The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-01-27

VINO, gong out 10 dilcau W ouAS4a1
charities. neglect the duty of home-the
duty OF wife, Of mother. Of daughter.
No faithfulness in public b~enefaction
can ever atone for domestic negligence
There has been many a mother who Dy
-indefatigable toll has reared a large
family of children, e~quipping them Tor
the duties OF life with good manners
and large intelligence and Christian
principle, starting them out. who has
lone more for the world than many a
woman whose name has sounded
through all the lands n through the
centuries. I remember when kossufn
was in this country there were SOME
ladies who got honorable regulations
by presenting him very gracefully with
bouquets of flowers or public occasions,
but what was all that compared with
the plain Hungarian mother who gave
TO truth and civilization and the cause
of universal liberty a kossuth? Yes,
this woman of my text was great in
her simplicity. When this prophet
wanted to eward her for her hospital
ity by asking some preferment from
the king, what did she say? She de-
clined it. She said, Il dwell among my
own people" as much as to say, Il am
satised with my lot; all 1 want is my
family and my friends around me; l
dwell among my W people"
Oh, what a rebuke to the strife for
precedence in all ages. How many
there are who want to get great archi-
lecture and homes furnished with all
art, all painting, all statuary, who have
not enough taste to distinguish be-
tween Gothic and Byzantine and who
could not tell a figure in plaster of paris
| from Palmer's White Captive" and
would not know a boys penciling from
Bierstadt's Yosemite" Men who buy
large Libraries by the square foot, buy
ing these libraries when h have
| Soaroolv onnI10h adr10at inn srn nicty ont
the day of the month in the almanac.
Oh, how many there are striving to
have things as well as their neighbOrs
or better than their n~eighbors, and in
the struggle vast fortunes are ex-
hausted and business firms thrown into
bankruptcy and men Of reputed hon.
esty rush into astounding forgeries, OF
course, l say nothing against refine
ment or culture. Splendor of abode,
su-mptuousness of diet, lavishness il
art, neatness in apparel-there is Moth
ing against them in the Bible or out of
he Bible. God does not want US TO
prefer mud howell to English cottage or
untanned s~heepskin to French broad
cloth or husks to pineapple or the clum-
SineSS of a bOOr to the manners of a
entleman. God, who strung the beach
with tinted shell and the grass of the
field with the dews of the night and
hath exuuisitely tinged morning cloud
t~AAN " &oSSs "oAAIo oo ~ IN
our eye open to all beautiful cadenceS
and our heart open to all elevating SEN
timentS.
GREAT IN PIETY.
But what 1 want to impress upon
you, my hearers, is that you ought not
to inventory the luXuries of life among
the indispensables, and you ought not
to depreciate this woman of the text,
who, when offered kingly preferment
rncr0n1ol ct lu-all 11y amy
people" Yes, his woman Of the text
was great in her piety. Just read the
chapter after you go home. Faith in
God, and she was not ashamed to talk
about it before idOlaters. All, woman
will never appreciate what she owes tC
Christianity until she knows and sees
the degradation of her sex under pa
ganism and Mohammedanism! Hel
very birth considered a misfortune
Sold like cattle on the shambles. Slave
of all work, and at last her body fue
for the funeral pyre of her husband
Above the shrek of the fire worshipers
in India, and above the rumbling of TIL
Juggernauts l hear the million voiced
groan of wronged, insulted, broke,
hearted, downtrodden woman. He
tears have fallen in the Nile and Tigris
the La Plata, and on the steppes o
Tartary. She has been dishonored il
Turkish garden and Persian palac
and Spanish Alhambra. Her littl
] mes have been sacrificed in the Indu
and the Ganges. There is not a groan
or a dungeon, or an island, or a Sc:
but could tell a story of the outrage
t heaped upon her. But, thanks to God
/ this glorious Christianity comes forth
all the chains Of this vassalage ar
: snapped, and she rises from ignomin,
to exalted sphere and becomes the af
fectionate daughter, the gentle wife
the honOred mother, the useful Chris
: tan. Oh, if Christianity has lone S
. much for woman, surely woman wi
? become it's most ardent advocate an
> it's sublimest exemplification.