The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1899-11-27
GOD SENT THE WHEEL
rhe THsME OF Or TAtMAes's
THANKSGIVING SERMON. %
Reasons For National Gratitude
Shown In the Development Of the
Arts OF Peace-The wheel rs . sym-
boil Of Prosperity,

WASHINGTON. Nov. 26.-This discourse
Of DIR. Talmage Is q sermon of prepare.
ton for the national observance Of this
week and in an unusual way calls fol
the gratitude Of the people; the text, Eze-
kiel K, Is. "As for the wheels. 1t was
cried unto them In my hearing. O wheel!'
Next Thursday will, by proclamation
Of president and governors. be observed
: In thanksgiving for temporal mercies.
With what spirit shall we enter upon 1t ?
; For nearly year and a half this nation
has been celebrating the triumph of
sword and gun and battery. We have
sung martial airs and cheered returning
heroes and sounded the requiem for the
slain In battle. Methinks il will be a
healthful change IL this Thanksgiving
week, in church and homestead. we cele-
brate the victories Of peace, for nothing
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 those who never were an epaii-
let or shot Spaniard or went q hundred
miles from their own dOorsill. And now
call your attention to the wheel of the
text.
Man, small speck in the universe,
was set down in big world. high noun
tains rising before him, deep seas ar
resting his pathway and wild beasts ca
pable of his destruction, yet he was to
conquer. 1t could not be by physical force,
for compare his arm with the ox's horn
and the elephants tusk, and how weak
lie is! It could not be by physical speed,
for compare him to the antelope's foot
and ptarmigan's wing, and how slow he
is! 1t 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 insufficient. He must be re-en-
forced, so God sent the wheel.
Twenty-Five times Is the wheel men
toned in the Bible, sometimes, as in Eze-
kiel, illustrating providental movement;
sometimes, as in the Psalms, crushing
the bad; sometimes, as in Judges, repre-
senting Gods charioted progress. The
wheel that started In Exodus rolls on
through Proverbs. through Isaiah, through
Jeremiah, through Daniel, through Ma
hum, through the centuries, all the time
gathering momentum and splendor, until,
seeing what It has done for the worlds
progress and happiness, we clap our
hands in thanksgiving and employ the
apostrophe Of the text, crying, 20
wheel"
call on you in this Thanksgiving week
to praise God for the triumphs of ma
chinery, which have revolutionized the
4 lii
paradise, 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 I'M
der the trees; no manufacturers loom
necessary for the weaving of apparel, for
the fashions were exceedingly simple. To
dress the garden could not have required
ten minutes day.
Turned Out of Paradise.
Having nothing to do, they got into
mischief and ruined themselves and the
race. 1t was sad thing to be turned
out of paradise, but, once turned out, a
beneficent thing to be compelled to work.
To help man up and on God sent the
wheel. II turned ahead, the race ad-
vances; II turned back, the race retreats.
To arouse your gratitude and exalt your
praise would show you what the wheel
has done for the domestic world, for the
agricultural world, for the travelling
world, for the literary world. "As for the
wheels, 1t was cried unto them In my
hearing, o wheelw
In domestic life the wheel has wrought
revolution. Behold the sewing machine.
IA L. h. sfotc
and prolonged woman's life and added |
unreasonable advantages. The needle
for ages had punctured the eyes and
pierced the side and made terrible mas
sacre To prepare the garments Of a
whole household in the spring for sum-
mer and in the autumn for winter was an
exhausting process. Stitch, stitch,
sttch!" Thomas Hood set it to poetry.
but millionr of persons have found it
agonizing prose.
Slain by the sword, We buried the hero
with Dead March" in Saul and flags
at half mast. Slain by the needle, no one
knew it but the household that 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 forgot
ten its cunning. Soul and body had part
ed at the seam. The thimbe had drop
ped from the palsiel finger. The thread
of life had snapped and let suffering
human life drop into the grave. The spool
was all unwound. Her sepucher was
digged not with sections spade, but with
a sharper and shorter Implements nee.
die. Federal and Confederate dead have
graves at Arlington Heights
and Richmond and Gettysburg, thou
sands 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
household at home, there are hundreds Of
Thousands Of sewing women. The trag.
edy Of the needle Is the tragedy Of hun
ger and cold and insult and homesick-
ness and suicide-fve acts.
But hear the rush of wheel. Wo-
man puts on the band and adjusts the
puts her foot on the treadle
and begins. Before the whr and rattle
pleurisies, consumptions, headaches.
back aches, heartaches, are routed. The
needle, once an oppressive tyrant, be-
comes cheerful slave-rol and rumble
and roar until the family wardrobe is
gathered, and winter is defed, and sum-
mer is welcomed, and the ardOrs and Sc
verities of the seasons are overcome;
winding the bobbin, threading the shut
tie, tucking, quilting, rufi1ing, cording,
undertaking, set to mu-
sic; lock stitch, twisted loop stitch, cro-
rhet stitch, fascinating ingenuity. All
honor to the memory of Alsop and Dun
ran and Greenough and Singer and Will
son and Grover and Wilcox for their
Efforts to emancipate woman from the
slavery Of toll! But, more than that. let
here be monumental commemoration Of
Elias Howe, the inventor of the first
complete sewing machine. What It has
saved of sweat and tears God only can
estimate. In the making of mems and
boys clothing in New York city in one
year It saved S7,500,0OO and in Massa-
in the making Of boots and
shoes, in one year it saved 100000.
Practical Education.
No wonder that at some of the learned
Institutions, like the New Jersey State
Normal school. and Rutgers Female in
'titute, and Elmira Female college, ac-
Iuantance with the sewing machine In n |