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

ed had made. Orphans are lifted up
to look into the calm face of the sleep
ing benefactress. Reclaimed yagrancy
comes and kisses the cold brow of her |
who charmed it away from sin, and |
all through the streets of Joppa there
is mourning. mourning because Dor
cas- is dead. When Josephine of France
was carried out to her grave, there
we're a great many men and women
of pomp and pride and position that
went out after her, but I am most
affected by the story of history that
on that day there were 10000 of the
poor of France who followed her cof-
fin, weeping and wailing until the air
rang again, because when they lost
Josephine they lost their last earthly
friend. Oh, who would not rather
have such obsequies than all the tears
that were ever poured in the lach-
rymals that have been exhumed from
ancient cities? There may be no mass
for the dead; there may be no costly
sarcophagus; there may be no elab-
crate mausoleum, but in the damp cell
lars of the city and through the lonely
huts of the mountain glen there will
be mourning, mourning, mourning, be-
cause Dorcas is dead: blessed are
the dead who die in the Lord; they
rest from their labors, and their
works do follow them
speak to you of Dorcas the resur-
rected. The apostle came to where
she was and said: "Arise, and she
sat up!" In what a short compass
the great writer put that "She sat up"
Oh, what time there must have been
around that town when the apostle
brought her out among her old
friends! How the tears of joy must
have started! What a c1apping of
hands there must have been! What
singing! What laughter! Sound it
all through that lane! Shout it down
that dark alley! Let all Joppa hear
| it! Dorcas is resurrected!
You and I have seen the same thing
many a time; not a dead body re-
suscitated, but the deceased coming
up again after death in the good ac
complished. If man labors up to so
years of age, serving God, and then
dies, we are apt to think that his
earthly work is done. No. His in
fuence on earth will continue till the
world ceases. Services rendered for
Christ never stop. A Christian wom-
an tolls for the upbuilding of church
| through many anxieties, through
many self-denials, with prayers and
| tears, and then she dies. It is IS
years since she went away. Now the
spirit of God descends upon that
church, hundreds of souls stand up
and confess the faith of Christ. Has
that Christian woman, who went away
Is years ago, nothing to do with these
| things? I see the Towering out of
her noble heart. I hear the echo of
her footsteps in all the songs over sins
| forgiven, in all the prosperity of the
church. The good that seemed to be
buried has come up again. Dorcas is
resurrected!
After awhile these womanly friends
of Christ will put down their needle
forever. After making garments for
| others, some one will make a garment
for them; the last robe we ever wear
| the robe for the grave. You will have
heard the last cry of pain. You will
have witnessed the last orphanage
You will have come in worn out from
your last round of mercy. I 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 will dis
turb the dust. Sleep on, sleep on.
Soft bed, pleasant shadows, undis-
turbed repose! Sleep on!
Asleep in Jesus! Blessed sleep
From which none ever wake to weep!
Then one day there will be sky
rending and whirr of wheels and the
flash of a pageant, armies marching,
chains clanking, banners waving, thun-
.ders booming, and that Christian wom-
an will rise from the dust. and she will
be suddenly MISUNDERSTANDING
by the wanderers of the street whom
she reclaimed, surrounded by the
wounded souls to whom she had ad-
ministered. Daughter of God, so
strangely surrounded, what means
this? 1t means that reward has come,
that the victory is won, that the crown
is ready, that the banquet is spread.
Shout it through all the crumbling
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 distrib-
uted among them beautiful medals
called Crimean medals. Galleries were
i erected for the two houses of parlia-
ment and the royal family to sit in.
There was great audience to witness
the distribution of the medals. A
colonel who had lost both feet in the
battle of Inkermann was pulled in on
a wheel chair; others came in limping
on their crutches. Then the queen OF
England arose before them in the name
of her government and uttered words
of commentator to the officers and
men and distributed those medals, in