Pike County Democrat, Volume 27, Number 49, Petersburg, Pike County, 16 April 1897 — Page 3

hills all Let _thy Isle* Jolce; ! Let mm take up the strain— Christ from the dead hath come; Be litres. Be lives again! Awake, awake, O earth! Forget the hour of gloom When in thy shuddering breast Thy Maker claimed a tomb. Put off thy wintry robes For garb of Joyous spring; •Crown thee with lilies fair To greet the risen .King! Bring treasures of the field. Bring leaf and blossom sweet. Thy choicest and thy best. Before ills pierced feet. While all thy sons are glad. And tears are put away. Let youth and age alike 8tng Christ Is risen to-day. Lift up thy gates with praise. And robes of Joy put on. The Lord of Life and Death Hath risen to His throne. He hath gene up on high. And giveth gifts to men; He lives, no more to die. Alleluia. Amen. —Lucy Randolph Fleming, in Harper's Bazar 1 S S SARAH GRANT stood at the window of her little dining-room looking out at the tiny yard tblat sep

anted her cottage from me suwi. « was the last day of March, but the sir was full of the magnetic influence of spring. The grass was freshening while in the bed of brown earth at the right of the walk hardy daffodils, jonquils and one adventurous hyacinth nodded to the passers-by. Miss Grant sighed a little impatiently «• she tiwnril from the window. Her neatly spread tea table stood Waiting. There were a solitary cup. saucer and plate, each of rare old china. "Hie silver svas massive, of the fashion of a half century ago. There were slice* of snowy home-made bread, all cut of exactly the same thickness, a pot of goldon butter, a chicken salad, milk, a glass of amber jelly, and sugared doughnuts. It looked tempting. But the cloud did not lift from Miss Grant’s face as she brought the steaming teapot from, the kitchen and seated herself for her evening meal. She bowed in silence for a moment. Then, adjusting her napkin carefully over her neat black cashmere. she said to herself: “And to-morrow’s April Fool’s day, too! As if there wasn’t enough to bother without that! For the fact of its being Sunday won’t make any difference with those unruly boys, Well, If they attempt to play any tricks upon me they’ll suffer, that’s all.** Bad the most daring urchin in Glenville beheld the scowl upon Miss Sarah’s face he would have hesitated longbefore attempting to "fool** her. She creamed her tea and slowly buttered a slice of bread. “I haven’t the heart to eat,** she exclaimed a moment later. “To think that a Grant should have his home sold on a mortgage. I’m glad our father didn’t live to know it.” Miss Sarah bad devoted the earlier part of the afternoon tomakingealls. It was at Mrs. Atherton’s that some one had spoken of John Grant. Miss Sarah's only brother. There was an awkward pause, then dear old Grandma At herton said, gently:

"Sarah, yon will pardon your mother's fTieod if abe tells you something. John’s home is to be sold on the mortgage in three weeks. Did you know it?** "No,” was Miss Grant's uncompromising reply. "It is too bad,** grandma went on. after a moment. "He mortgaged it to get money to take bis wife to New \ork for medical aid. It did her no good, poor thing. Well, times are hard and a man with an invalid wife and six small children finds it almost impossible to lire on a clerk’s salary," There was no softening of Miss £arail's face. After a few minutes she stiffly bowed herself out. Grandma Atherton watched her pass down the street, a troubled expression on the usually placid old face. - t *Tm so sorry.” she mid. shaking her silvered head. "Saran could so well afford to help John. She has been growing richer all these years while he has been growing poorer.” This was the subject Mis* Surah was revolving in her mind as e» sat at the tea table. It was 20 years since the death of her parents. The family wealth had been equally divided between John and herself. Her share, invested in her present homeand judicious loans, bad doubled. John had gone into business, loot heavily through a dishonest partner, sigoed a note* with a supposed friend, and paid it; then been glad to aeeept a litoatio^dark. Five years ago he had asked fflMRster to advance money on his pretty home. Sarah had refused curtly and scolded him for incurring needless expense. "It may do no good.” be admitted, "but 1 cannot let Amy suffer as she does without one more effort for her relief.” "I don’t believe there is much the matter with Amy,” the sister declared. Somehow the oink and white poet tineas

