The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1899-02-01

| back the cover OF the stove, he saw In an.
other part Of 1t lucifer match, and all
| that young man had to do in starting to
keep house was to strike the match. You
was my own. experience. Oh, the kind
ness; OBJ, the enlarged sympathies some.
| times clustered around those who enter
| the gospel ministry! suppose the man Of
| Shunem had to pay the bills, but 1t was
the large-hearted Christian sympathies Of
the woman Of shunem that looked after
the Lords messenger.
Where are the feet that have not been
blistered on the hot sands OF this great
not bent under.the burden of grief2 Where
is the ship sailing over CLASSY sea that has
| not after awhile been caught IN cyclone2
| Where Is the garden Of earthly comfort,
| but trouble hath hitched up its fiery and
painting team land gone through 1t with
burning plowshares Of disaster2 Under
the peltiDg OF ages Of suffering the great
heart Of the world has burst with woe;
Navigators 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 families,
and Of communities, und OF empires, foam
lug, WEhuiuSJ pouluB Will Tue dSOuloS VI
5000 years. Etna, Cotopaxi and Vesuvius
have been described, but who has ever
sketched the volcano Of suffering retching
up from its depths the lava and scorla, and
pouring them down tie sides to whelm the
nations2 Oh, II could gather all the heart
strings, the broken hesrtstrings, into q
harp would play on 1t dirge such as
was never. sounded. Mythologtsts tell
US Of gorgon and centaur and Titan,
nd 20 fn1t -
Of monsters, ,'but greater than gorgon or
megatherium, and not belonging to the
realm Of fable, and not Of an extinct
species, a monster with an iron jaw and q
hundred iron hoois has walked across the
nations, and history and poetry and sculp-
ture, In their attempt to sketch 1t and de-
scribe 1t, have seemed to sweat great drops
Of blood. But, thank God, there are those
who can conquer as this woman Of the text
conquered, and say: "It is well. Though
my property be gone, though my children
be gone, though my home be broken up,
though my health be sacrificed, 1t Is well; 1t
Is welll' There Is no storm on the sea but
Christ is ready to rise in the hinder part Of
the ship and hush 1t. 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 some-
times seen that Northern sky all ablaze-
this way. Up this way are thrones OF light
and seas of sapphire and the splendor Of
an eternal heaven. Come up this way"
Again, this woman of my text was great
in her application to domestic duties.
Every picture is q home picture, whether
she is entertaining an Elisha or whether
she is giving careful attenloh 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 disciples 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 benefaotion can ever
atone for domestic. negligence. There
has peen many a mother who by 1nde-
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 oil
the lands and through the centuries. I
remember when Kossuth was In this
country there were some ladies who 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 Kossuth2 Yes, this WON;
an OF my text was great in her SIM
plicity. When this prophet wanted to re-
ward her for her hospitality by asking some
preferment from the king, what did she
say? 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; dwell
among my own people,"
Oh, what rebuke to the strife for pre-
cedence In all 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 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 they have scarcely
enough education to pick out the day OF
the month in the almanacl Oh, how many
there are striving to have things as we'll as
their neighbors or better than their neigh
exhausted and business firms thrown into
bankruptcy and men of reputed honesty
rush into astounding forgeries!
But what want to impress upon you,
my hearers, is that you ought not to In
ventory the luxuries Of life among the In
dispensables, and you ought not to depre-
ciate this woman OF the text, who, when
offered klngly prefer rment, responded, II
dwell among my own people," Yes,
this woman Of the text was great
in her piety. Just, read the, chap
ter after you 60 home. Faith IN
God, and she was not ashamed to talk
about 1t before idolaters. Ah, woman will
never appreciate what she owes to
Christianity until she knows and gees
the degradation Of her sex under pagan
ism and Mohammedanisml Her very
birth considered misfortune. Sold like
cattle on the shambles. Slave Of all
work, and at last her body fuel for the
funeral pyre OF her husband. Above the
Shrek OF the fire worshipers In Indlo, and
above the rumbling Ct the Juggernauts
hear the million voiced groan Of wronged,
insulted, broken-hearted, downtrodden
woman. Her tears have fallen In the Nile
and Tigris, the La Plata, and on the steppes
OF Tartary. She has been dishonored in
Turkish garden and Persian palace and
Spanish Alhambra. Her little ones have been
sacrificed in the Indus and the Ganges.
There is not groan, or dungeon, or
an island, or q mountain, or river, or
q lake, or sen, but could tell a story OF
the outrages heaped upon her. But,
thanks to God, this glorious Christianity
comes forth, and oil the claims OF this
vassalage are snapped, and she rises
from ignominy to exalted sphere and be-
comes the affsctionate daughter, the gentle
wife, the hopored mother, the useful Chris
tian. Oh, II Christianity has done so much
a1xv rYfn