Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1901-08-23
agitated hand, write 1t out in those four
Evinu canitals H.0-M-El

| across that DOMINION. Horses, painting
and with lathered tanks, are not swift
enough to run to the outpost OF that realm
They say that the sun never sets on the
British empire, but / have to tell you thai
on this realm of woman's influence eter
nifty never marks any bound.
Isabella fed from the Spanish throne
pursued by the nations anathema, but
she who is queen in home will never lose
her throne, and death itself will only be
the annexation of heavenly principalities
When you want to get your grandest
idea of queen, you do not think of Cath
crime of Russia or of Anne Of England OF
Maria Theresa of Austria. but when you
want TO get your grandesc ldea OF queen
you think of the plain woman who sat OPP,
poste your father at the table or walked
sometimes to the thanksgiving banquet
sometimes to the grave, but always to-
gether, soothing your petty, griefs, cor
recting your childish waywardness, joining
in your infantle sports, listening to your
evening prayers, toiling for you with
needle or at the spinning wheel and on
cold nights wrapping yoi 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 toiled for you so long and put them
1
| ed you to God whom she had taught you
to trust-oh. she was the queen The cha.
riots of God came down to fetch her, and
| as she went in all heaven rose up. You
cannot thinl, of her now without rush
| of tenderness that stirs the deep founda-
tions 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 ten.
| derly as she used to speak it you would
| be willing to throw yourself on the ground
and kiss the sod that covers her, crying,
Mother, mother" All, she was the
| queen, she was the queen!
Now, can you tell me how many thou
| sand miles woman like that would have
| to travel down before she got to the
ballot box? Compared with this work of
training kings and queens for God and
eternity, how insignificant seems all this
work of voting for aldermen and common
councilmen and sheritfs and constaL !
and mayors and presidents To make one
such grand woman as l have described
those people who 60 in the round of god
lessness and fashion and dissipation, dis
torting their bodies and going as far to-
ward disgraceful apparel as they dare 60
so as not to be arrested of the police,
their behavior sorrow to the good and
caricature of the vicious and an insult to
that God who made them women and not
gorgons, and tramping on down through q
frivolous and dissipated life to temporal
and eternal destruction?
0 woman, with the lightning of your
lurements to dissipation and to fashion!
Your immortal soul cannot be fed upon
such garbage. God calls you up to en-
pire and dominion. Will you have it?
Oh, give to God your heart, give to God
your best energies, give to God all your
culture, give to God all your refinement,
give yourelf 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,
sister hand, childs hand, will be no
more in yours. 1t will be night, and there
will come up cold wind from the Jordan,
and you must start. Will it be lone
woman on a 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 I will not
desert you when you are sick" One wave
of His hand and the storm will drop; an
other wave of His hand, and midnight
shall break into midnoon, and another
wave of His hand and the chamberlains Of
God will come down from the treasure
blood washed and heaven glinted, in
which you will array yourself for the mar
riage supper of the Lamb. And then with
Miriam, who struck the timbrel by the
Red Sea, and with Deborah, who led the
Lords host into the fight, and with Han.
nah, who gave her Samuel to the Lord,
and with Mary, VINO rocked Jesus to sleep
while thove were angels singing in the
air, ard with Florence Nightingale, who
mea, you will from the chalice Of God
drink to the souls eternal rescue.
One twilight after ] had been playing
with the children for some time I lay
down on the lounge to rest, and, half
asleep and hall awake, l seemed to dream
this dream: 1t seemed to me that I was
in a far distant land-not Persia, although
more Oriental luxuriance crowned the
cities; nor the tropics, although more
than than tropical fruitfulness filled the gar
dens; nor Italy, although more than 1tal-
dered around, looking for thoxas and net.
ties, but found none of them grew there.
And walked forth and ! saw the sun
rise, and said when will it set AGAIN."
And the sun sank not. And saw all the
people in holiday apparel, and / said,
when will they put on workingman's
garb again and delve in the mine and
swelter at the forget" But neither the
garments nor the robes did they put off
Apd ! wandered in the suburbs and |
said, Where do they bury the dead of |
the hills where it would be most beauti- |
full for the dead to sleep, and saw castles |
and towers and battlements, but not a |
mausoleum nor monument nor white slab |
could | see. And I went into the great |
chapel of the town and l said: where do |
the poor worship? Where are the benches
on which they sit?" And a voice an
swered, I'VE have no poor in this great |
CITY," And 1 wandered out, seeking to |
lind the place where were the novels of |
the destitute, and found mansions of am
Der and ivory and gold, but no tear did I |
see or sigh hear.
/ was bewildered, and I sat under tho
shadow Of great tree, and | said. "What
am | and whence comes all this4 And
at that moment there came from among
the leaves, skipping up the fowery paths
and across the sparkling waters, very
bright and sparkling group, and when /
saw their step knew it, and when l heard
their voices | thought l knew them, but
their apparel was so different from any.
thing l had ever seen bowed, stranger
to strangers. But after awhile, when
they clapped hands and shouted, "Wel.
come, welcomed" the mystery was solved.
and ! saw that time had passed and that
etgpity. had come and that God had
gathered us up into higher home. and /
said, "Are all here" And the voices of
generations answered, "All
here" And while tears of gladness were
raining down our cheeks and the branches
3f the Lebanon cedars were clapping their
hands and the towers of the great CITY
we're Ginning their welcome we began tc
augh and sing and leap and shout, Home,