of Amy Grant had always exasperated Mias Sarah. “If she’d exert herself more and—" But John rose hastily. “We will not discuss that. It is time 1 was at the store," and he walked proudly away. Years had widened the breach. Mrs. Grant was still an invalid. The six children were all overflowing with spirits. rosy-cheeked and happy. Sadie, the oldest* at fifteen played at being housekeeper and nurse. The house was always bright and clean, but it was too noisy and disorderly to suit fastidious Miss Sarah. Sadie, too. was anothergrievance. She wasadimpled-faced girt with her fatber’sclear gray eyes and proud poise of the head. “A regular Grant,** Miss Sarah said to herself. “I'd take her and do well by her. Bnt 1 won’t soon forget Madam Amy’s almost indignation at my proposal. “Give away one of my children? 0, 1 couldn’t think of such a thing,* she said. Then there is her ridiculous name. She was christened Sarah Catherine, but it’s too plain and old-fasbioned. so she’s Sadie now.** The shadow of evening had gathered while Miss Grant sat over her untasted supper. She pushed her plate away and was abcut to rise when a gentle rap sounded on the door. Without waiting to light a lamp she opened the door, and peered out in vhe fast falling darkness. No one was there. Her foot struck against something lying on the doorsill. It was a long, narrow package, apparently a box. A great wave of snger rolled over the spinster’s heart. “How dare those boys try fool tricks on me!" she muttered. “If 1 had ’em here I'd teach ’em a lesson, right quick.” and with one sturdy kick she \gnt the obnoxious box half way to the street. c “O. Miss Sarah!” cried out a child’s piping voice. “What air you doing that to your Easter present for?” “What are you doing here. Maggie Smith?” Miss Grant demanded, sharply. “Are you concerned’ in this disgraceful affair? Come here this minute and tell me all about it," Frightened by the sternness of the voice. Maggie came whimpering and trembling. “I jest don’t know nothin’." she de

and misunderstood? Had she always been just to others? And had not He, the divine One, been misunderstood? Her tears wore dripping- on the waxen petals of the dowers. Burying her face in their cool depths, a fervent prayer rose from her heart. The next morning was bright and sunny. The little church was gay with flowers, and to Miss Sarah the very air seemed alive with loving memories of the first Easter morning. “O day of joy and gladness!’* sang the choir, and the heart of the spinster repeated the words over and over. At the close of the service she hastened to her brother’s pew. “How is your mamma, dear?” she asked Sadie in so sympathetic a tone that the girl’s eyes opened «wid«. “What a little woman you are, Sadie, to keep the children so quiet through church. Here’s a note for your father. You can tell him 1 will come over and talk to him after dinner. 1*11 bring your mamma some of my quince jelly. Poor thing, 1 wish she could get out these nice days.” John Grant was discouraged and disheartened. j et for his wife’s sake he had tried to be cheerful that Easter morning. When Sadie laid the little note in his hand he opened it and read, while happy tears coursed down his cheeks: “Dear Brother: I will let you have the money to pay that mortgage. Yon and yours may pay the interest h» love. Can you forget the past and take anew to your heart the sister who has just learned to follow the risen Lord? Lovt ingly yours, Sarah Grant.” —• Anna I Johnson, in N. Y. Observer. EASTER. Bow Its Wonderful Deep Meailaf Max Be Incorporated Into tin Life of Every Dny\ It seems clear "that a pure spirit will arise from the 6eed of a pure body, and a loving spirit from the seed of a loving body. If the body we sorrowfully put aside has been one full of charity, helpful, kindly and eager to speak tender.pitying words—one that has t hought no evil and has believed all things, and hoped all things, and endured all things —can anyone doubt what should come of such a seed planting? The natural

WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE. MAGGIE SMITHV

dared. **I was comin’ down the street with this ’ere loaf of bread ma sent me after when I seed Miss Effie Dean come up your walk. She laid down that bundle, knocked on the door and skipped. Hope to die, Miss Sarah, that's everything I know.” Miss Grant was puzzled. She vainly tried, in the dim light, to scan Maggie’s face. “Bring me that package,” she said, sternly. t Maggie obeyed. "Now go straight home. If I find you have deceived me in any way I shall see that you are severely punished.” Trembling with fear, Maggie started. Upon reaching the street, she broke into a run. As for Miss Sarah, she carried the mysterious package into the dining-room, lighted a lamp, pulled down the window shades, locked the door and sat down to think. Eftie Dean—the sweet, refined daughter of Miss Sarah’s pastor! Would she insult the old woman to whom she had always been so kind? Surely not. What had Maggie meant about Easter? A moment's thought—yes, the morrow was Easter as well as All Fools’ day. She felt a twinge of conscience as she re-j mem be red that her anger against the prospective pranks of the boys had blotted out her memory of Christ's proven immortality. She came back to the present with a start. There lay the bundle. “Why don’t 1 open it?” she queried. “Of course, it's all nonsense. As likely as not another bit at my being an okl I maid.” Upon removing the paper she found j a pasteboard boa. Taking off the cover j she held her breath in astonishment, j There, on a bed of softest moss, lay ! great clusters of Easter lilies. The i woman felt her anger slipping from I her. and an unexplainable hush seemed j to settle down upon her. Reverently J lifting the card tied to the lilies, she read: “In loving remembrance of the! Joyful morrow” Joyful? Ah. not to her. And why not? Could there be any reason save that she had shut out of bear life the influence of the risen Saviour? What If she had been lonely

comes first, and after that the spiritual. But “as is the natural, so is the spiritual.” It Is far more glorious, but, after all. the same! So we may bring Easter, with its wonderful deep meaning, into the life of every day. How? By teaching ourselves -to comprehend the truth that while we live this human life, and develop this natural body, it is not alone the natural body we are creating, but the seed of the spiritual body which is to come after. This is not a mystical doctrine. All those who in this life have attained some knowledge of their spiritual natures will testify to its truth. The change from a natural to a spiritual living is like the growing of a plant whose seed we have sown. The right plant surely grows in a man who has sown the right seed. As the spiritual nature of a man begins to develop, the purer, higher elements in him grow stronger, and one by one the baser sort die. Hate dies, and revenge and anger. Cruelty dies, and all unkindness. Narrowness of mind dies, and contempt for the frailties of others. The port that lives and grows strong er is love. Purity and truth and courage are but ports of love. and. as it grows greater, by and by comes the ru re ness of knowledge, and faith itself is swallowed up in fruition. This is the daily burial of the old man who was “earthy.” and the daily rising of the new. who is ^he “Lord from Heaven." To such a heart Easter comes every day.—Harper’s Bazar. At Two Sepulcher*. “He is not here! behold! He is not here: He broke the narrow u-^.ds of His sealed prison: Lo! He hath conquered death!'* For this the angel saltb. "He Is not here! the Christ Is surely risen!** A soul onoe dead hath found to-day new life! A buried heart hath .broken Sin’s dark prison: And on this Easter day 1 heard the angels say: **He Is net here! He lives! tLls soul ti risen r* -Charles H. Towns, tn M. T. Independent.

TALMAGE’S SERMON. Prayers of the Nation Should Go Up for Its Rulers. Bwmom Why God’* Help Should be Asked for Thooo la Authority— Prosperous GoTOWMBt Means a Prosperous People. Rev. T. DeWitt Talmage delivered the following sermon before his Washington congregation, taking for his text: I exhort, therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, anil riving of thanks, be made for all men; for kings, mid for all that are in authority.—Timothy ill.. 1. That which London is to England Paris to France, Berlin to Germany, Rome to Italy, Vienna to Austria, St. Petersburg to Russia, Washington is to the United States republic. The people who live here see more of the chief men of the nation than any who live anywhere else between the Atlantic And Pacific oceans. If a senator, or member of the house of representatives, or supreme court justice, or secretary of the cabinet, or representative of foreign nation enters a public assembly in any other city, his coming and going are remarked upon and unusual deference is paid to him. In this capital there are so many political chieftains in our churches, our streets, our halls, that their coming and going make no excitement. The Sw iss seldom look up to the Matterhorn, or Jungfrau, of Mont Blanc, because those people are used to the Alps. So we at this capital Are so accustomed to walk among mountains of official and political eminence that they are not to ns a great novelty. Morning, noon and night we meet the giants. But there is no place on earth where the importance of the Pauline injunction to prayer for those in eminent place ought to be better appreciated. At this time, when our public men have before them the rescue of our national treasury from appalling deficits, and the Cuban question, and the arbi

