Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1900-07-20

sword; the pastoral poet, with his
verses full of the redo.ence of clover
tops and a-rustle with the silk of the
corn, has sung the praises of the plow.
I tell you the praises of the needle.
From the fig leaf robe prepared in the
garden of Eden to the last stitch taken
on the garment for the poor the needle
has wrought wonders of kindness, gen.
crosby and benefaotion. 1t adorned
the girdle of the high priest, it fash
toned the curtains in the ancient taber
nacle, it cushioned the chariots of King
Solomon, it provided the robes of Queen
Elizabeth, and in high places and in
low places, by the fire of the pioneers
back log and under the fash of the
chandelier, everywhere, it has clothed
nakedness, it has preached the Gospel,
it has overcome hosts of penury and
want with the war cry of Stitch,
stitch, stitch!" The operatives have
found livelihood by it, and through
it the mansions of the employer are
constructed.
Amid the greatest triumphs in all
ages and lands, set down the con-
quests of the needle. I admit its
crimes; I admit it's cruelties. 1t has
had more martyrs than the fire; it has
punctured the eye; it has pierced the
side; it has struck weakness into the
lungs; it has sent madness into the
brain; it has filed the potter's field;
it has pitched whole armies OF the suf-
fering into crime and wretchedness
and woe. But now that am talk
ing of Dorcas and her ministries to
the poor, I shall speak only of the
charities of the needle. This woman
was representative of all those who
make garments for the destitute, who
knit socks for the barefooted, who
prepare bandages for the lacerated,
who fix up boxes of clothing for mis-
sionaries, who go into the asylums of
the suffering and destitute, bearing
that Gospel which is sight for the
blind and hearing for the deaf, and
which makes the lame man leap like
hare and brings the dead to life,
immortal health bounding in their
pulses. What contrast between the
practical benevolence of this woman
and a great deal of the charity of this
day! This woman did not spend her
time idly planning 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
cold victuals, or like that charity
which makes a rousing speech on the
benevolent platform and goes out to
kick the beggar from the step, crying:
"Hush your miserable howling!" SUI
r l. -
theory as 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
yous!" as jacAets and frocks. I will
put one earnest Christian man, hard
working, against 5000 mere theorists
on the subject of charity. There are
a great many who have fine ideas
about church architecture who never
in their life helped to build church.
| There are men who can give you the
| history of Buddhism and MOhamme-
| danism who never sent a 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.
| I am glad that there is not page
of the worlds history which is not a
record OIL female benevolence. God
says to all lands and people: Come
now and hear the widows mite rattle
down into the poor 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 unjustly incarcerated in the
prisons, went out amid the rabble and
| took a stick and struck the door as a
| signal that they might all strike it.
and down went the prison door, and
out came the prisoners. Queen Maud
the wife of Henry I, went down amid
the poor and washed their sores and
administered to them cordials. Mrs
Retson, at Matagorda. appeared on
the battlefield while the missiles OF
for the wounded. Is there a man Oh
woman who has ever heard of the civil
war in America who has not heard OF
the women of the sanitary and Chris
ton commissions or the fact that be-
fore the smoke had gone up from Get
tysburg and South Mountain the won
en- of the north met the women of the
south on the battlefield, forgetting al
their animosities while they bound uI
the wounded and closed the eyes OF
the slain? Dorcas, the benefactress
I come now to speak of Dorcas, the
lamented. When death struck down
that good woman, oh, how much sor
row there was in the town of Joppa
I suppose there were women there
with larger fortunes, women, perhaps
with handsomer faces, but there was
no grief at their departure like this
at the death of Dorcas. There was not