Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1905-10-02
Calnage
Sermon
By Rev.
Frank De Witt Talmaae, D. d.

Los Angeles, Cal, Oct. LIN the sto-
~ Of beautiful Queen Esther, whose
courage and patriotism saved her race
from destruction, the preacher finds a
noble lesson for the women of today.
The text Is Esther ", 16, IF perish,
/ perish"
Have you ever read the blood curdling
story OF the massacre of St Bartholo-
mew7 No. Then perhaps you have
seen copies OF the great masterpieces
OF the Venetian artist, Tintoretto, and
OF Peter Paul Rubens, entitled The
Massacre of the Innocents." From
these two thrilling pictures you gain
an idea Of what that most awful trag-
edy in France, known as the massacre
of st. Bartholomew, must have been
like. In those pictures you can see the
frantic eyes of the mothers watching
the murderers of their children com
ing nearer and nearer to their prey
You can see some of these mothers on
their knees trying to shield their ba-
bies with their arms. Or you can see
them with their hands clutching the
murderOus blades to ward them off
from their children, though the keen
edge cut their hands to the bone. Or
you can see some of these mothers
running away in the distance with
their babies under their arms In dra-
matte contrast to the pleading, praying,
frenzied and helpless looks of these
agonized mothers you can see Herod's
butchers driving in sword here, strik-
ing down baby there ripping open
the tender body Of a beautiful infant
beyond, tossing up a child farther on
as a trickster might toss a card and
catching it upon the edge of a sharp
pointed knife, All these fendish MUIR
ders were done as nOnchalantly and
'uncOncernedly and with as much dia-
bOlical abandon as was shown by the
agents of Mana sahib, who entered the
Cawnpur slaughter house during the
Indian mutiny of 1857 and with their
knives hacked into pieces the women
% and children until the murderers liter
ally waded in blood
The Crime of Herod.
Yes, the pictures Tintoretto and Ru.
bens painted of that massacre send a
at them. But, horrible as that tragedy
was, it has been eclipsed more than
once in the worlds history. Far great
er in cruelty and in the number of vic.
tins was that tragedy conceived by
the queen mother Catherine de- Medici
and carried out by the order of her
royal son, King Charles TX. of France.
Herod, although he was an inhuman
monster and capable Of any crime,
slew only the male children of two
years and under living in and about
Bethlehem of Judaea, and the number
of his victims must have been compar-
atively small On the other hand. be
tween twenty and thirty thousand HUI
guenots in one night fell in the massa.
ere Of st. Bartholomew Old and
young, rich and poor, unknown peasant
and illustrious Admiral CoIigny, suck.
ling babes and gray haired men, vel.
tered in their life's blood on that awful
night Then this slaughter was not re-
stricted in it's area to the French CAPT
tai. Its bloody work spread through
the provinces. With one blow the Cath
Ollie dictator, Queen Catherine, tried to
destroy all the enemies of the Catholic
church forever. No wonder King
Charles on account of this crime died,
as did King Richard, in the agonies Of
remorse.
What the st. Bartholomew slaughter
was to France the intended massacre
of the Hebrews was to be to the Per-
sian kingdom of Ala B. G. A corrupt
premier of a corrupt king in order to
Gtriumph over a Hebrew, Mordecai by
name, plotted to exterminate all the
Jews who did not return to the Holy
Land after the captivity was over and
when Nehemiah was allowed to return
home to build the Jerusalem walls.
The day Of the massacre had been set.
The couriers of the king had gone to
the provinces and carried everywhere
the orders for the wholesale butchery.
All the executionerS' swords had been
sharpened. But Haman, the prime min
lister, schemed without knowing that
the beloved queen of King Ahasuerus
was a daughter Of the despised He
brews. When Esther, the queen, heard
of what the premier, Hannah, was to do
by the command of the king she said
TO her foster father, Mordecai: Il will
go unto the king and plead for my peo-
pie. This, l know, is not according to
the law, but will do all 1 can to save
Them Then: she uttered these ORA.
matte words of my text, If perish, 1
perish
WOman's Courage.
Perhaps some of you have listened to
Henders Wonderful oratorio, called
ESTHER" Yon have marveled at the
thrilling and plaintive notes of one of
the greatest Of all composers. But no
touch of Handel can be more over
WIDENING than the simple story of this
brave Persian queen as recorded in
the Bible. Let me draw for you a few
plain, practical lessons from part
OF IL.
This heroic resolution. in the first