trauon question, and m many depart* meats men are taking important positions which are to them new and untried, I would like to quote my text with a whole tonnage of emphasis— words written by the scarred missionary to the young theologian Timothy: “I exhort, therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, : and giving of thanks be made for all j men; for kings, and for all that are in authorit}*.” _ If I have the time, and do not forget some of them, before I get through I will give you four or five reasons why the people of the United States ought to make earnest and continuous prayer for those in eminent place. First, because that will put us in proper attitude toward the successful men of the nation. After you have prayed for a man you will do him justice. There is a bad streak in human nature that demands us to assail those that are more successful than ourselves. It shows itself in boyhood when the lads, all running to get their ride on the back of a carriage, and one gets on, those Jailing to get on shout to the driver: “Cut behind!*’ Unsuccessful men seldom like those who in any department are successful. The cry is, “lie is a political accident,” or ‘•He bought his way up,” or “It just happened so.” and there is an impatient waiting for him to come down more rapidly than he went up. The best cure for such eynieism is prayer. After we have risen from our knees we will be wishing the official good instead of evil. We will be hoping for him benediction , rather than malediction. If he makes ^ a mistake we will call it a mistake in- J stead of malfeasance in office. And, ; oh! how much happier we will be; for • wishing one evil is diabolic, but wish- ; ing one good is sain ly, is angelic, is j Uod-like. When the T.vrd drops a man : into depths beyond which there is no j lower depths, He allows him to be pnt; on an investigation committee with the I 1 one hope of finding something wrong. j j In general assemblies of the I’resbyte- ! rian church, in conference of the ileth- • odist,church, in conventions of the j

Episcopal church, in house or representatives, in senate of the United States there are men always glad to be appointed on the committee of inalodors. while there are those who are glad to be put on the committee of eulogiums. After you have prayed, in the words of my text, fer all that are in authority? you will say: “Brethren. Gentlemen. Mr. Chairman, excuse me from serving on the committee of malodors, for last night, just before 1 prayed for those in eminent position. I read that chapter in Corinthians about charity which *hopeth all things' and thinketh no evil.’ The committee of malodors is an important committee, but I here now declare that those are incompetent for its work who have, not in spirit of conventionality, but in spirit of earnest importunity, prayed for those in high position. I can not help it. but 1 do like a St BernuM better t han a bloodhound, and I tP&uld rather be a humming bird among honey-suckles than a crow swooping upon field carcasses.” Another reason why we should pray for those in eminent place is because they have such multiplied perplexities. This city at this time holds hundreds of men who are expectant of preferment, and United States mail bags, as never before, are full of applications. Let me say l have no sympathy with cither the uttered or printed sneer at what are called “offiee-s. ekers.” If I had not already received appointment as minister plenipotentiary from the high court of Heaven—as eveiy minister of the Gospel has—and I had at my back i a family for whom 1 wished to achieve a livelihood, there is no employer whose service I would sooner seek than city, state or United States government. Those governments are the promptest in their payments, paying just as well in hard times as in good times, and during' the summer vacation as during winter work. Besides that, many of us • have been paying taxes to city, and state, and nation for years, and while we are

