my property be
gone, though my children be gone.
though my home be broken up, though
my health be sacrificed, it is we'll; it is
welll' There is no storm on the sea but
Christ is ready to rise in the hinder
part of the ship and hush it, There is
no darkness but the constellation of
Gods eternal love can illumine, and,
though the winter comes out of the
northern sky. you have sometimes seen
that northern sky all ablaze with auroras
which seem to say: Come up this
way. Up this way are thrones of light
and seas of sapphire and the splendor
of an eternal heaven. Come up this
way
We may. like the ships, by tempest be tossed
On perilous deeps, but cannot be lost.
Though satan enrage the wind and the tide
The promise assures us the Lord will provide.
Home Duties.
Again, this woman of my text was
great in her application to domestic
duties Every picture is home picture,
whether she is entertaining an Elisha
or whether she is giving careful atten-
tion to her sick boy or whether she is
appealing for the restoration of her
property Every picture in her case is
one of domesticity. Those are not disci-
Piles Of this Shunemite woman who,
going out to attend to outside charities,
neglect the duty of home-the duty Of
wife of mother. of daughter. No faith
fulness in public benefaction can ever
atone foi domestic negligence. There
has been many.a mother who by indie
fatigable toll has reared large family
of children. equipping them for the du-
ties of life with good manners and large
intelligence and Christian principle.
starting them out, who has done more
for the world than many woman
whose name has sounded through all
the lands and through the centuries. |
remember when Kossuth was in this
country there were some ladie -ho got
honorable regulations by presenting
him very gracefully with bouquets of
flowers on public occasions, but what
was all that compared with the plain
Hungarian mother who gave to truth
and civilization and the cause of uni
versal liberty kossuth? Yes. this wo-
man Of my text was great in her SIM
plicity. When this prophet wanted to
reward her for her hospitality by ask
ing some prefernent from the king
what did she say2 She declined it, She
said, 81 dwell among my own people.
as much as to say. II am satisfied with
my lot: all | want is my family and
my friends around me; l dwell among
my own people.
Oh. what rebuke to the strife for
precedence in Ill ages! How many there
are who want to get great architecture
and homes furnished with all art, all
painting, all statuary, who have not
enough taste to distinguish between
Gothic and Byzantine and who could
not tell figure in plaster of paris frcm
PalnGer's white Captive, and would
not know a. boys penciling from Bier
stadt's "Yosenite Men who buy
large Libraries by the square foot, buy
ing these libraries when they have
scarcely enough education to pick out
the day of the month in the almlanacl
| Oh how many there are striving to
have things as we'll as their ncighbors
or better than their neighbOrs, and in
! the struggle vast fortunes are exhausted
! and business firms thrown into bank
ruptcy and men Of reputed honesty
rush into astounding forgeries! OF
course, ! say nothing against refine
ment or culture. SFlendor Of abode,
sumptuousneSs of diet, lavishness in
art, neatncSs in apparel-thcre is moth
ing against them in the Bible or out OF
the Bible. Grd does not want us to
prefer mud hnvcl TO English cottage or
untanncd shparskin to French broad
cloth or huskS to pin"arpl" or the clum-
siurss OF hnUr tn tn" manners OF a
gentleman God, who strung the beach
With t;ntad she'll and tho Grass Of the