Milford chronicle. [volume] (Milford, Del.) 1878-1974, 1902-07-18

physical inirmities God put out the
! light of her two eyes. And there she
sits, in the darkness of her own room,
in order that with her eyeless sockets
she may better see the face of Jesus
Christ. Frances E. Willard in all prob
ability never saw a perfect we'll day
in thirty years, yet with her weak
body she headed one Of the mightiest
reform movements of her time. With
her devoted companions she toured up
and down this land, speaking in every
town and city of 10000 inhabitants or
over. When she became too feeble to
travel, in order to keep her from work
ing her friends sent her across the
seas. Yet even there, under the shad-
Ow Of the trees. she would write her
letters, which reused all the women
of Christendom to better deeds for
God and humanity.
TO show what power this sickly little
woman was able to exercise, a male
auditor gave his impression of her to a
friend in this way: when she COM
menced to speak, l felt sorry for her.
! She seemed to be such a wee little bit
of a sickly woman, so very frail and
! helpless, but when Frances e. Willard
had been speaking a short time this
wee little bit Of a woman seemed to
me to grow nine feet tall, and she
seemed to have in her hand battering
ram with which she was pounding up
on the door Of my heart until l had to
| open it and let the Saviour in" To
show what was the influence of this
frail little woman and the work which
she did | would quote a statement
made by Wendell Phillips. He turned
to a young man. who was complaining
that there were no great refOrmers to-
day, because there were no great re-
forms to champion, and said: Young
man, did you hear Frances e. Willard
speak tonight? If you did, in that
frail, little sick body you saw one OF
the mightiest powers for good this
world has ever seen. You also saw her
denOuncing, perhaps. the mightiest
curse of all ages, the curse of intoxi-
cants Go and do as the sicllly Frances
e. Willard is doing"
The saIutntions of the Saints.
Now. to you who are sitting before
me today with the pale face of an in
valid bring the salutations of the
saints who have lived in the Cesarean
palaces Of physical infrmity. l would
tell you to do something for God in
spite of your bodily pain, as blind John
Milton did; as Bella Cooke, who has
| Ia 10
doing; as Paul did, who WAS ''in bodily
presence weak" Your very physical
sufferings ought to bring you closer to
Christ Your very sicknesses ought to
make you the more anxious to do some
thing for the Saviour now that your
time on earth may be short. They
ought to make you as anxious to do
something for Christ as was the dying
president Of Union college. who. when
his physician told him he had but one
hour on earth to live, said, "Then place
me upon my knees, that l may spend
that hour in prayer with God, pleading
for the salvation of sinful soulsr'
Would that today, in the presence of
these saints who have lived in the
modern CAESARS palaces Of physical
torture, we might all consecrate our
frail as well as our well bodies to the
service of the Lord Jesus Christ!
| would encourage those Christians
also who are trying to maintain their
Christian integrity in spite Of an evil
past BY this statement mean those
Christians whose past sins have been
heralded over the world. even as
Gains sin was known by the black
mark which had been stamped upon
the murderer's brow. If it is hard for
young girl to be good and pure and
true when she is living in a Christian
home and has practically never been
out of her mothers care how much
harder must it be for young girl to
be good and true and pure when she
has had her feet cut and lacerated by
treading the crooked and stony path
? way of sin and has had her fair name
blackened by the concentrations Of a
dissolute life! If it is difficult for a
young man to hold an honorable posi-
? ton in society when his record is
/ clean and good. how much more diff
9 cult must it be for a man to attain az
3 honorable life when he has served out
/ his time in felon's cell or has had hi.
= hair cropped by the convicts shears
b and his clothes striped with the mark.
a Of the penitentiary! If it is difficult
e for a Christian to live right who's,
: nearest neighbors can find nothing bu
+ good to say of him and his past, how
e much more difficult must it be for
!. man to live a good life who has beer
e drunkard, a libertine, a thief, a SO
r cial Outcast! Would you. o Christian
f merchant, today be willing to have re
d formed eX-convicts as occupants o
L your office? Would you, o mother, al
Y low reformed servants in your hom
5 whose past lives have been dissolute
e No." in all probability you woul
+ both answer in an un-Christian wa.
2 y do not bear such people any i'll will
d but l would prefer not to have thel
II around my person. They might stei
/ or perhaps they might lead my chi
dren astray, and were such among N
S, help would dismiss them at once"
g Some time ago l stood in the store
II a personal friend. While there a gel
st tleman who was a member of the Oh
i cagO detective force entered to bU
e. some goods. This officer sharply locke
Is at one of the clerks. Then he can
p over to the merchants side and sal
III "AIr. SO-and-sO, that clerk is an e
S. convict. He served a term in Joli
IN penitentiary. You had better keep ;
Id eye upon him." Although that exec
t vict was Il good clerk and had been
It. the employ Of my friend for near
er two years, he was Immediately di
nd charged. When l spoke up in l
III favor and begged that he be retain
I'd and given Il chance to live a good Iii
a. my friend answered: NO. Mr.. T;
NJ mage; that man is able to steal eve
at year thousands of dollars witLout I
w. knowing it. l cannot run the risl
So the POOR clerk was driven out
nj that store and perhaps driven into
he future Of crime.
~ Sinking an Evil Past.
of But though it is so difficult for a m
nd to lead Christian life who has had
en- evil past. yet if there are any such he
ne today bring to you the salutations
ir the saints in Caesars palace. l want
EN- encourage you with the fact that, il
so as some of the greatest of moral here
de- have been physical weaklings. so Sol
w of the greatest of Christian her,
ice have been those who have sinned ey
life worse than you have sinned Hal
I AZ