indebted for the protection of government, the government is indebted tons fin* the honest support we have rendered it. Sol wish success to all earnest and competent men who appeal to citj or state or nation for a place to work. But how many men in high place in city, and stajbe, and nation, are at their wits’ end to know what to do, when for some places there are ten applicants and for others a hundred! Perplexities arise from the fact that citizens sign petitions without reference to the qualifications of the applicant for the places applied for. You sign the application because the applicant is your friend. People sometimes want that for which they have no qualification, as we hear people sing, “I want to be an angel,” when they offer the poorest material possible for angelhood. Boors waiting to be sent to foreign places as ambassadors, and men without any business qualification waiting to be consnls to foreign ports, and illiterates^ capable in one letter of wrecking all the laws of orthography and syntax, desiring to be put -into positions where most of the work is done by correspondence. If Divine help is needed in any place in the world it is m those places where patronage is distributed. In years gone by awful mistakes have been made. Only God, who made the world out of chaos, could, out of the crowded pigeon-holes of public men, develop symmetrical results. For this reason pray Almighty God for all those in authority. Then there are the vaster perplexities of our relations with foreign governments For directions in such, affairs the God of nations should be implored. The demand of the people is sometimes so heated, so unwise, that it must not be heeded. Hark to the boom of that gun which sends from the j American steamer San J acinto a shot j across the bow of the British merchant steamer Trent. November 8, 1861. Two j distinguished southerners, with their j secretaries and families, are on the I

way to bugiand and t ranee to omeially enlist them for the southern confederacy. After much protest the commissioners. who had embarked for England and France, surrendered, and were taken to Fort Warren, near Boston. The capture was a plain invasion of the laws of nations, and antagonistic to a principle for the establishment of which the United States government had fought in other days. However, so great was the excitement that the secretary of the United States navy wrote an applauditory letter to Capt. Wilkes, commander of the San Jacinto, for his “prompt and decisive action,” and the house of representatives passed a resolution of thanks for “brave, adroit and patriotic conduct,” and the millions of the north went wild with enthusiast^. and all the newspapers and churches joined in the huzza. England and France protested, the former demanding that unless the distinguished prisoners should be surrendered and apology made for insult to the British flag within ten days Lord Lyons must return to London, taking all the archives of the British legation. War with England and France seemed inevitable, and war with England and France at that time would have made a restored American nation impossible for a long while, if not forever. Then God came to the rescue and helped the president and secretary of state. Against the almost unanimous sentiment of the people of the north the distinguished confederates were surrendered. the law of nations was kept inviolate, the lion's paw was not lifted to strike the eagle's beak, and perhaps the worst disaster of centuries was avoided. There came another crisis within the' last two years when millions of people demanded that American war vessels sail into Turkish waters and stop the atrocities against the Armenians. The people at large have no idea of the pressure brought upon our government to do this thing. Missionaries and other prominent Americans in and around Constantinople assembled at the office of the American legation and demanded that j our minister plenipotentiary cable to j Washington for United States ships of j war and they suggested the words of : the cablegram, liad oar ships, gone j into those waters the guns of foreign ' nations, everlastingly jealous of us, j would have been turned against our! shipping, and our navy, within a few years become respectable in power, would have crawled backward in disgrace. The proposition to do what could not be done was mercifully withdrawn.

There will not; be a year' between now and the next twenty years when* those who are in authority mil not need the guidance of the God of Nations. God only can tell the right time for nations to dp the right thing. To dQ the right thing at the wrong time is a> bad as to do the wrong thing at any time. Cuba will one day be free, but it will be after she has shown herself capable of free government. To acknowledge Cuban independence now would be to acknowledge* what does not exist The time may come when the Hawaiian islands may be apart of our government, but it will be when they have decidedly expressed the desire for annexation. In all national affairs there is a clock. The hands of that clock are not always seen by human eyes. But God sees them, not only the hour hand, but the minute hand; and when the hands announce that the right hour has come the clock will strike, and we ought to be in listening attitude. “The Lord reigneth; Let the earth rejoice; let the j multitudes of the isles be glad thereof.” You see there are always in places of authority unbalanced men who want war. because they do not realize what war is, or they are designingmen, who want war for the same reason that wreckers like hurricanes and foundering ships, because of what may float | ashore from the ruins. Yon see that men who start wars never themselves get hurt. They make the speeches and others make the self-sacrifices. Notice that all those who instigated our civil war never as a. consequence got so

