The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-05-19
SISTERS or CHARITY.

By AmQTeW JuIu6B hihSA'
 We might search the records or the world in vain. where deeds of goodness, beneyolenoe and charity prevail, to ind that the same is not sanctihed or hal- lowed by the presence or aid or "o- man. The mystery, which surrounds her with an unseen, yet wonderful pow CT, and the delft influence, which she silently wields over the human heart. are peculiar to herself alone, and mark her, as a special creation, to encompass life with a >benevolent, pure and holy influence. This being true, in her or dlnary career of benevolence, what who daily enter the lists and perform immeasureable good. whose identity is unknown to the world.
 Sisters of Charity! The very name is synonymous with deeds of love and self sacrifice. The world today is filled with the record of their work of mercy and speaks for them in words more el0- Quent than any language can describe or any tongue can syllable. Leaving the pleasures and allurements of the world behind them, pledging them selves to one grand mission in life. they stand as the very embodiment Of all that is celestial in human nature. They seek no reward, claim no atten- tion, but silently go about their noble work with such self-abnegation and unostentation, that those, who profit in soul and body by their selfdenying labors. scarce know whence they come or whither they go. Sisters of Char ity! As for society at large, 1t learns of their existence only by the good they do and have done. It finds the places, the waifs and Wrecks rescued from misery; the Magdalens softly guided into the paths of penitence and provided with refuge from the De- stroyer; the hungry gre fed, the wounded cared for and the gospel of the fowiy Nazarine made tTactive, by practical lessons of love and char ity. More than this, they go down into the lowly places of squalor a1d degraI dation. wrestling with ignorance, want and crime and bringing hope nto hearts that have been scared and blighted by evil associations and the poisons of the brothel. Society wakes up, at in- tervals, to estimate the progress, which has been made through the efforts of these earnest spirits and angels of mercy, who devote their lives. in si- lence, to the service of shining and suffering humanity.
 Honors and rewards the world can not (even If willing) bestow upon these Sisters of Charity, for they court none of the ephemeIa, glories of life and even under assumed names, pass away into silence and obscurity. In fact, it may be doubted if the world has much leisure to think about them with the ever-presenr and pressing demands of modern life. It's ears are filled with the clamor of social struggles and the adulation of their flatterers; it's eyes are continuously daZzled with the gilt ter of station, the baubles of fashion and the ostentation of wealth. Caesar has always "a Senate at his heels;" Calphurnia Is engrossed in the meshes of social duties: Croesus must have a paper to describe his banquets. In facts statesmen, philosophers, trades men, and artisans are each absorbed In his individual aims, aspirations, etc. in a groove, easily described by the circle of self. But the humble, self sacrificing Sisters of Charity, what about them? For honors and rewards, they have only the blessings of those whose wounds they have healed; whose pains they have allayed, to whose parched lips they have held the cup of water and whose minds they have en- frightened; whose lives they have blessed and whose souls they have lifted into diviner air. Yet, We can feel sure that for all the Sisters have sacrificed and suffered. in their dili- gent and never-ceasing minlstrations, they have felt more than adequate re- compense in the grateful knowledge that they have accomplished something it may be little or it may be much but it at least Is all they could-for afflicted mortals, for the trusts and aspirations of the race. for the ale viation of pain and the triumph of truth. These gentle and tlreless bene- factors of humanity. unconsciously in- fuse the divine light of beauty into the "prosaic story of our days" while we feel the breezy influence of their ex- ample. however slow we may be to fol- low it. They find life everywhere-in