The Yale expositor., 1900-01-12

When you want to get your grandest
| idea of a queen, you do not think OF
Catherine of Russia, or of Anne OF
England, or of Marie Theresa Of Ger
many; but when you want to get your
grandest idea of a queen, you think of
the plain woman who sat opposite your
father at the table, or walked with him
arm-in-arm down life's pathway;
sometimes to the thanksgiving ban
quet, sometimes to the grave, but al
ways together-soothing your petty
griefs, correcting your childish way
wardness, joining in your infantile
sports, listening to your evening
prayers, toiling for you with needle
or at the spinning wheel, and on cold
nights wrapping you up snug and
warm. And then at last on that day
when she lay in the back room dying,
and you saw her take those thin hands
with which she had toiled for you so
long, and put them together in dy-
ing prayer that commended you to the
God whom she had taught you to trust
oh, she was the queen! The chariots
of God came down to fetch her; and
as she went up all heaven rose up.
You cannot think of her now without a
rush of tenderness that stirs the deep
foundations of your soul, and you feel
as much a child again as when you
cried on her lap; and if you could
bring her back again to speak just
once more your name, as tenderly as
she used to speak it, you would be will
ing to throw yourself on the ground
and kiss the sod that covers her, cry
ing Mother! mother!" All, she was
the queen-she was the queen Now,
can you tell me how many thousand
miles a woman like that would have to
travel down before she got to the bal
lot box? Compared with this work OF
training kings and queens for God and
eternity, how Insignificant seems all
this work of voting for alderman and
common councilmen, and sheriffs, and
constables, and mayors, and presi-
dents! To make one such grand wom-
an as l have described, how many
thousands would you want of those
people who go in the round of fashion
and dissipation, going as far toward
disgraceful apparel as they dare go,
so as not to be arrested by the police
their behavior sorrow to the good
and a carricature to the vicious, and
an insult to that God who made them
women and not gorgons. and tramping
on, down through a frivolous and dis
sipated life, to temporal and eternal
damnation.
oh, woman. with the lightning of
your SOUL strike deaS at your feet all
these allurements to dissipation and
to fashion. Your immortal soul can
not be fed on such garbage. God calls
you up to empire and dominion. Will
you have it? Oh, give God your heart,
give to God all your best energies;
give to God all your culture; give to
God all your refinement; give your
self to him for this world and the
next. Soon all these bright eyes will
be quenched, and these voices will be
hushed. For the last time you will
look upon this fair earth. Fathers
hand, mothers hand, sisters hand
will no longer be in yours. 1t will be
night, and there will come up a cold
wind from the Jordan, and you will
trackless moor? All, no! Jesus will
come up In that hour and offer his
hand, and he will say: You stood by
me when you were well; now | will
not desert you when you are sick" One
wave Of his hand, and the storm will
drop; and another wave of his hand
and midnight will break into midnoon;
and another wave of his hand and the
chamberlains of God will come down
from the treasure-hCuses of heaven,
with robes lustrous, bloodwashed and
heaven glinted, in which you will array
yourself for the marriage supper OF
the Lamb. And then with Marian,
who struck the timbrel of the Red sea;
and with Deborah, who led the Lords
host into the fight; and with Hannah,
who gave her Samuel to the Lord; and
with Mary who rocked Jesus to sleep
while there were angels singing in the
air; and with the sisters of charity,
who bound up the battle-wounds of
the Crimea, you will, from the challice
Of God, drink to the souls eternal res
cue.
Your dominion is home, woman!
What a brave fight for home the
women of Ohio made some ten or fif-
teen years ago, when they banded to-
gether and in many of the towns and
cities of that state marched in process
sion, and by prayer and Christian
songs shut up more places of dissi-
patton than were ever counted. Were
they opened again? Oh, yes. But is
it not a good thing to shut up the
gates of hell for two or three months?
1t seemed that men engaged in the
business of destroying others did not
know how to cope with this kind of
warfare. They knew how to fight the
Maine liquor law. and they knew how
to fight the National Temperance So
ciety, and they knew how to fight the
Sons of Temperance and Good Samari-
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