The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-06-15

with the ~DeneQlCIlOn OF the people.
What was the burning of Latimer and
Ridley at the stake with
this? Those men soon became uncon-
scious in the fire, but there os a 30
years artyrdo a so years putting
20 death, yet accomplishing. No Bit
ger words when the rollicking compan-
ions at 2 O'Clock in the morning pitch
the husband dead drunk into the front
entry No bitter words when wiping
from the swollen brow the blood struck
out IN a midnight carousal. Bending
over the battered and bruised form Of
him who when he took her from her
father's home promised love and kind
ness and protection, yet nothing but
sympathy and prayers and forgive
ness before they are asked for. No
bitter words when the family Bible
goes to rum and the p~awn-brokeris
shop gets the last decent dress. Some
day, desiring to vok the story of her
sorrows, you say, We'll, how are you
getting along now?" and, rallying her.
trembling voice and quieting her quiv-
ering lip, she says, Pretty well, I
thank you; pretty we'll" She never
will tell you. In the delirium of her.
last sickness she may tell all the other
secrets OF her lifetime, but she will
not tell hat. Not until the books of
J eternity are opened on the throne of
judgment will ever be known hat she
udS suffered. oN, We VINO are TWIST
ing a garland for the victor, put IL on
that pale brow! When she is dead,
the neighbors will beg linen to make
her a should, and she will be carried
out in a plain box, with no silver plate
to tell her years, tor she lved a thou.
sand years of trial and anguish. The
gamblers and swindlers who destroy
ed her husband will not come TO the
funeral. One carriage will be enough
for that funeral-one carriage to carry
the orphans and the two Christian
women who presided over the obse-
quies.
THE CELESTIAL DOOR OPENED.
But there is a flash, and the opening
of a celestial door and a shout, Lift
up your head, ye everlasting gate,
and let her come in" And Christ will
step forth and say: Come in. Ye
suffered with me IN earth; be glorified
with me in heaven" What is the high
est throne in heaven? You say, The
throne of the Lord God Almighty and
the Lamb" No doubt about it. What
is the next highest throne in heaven?
While / speak ii seems to me it will
be the throne of the d~runkard's wife.
if she with cheerful patience endured
all her earthly torture. Heroes and
heroines!
I find also in this roll the heroes of
Christian charity. We all admire the
George Peabodys and the James Len
oXes of the earth, who give tens and
hundreds of thousands of dollars TO
good objects. But I am speaking now
of those who put of their pinched pow
erty help others-of uch men as those
Christian missionaries at the west
who proclaim Christ to the people,
one of them, writing to the secretary
in New York, saying: Il thank you
for hat $25. Until yesterday we have
had no meat in our house for three
months. We have suffered terribly.
My children have no shoes this Win
ter" And of those people who have
only a half oaf of bread, but give a
piece of it to others who are hungry,
and of those who have only a scuttle
of coal, but help others to fuel, n of
those who I'VE only a dollar in their
pocket and give % cents to somebody
else, and of hat father who wears a
shabby coat, and of that mother who
wear a faded dress, that their chill
dren may be we'll appareled. You call
them paupers or r~agamufins or emf
grants. / call them heroes and hero
ines. You and / may not know where
they live or what their name is. God
knows, and they have more angels
towering over them thar you n II
have, and they will have a higher seat
in heaven. They may have only al
cup of cold water to give a poor tray
eler or may have only picked a splinter
from under the nail of q child's fingerI
or have put only two mites into theI
treasury, but the Lord knows them.
Considering what they had, they did
more than WE have ever done, and their
faded dress will become a white robe,
and the small room will be an %eternalI
mansion, and the old hat will be ex-
changed for a coronet of victory, and
all the applause of earth and all thel
shouting of HEAVIER will be drownedl
out when God rises up to give his rel
ward to those humble workers in his
kingdom and to say to them, Well
done, good and faithful servant"
REWARD OF DEVOTION.
You AVE all seen or heard of the
ruins of Melrose abbey. 1 uppos in
some respects they are the most ex-
quisite ruins on earth. And yet, look
ing at it / was not so impressed-youl
may set it down to bad taste-but IL
was not so deeply stirred as I was at
a tombstone at the foot Of that abbey,
the tombstone placed by Walter Scott
over the grave of an old man who had
served him for a good many years In
his house-the inscription stand there
and read it without tears coming into
his eyeS-the epitaph, We'll done,
good and faithful servant" Oh, when
our work is over, will it be found tnat,l
because of anything we have done Tor
God or the church or suffering human
ity, that such an inscription is appro-
pirate for us? God grant it!
Who are those who were braveSt
and deserved the greatest monument,
Lord Claverhouse and his burly sol
diers or John Brown, the Edinburgh
carrier and his wife? Mr.. Atkins, the
prosecuted minister of Jesus Christ, in
Scotland was secreted by John Brown
and his wife and Clavehouse rode up
one day with his armed men and
shouted in front of the house. john
Browns little girl come out. He said
to her, well, miss, is Mr.. Atkins
here?" She made no answer, for she
could not betray the minister of the
gospel. Hal" C~lavehouse said, then
you are a chip of the old block, are
you? 1 have something in my pocket
for you. 1t is a nosegay. Some peo-
pie call it a thumbScrew, but I call it a
nosegay." And he got off his horse
and put it on the little girls hand and
began to turn it until the bones crack
ed and she cried. He said: DON'T
cry don't cry. This isn't a thumb
49, 49, z, D11~~~ 49, l1-f