Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1900-08-23


bandaees for the lacerated, who fix up
boxes of clothing for missionaries, who go
into the asylums of the suffering and desti-
tute bearing that gospel which is sight for
the blind and hearing for the deaf, and
which makes the lame man leap like hart
and brings the dead to life, immortal
health bounding in their pulses.
What a contrast between the practical
benevolence of this woman and a great
deal of the charity of this day! This
ming how the poor of the city of Joppa
Were to be relieved She took her needle
and relieved them. She was not like those
persons who sympathize with imaginary
sorrows and go out in the street and laugh
at the boy. who has upset his basket of
makes a rousing speech on the benevolent
platform and goes out to kick the beggar
from the step. crying, Hush your miser-
able howling!" Sufferers of the world
want not SO much theory are practice;, not
so much tears as dollars; not so much kind
wishes as loaves of bread; not SO much
smiles as shoes; not so much God bless
you," as jackets and frocks. l will put
one earnest Christian man, hard-working,
against 5000 mere theorists on the subject
OF charity. There are great mary who
have fine ideas about church architecture
who never in their lives helped to build q
church. There are men who can give you
the history of Buddhism and Mohamme-
danism who never sent farthing for
evangelization. There are women who talk
beautifully about the suffering of the world
who never had the courage. like Dorcas,
to take the needle and assault it.
| l am glad that there is not a page of the
worlds history which is not record of
female benevolence. God says to all lands
and people, Come, now, and hear the
box" The Princess of Cont sold all her
jewels that she might help the famine
stricken. Queen Blanche. the wife of
Louis VIII. of France, hearing that there
were some persons unjusty incarccrated
in the prisons, went out amid the rabble
and took stick and struck the door as
signal that they might all strike it, and
down went the prison door. and out came
| the prisoners. Queen Maud, the wife of
Henry L., went down amid the poor and
washed their sores and administered to
them cordials. Mrs. Retson, at Matagor
| da, appeared on the battlefield while the
| missiles of death were flying around and
cared for the wounded. Is there man
| or woman who has ever heard of the civil
war in America who has not heard of the
women of the sanitary and Christian com
| missions or the fact that before the smoke
had gone up from Gettysburg and South
Mountain the women of the north met the
| women of the south on the battlefield, for.
getting all their animosities, while they
bound up the wounded and closed the eyes
of the slain? Dorcas the benefactress.
| | come now to speak OF Dorcas the Ia
mented. When death struck down that
| good woman, oh, how much sorrow there
was in the town of Joppa. | suppose there
were women there with larger fortunes,
women perhaps with handsomer faces, but
| there was not grief at their departure like
| this at the death of Dorcas. There were
not more turmoil and upturning in the
| Mediterranean Sea dashing against the
| whar'es at that seaport than there were
surgings to and fro of grief because Dorcas
| was dead. There are great many who
| go out of life and are unmissed. There
may be a very large funeral, there may be
a great many carriages and plumed
hearse, there may be high sounding eulo-
| gums, the bell may toll at the cemetery
gate, there may be very fine marble
shaft reared over the resting place, but
the whole thing may be faisehood and a
| sham.
The church of God has lost nothing;
the world has lost nothing. 1t is only a
nuisance abated. 1t is only a grumbler
ceasing to find fault 1t is only an idler
stopped yawning. It is only .dissipated
while on the other hand no useful Chris
tan leaves this world without being
missed.
The church of God cries out, like the
prophet, Howl, fir tree, for the cedar has
| fallen!' Widowhood comes and shows
made. Orphans are lifted up to look into
the calm face of the sleeping benefactress.
! Reclaimed vagrancy comes and kisses the
cold brow of her who charmed it away
from sin, and all through the streets of
Joppa there is .mournlng-mourning be-
cause Dorcas is dead.
Has that Christian woman who went
away fifteen years ago nothing to do with
these things? | see the Towering out of
her noble heart. l hear the echo of her
footsteps in all the songs over sins for
given, in all the prosperity OF the church
The good that seemed to be buried has
come up again. Dorcas is resurrected!
After awhile all these womanly friends
of Christ will put down their needle for
ever. After making garments for others
some one will make garment for them;
the last robe we ever wearLthe robe tor
cry OF pain. You will have witnessed the
last orphanage. You will have come in
worn out from your last round of mercy.
| do not know where you will sleep nor
what your epitaph will be. but there will
be lamp burning at that tomb and an
angel OF God guarding it, and through all
| the long night no rude foot VIII disturb
the dust. Sleep on, sleep on! Soft bed,
pleasant shadows, undisturbed repose!
Sleep on!
Asleep in Jesus! Blessed sleep
From which none ever wake to weep!
Then one day there will be a sky rend.
ing and whirl of wheels and the flash OF
a pageant, armies marching, chains elank-
ing. banners waving thunders booming,
and that Christian woman will arise from
the dust, and she will be suddenly sur.
rounded surrounded by the wanderers OF
the street whom she reclaimed, surround.
ed by the wounded souls to whom she had
administered!
Daughter of God, so strangely surround
ed, what means this? 1t means that re-
ward has come; that the victory is won;
that the crown is ready; that the banquet
is spread. Shout it through all the crumb-
ling earth! Sing it through all the flying
heavens. Dorcas is resurrected!
In 1855, when some OF the soldiers came
back from the Crimean war TO London,
the Queen of England distributed among
| them beautiful medals, called Crimean
medals. Galleries were erected for the two
houses of Parliament and the royal family
| TO sit in. There was great audience 10
witness the distribution of the medals. A
| colonel who had lost both feet in the bat