The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-06-15
DAILY LIFE HER0ISM.
DIR. TALMAGE breaches ON COMMON
DUTIES AND REWARDS.
Words of Encouragement and Cheer
For Those Who Toll n Struggle.
Heroes and Heroines Of Everyday
Experiences.

of Englani and Scotland, sends this
discourse, in which he shows that many
who in this world pass as Of little i'm
portance will in the day of final read
justment becrowned with high honor;
text, II Timothy ii, 8, Thou therefore
endure hardness"
Historians are not slow to acknow-
ledge the merits of great military
chieftains. We have the full length of
portraits of the Cromwells, the Wash
ingtons, the Napoleons and the Well
ingtons of the world. History is not
written in black ink, but red ink of hu-
man blood. The gods of human ambi-
tion do not drink from bowls made out
of silver or gold or precious stones,
but out of the bleached skulls Of the
fallen. But I am now to unroll before
you a scholl of heroes that the world
has never Observation-Disclosures who
faced no guns, blew no bugle blast,
conquered no cities, chained no cap
tives to their chariot wheels and yet in
the great day of eternity will tan
higher than some of those whose anne
startled the nations, and seraph and
rapt spirit and archangel will tell their
deeds to a listening universe. / mean
the heroes of the common everyday
life.
In this roll, in the first place, / find
all the heroes of the Sickroom. When
satan had failed to overcome Job. he
said to God, Put forth thy hand and
touch his bones and his flesh, and he
will curse thee to thy face" Satan had
found out that which we have all
found out, that sickness is the greatest
test of ones character. a man who
can stand hat can stand anything. To
be shut in a room as fast as though
it were a baStile; to be so nervous o
cannot endure the tap of a child's foot;
to have luciOuS fruit, which temptS the
appetite of h robust and healthy,
excite our loathing and disgust when
it first appears OF the platter; to rave
n rapier of pain strike through the
side or across the temples like a razor
orsto put the foot into G wise or throw
til whole body into a blaze of fever,
yet there have been men and women
but more women than men, who have
cheerfully endured his hardness.
Through years of exhausting rheuma-
tisms inc excruciating neuralgias they
have gone and through bodily distress
that rasped the nerves and tore the
muscles and paled the cheeks and
stopped the shoulders. By the dim
light of the sick room taper they saw
on their wall the picture of that land
where the inhabitants are never sick.
Through the dead silence of the night
they heard the chorus of the angels.
HEROES IN SICKNESS.
The cancer ate away her life from
week to week and day to day and she
became weaker and weaker, and every
good night was feebler than the
good night" before, yet never sad. The
nhi11rnn IOAlol m into hor fooo o~l
saw suffering transformed into a hea-
Venly smile. Those who suffered on
the battlefields amid shot and shell
were not more heroes and heroines
thar those who in the field hospital
and in the asylum. had fevers which
no ice could cool and no surgery cure.
No shout of a cOmrade to cheer them,
but numbness and aching and home
sickness-yet willing to suffer, conf
dent in God, hopeful of heaven. He
roes Of rheumatism. Heroes or neu-
ralgia. Heroes of spinal complaint.
Heroes of sick headache. Heroes of
lifelong invalidiSm. Heroes and hero
ines! They will reign for ever and
ever. Hark. 1 catch just one note of
the eternal anthem, There shall be
no more paint" Bless God for that
In this roll 1 also find the heroes of
toll who do their work uncomplain-
ingly. 1t is comparatively easy to lead
a regiment into battle when you know
that the whole nation will applaud the
victory; 1t is comparatively easy to
doctor the sick when you know that
your skill will be appreciated by a
large company of friends and rela-
uves; it is comparatively easy to ad-
dress an audience when the cleaning
eyes and the flushed cheeks you know
that your sentiments are adopted. But
TO do sewing when you expect the en-
ployer will come and thrust his thumb
Inrough the work to show how imper-
fect it is or to have the whole garment
thrown back on you, to be done over
again; to build a wall and know there
Will be no one to say you did it we'll,
out only a swearing employer bowling
across h Scaffold; to work until YOUR
eyes are dim n your back aches and
your heart feints, and to know that if
o stop before night your children
Will starVe-ah, the sword has not
slain so many as the needle! The
great battles of our civil war were not
Gettysburg and Shiloh and South
Mountain The great battles were in
the arsenals and in the shops and in
the atticS where women made army
jackets for a sixpence. They toiled on
until they died. They had no funeral
eulogium but in the name of my God,
this day, / enEoll their names among
those of whom the world was not wor-
thy. Heroes of the needle, Heroes of
TIE sewing machine. Heroes of the
attic! Heroes of the ellar Heroes
n heroines! Bless God for them!
HEROES OF DOMESTIC INJUSTICE
In this roll I also find the heroes who
nave uncomplainingly endured domes- |
NC an1ustlces. There are men who, for
0neir toll and anxiety, have no sym |
pathy in their homes. Exhausting ap- |
plication to business gets them a live |
I1hood, but an unfrugal wife scatters |
1T. He is fretted at from the moment
He enters the door until he comes out
of 1.-THE exasperations of business
life. Such men are laughed at, but |
they have a heart-breaking trouble.
and they would lave LONG ago gone |
n appalling dissipation but for the |
grace of God.
Society today is strewn with the
wrecks of lei who, under the north |
east storm of domestic infelicity, have
been driven on the rocks. There are |
tens of thousands of drunkards today,
made such by their wives. That is
not nOatrr- that iS pr0Sa Rnf tho 4