Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1900-07-19
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
DRAWS A LESSON FROM
NOBLE WOMAN'S LIFE,
To Those Engaged In Alternating Human
Distress-Self Sacrificing Work Assured
of a Rich Reward Hereafter - Praise
for the Needle.

4 - ~AoASA IuiopCy lol WaloCu
! the following report of a sermon in
which he ntters helpful words to all
who are engaged in alternating human
distresses and shows how such work
will be crowned at the last; text, Acts
| TX, 80, "And all the widows stood by
him weeping and showing him the
| coats and garments which Dorcas
made while she was with them"
Joppa is the most absorbing ,ity of
the orient. Into her hacbor once float
| ed the RATS of Lebanon cedar from
which the temples Of Jerusalem were
| built, Solomon's oxen drawing the logs
through the town. Here Napoleon had
500 prisoners massacred. One OF the
most magnificent charities of the CEN
| turtles was started in this seaport by
| Dorcas, woman with her needle en-
| broidering her name intellectually into
the beneficence Of the world. l see
her sitting in yonder home. In the
doorway and around about the build
ing and in the room where she sits are
the pale faces of the poor. She lis
| tens to their plant, she pities their
woe, she makes garments for them,
she adjusts the manufactured articles
to suit the bent form Of this invalid
woman and to the cripple that comes
crawling on his hands and knees. She
gives a coat to this one, she gives san
dals to that one With the gifts she
mingles prayers and tears and Christ
ian encouragement. Then she goes
| out to be greeted on the street corners
by those whom she has blessed, and
all through the street the cry is heard,
"Dorcas is coming!" The sick look
up gratefully into her face as sic puts
her hand on the burning brow, and
the lost and the abandoned start up
with hope as they hear her gentle
voice, as though an angel had ad-
dressed them, and as she goes out the
lane eyes half put out with sin think
they see halo of light about her brow
and trail of glory in her pathway.
That night a half paid shipwright
climbs the hill and reaches home and
sees his little boy well clad and says,
Where did these clothes come from?'
| And they tell him, "Dorcas has been
here" In another place woman Is
trimming a lamp. Dorcas brought the
| oil. In another place family that
had not been at table for many weeks
are gathered now, for Dorcas has
brought bread.
But there is sudden pause in that
woman's ministry. They say: Where
is Dorcas? Why we haven't seen her
| for many a day. Where is Dorcas?"
And one of these poor people goes up
and knocks at the door and finds the
mystery solved. All through the
haunts of wretchedness the news
comes, "Dorcas is sick!" No bulletin
flashing from the palace gate telling
the stages of a kings disease is more
anxiously waited for than the news
from this benefactress. Alas, for Jop-
pa there is wailing, wailing. That
voice which has uttered so many
| cheerful words is hushed; that hand
which has made so many garments for
the poor is cold and still; the star
which had poured light into the mid
night of wretchedness is dimmed by
the binding mists that go up from the
river Of death. In every forsaken
place in that town, wherever there is
sick child and no balm, wherever there
| is hunger and no bread, wherever
there is guilt and no commiseration,
| wherever there is broken heart and
| no comfort, there are despairing looks
| and streaming eyes and frantic ges-
ticulations as they cry, "Dorcas is
| dead!"
The Miracle of Peter.
They send for the apostle Peter, who
| happens to be in the suburbs of the
place, stopping with a tanner of the
name of Simon. Peter urges his way
| through the crowd around. the door
| and stands In the presence of the dead.
| What demonstration of grief all about
| him! Here stand some of the poor
| people, who show the garments which
| this poor woman had made for them.
| Their grief cannot be appeased. The
apostle Peter wants to perform a
miracle. He will not do it amid the
excited crowd, so he orders that the
| whole room be cleared. The door is
shut against the populace. The apos-
tie stands now with the dead. Oh,
it Is a serious moment, you know,
when you are alone with lifeless
body The apostle gets down ON his
knees and prays, and then he comes to
the lifeless form of this one all ready
for the sepulcher, and in the strength
of him who Is the resurrection he
cries, "Tabitha, arise!" There is a
stir in the fountains of life; the heart
futters; the nerves thrill; the cheek
fiushes; the eye opens; she sits up!
We see in this subject Dorcas the
disciple, Dorcas the benefactress, Dor
cas- the lamented, Dorcas the resurrect-
ed.
If had not seen that word disciple
in my text, / would have known this
woman was a Christian. Such music
as that never came from a heart which
is not chorded and strung by divine
grace. Before / show you the needle
work of this woman l want to show
you her regenerated heart, the source
of a pure life and of all Christian
charities. l wish that the wives and
mothers and daughters and sisters of
all the earth would initiate Dorcas in
her discipleship. Before you cross the
threshold of the hospital, before you
enter upon the temptations and trials
of tomorrow, l charge you in the name
of God and by the turmoil and tumult
of the judgment day, o women, that
you attend to the first, last and great
est duty of your life-the seeking for
God and being at peace with him.
When the trumpet shall sound, there
will be an uproar and wreck of
mountain and continent, and no hu-
man arm can help you. Amid the
ri sinn Of thu daad and amid the boiling