much as a splinter under the thumbnail and they all died peacefully hi their beds. I had two friends- - as thorough friends as old men can be to a young man—Wendell Phillips and Robert Toombs. They were not tftnong those who expected any* thing advantageous from the strife, bnt took their positions conscientiously. They both had as much to do with the starting of the war between the north and the south as any other two men. A million brave northern and southern dead were put in the grave tranches, but the two illustrious and honest men I have mentioned were in good health long after the ending of things at Appomattox, and if those who advocated measures recently that would have brought war between our country and Spain, or England j or Turkey, had been successful in bring* i ing on the wholesale murder, they themselves would now have been above ground, as I hope they will be, to celebrate the birth of the twentieth century. If God had not interfered we would have had three wars within the . lapt two years—war with England, war with Spain, and war with Turkey, this last joined by other nations trans-at* lantie. To preserve the peaceful equipoise which such men are disturbing we need a Divine balance, for which all good men on both sides the sea ought to be every day praying. What power put its hands upon astronomy in Joshua's time and made the sun and moon stand still? Joshua x., 13: “Then spoke Joshua unto the Lord.” Prayer! As a giant will take two or four great globes, and in astounding way swing them this way or that, or hold two of them at arm’s length, so the Omnipotent does as He will with the great orb of worlds, with wheeling constellations and .circling galaxies, swinging easily star around star, star tossed after star, or sun and moon held ont at arm’s length, and perfectly still, as in answer to Joshua's prayer. To God the largest world is a pebble.

Another reason why we should obey the Paulina injunction of the text and pray for all Jthat in authority is, that so very much of our own prosperity and happiness are involved in their doings. A selfish reason, you say. Yes, but a righteous selfishness like that which leads you to take care of your own health, and preserve your own life. Prosperous government means a prosperous people. Damaged government means a damaged people. We all go up together or wo all go down together. When we pray for our rulers we pray for ourselves, for our homes, for the easier gaining of a livelihood, for better prospects for our children, for the hurling of these hard times so far down the embankment they tan never climb up again. Do not look at anything that pertaina to public interest as having no relation to yourself. We are touched by all the events in our national history, by the signing of the compact in the cabin Jof the Mayflower, by the small ship, Half-Moon, sailing*up Hie Hudson, by the treaty of William Penn, his the hand that made the “liberty bell” sound its first stroke, by Old Ironsides plowing the high seas. And if touched by all the events of past America, certainly by all the events of the present day. Every prayer you make for our rulers, if the prayer be of the right stamp and worth anything, has a rebound of benediction for your own body, mind and soul. The most of them are dead; those who in 1351 moved in that procession that marched from the city hall of Washington down Louisiana avenue to Seventh street, and then through Pennsylvania avenue to the north gate of yonder capitol, to lay the cornerstone of the extension of that capitals The president who that day presided, and solemnly struck the stone three times in dedication, long ago quit earthly scenes, and the lips of the great orator of that hour are dust, and the grand master of that occasion long agb put down tile square and the level and the plumb with which for the last time, he pronounced a corner-stone well laid. Put what most interests me how is that inside that corner-stone, in a glass jar, hermetically sealed, is a document of national import, though in poor penmanship. It is the penmanship of Daniel Webster, which almost ruined the penmanship of this country for many years, because many thought if they had Daniel Webster's poor penmanship. it might indicate they had Webster's genius. The document reads as follows:

“If it shall hereafter be the will of God that this structure shall fall from its base, (hat its foundation be upturned, and this deposit be brought to the eyes of men, be it then known that on this day the nation of the United States of America stands firm; that their constitution still exists unimpaired and with ^}1 its original usefulness and glory, growing every day stronger and stronger in the affection of the great body of the American people, and attracting more and more the admiration of the world; and all here assembled, whether belonging to public life or to "^private life with hearts devoutly thankful to Almighty God for the preservation of the liberty and the happiness of the country, unite in sincere and fervent prayers that this deposit* and the walls and arches, the domes anefytowers, the columns and entablatures now to be erected over it inay endure forever. God save the United States of America. Daniel Webster. Secretary of State of the United States.” The prayer that the great expounder wrote to be put in the corner-stone at the extension of the capitol I ejaculate as our own supplication: ‘"God save the United States of America!” only adding the words with which Robert South was apt to close his sermons* whether delivered before the court at Christ church chapel or in Westminster Abbey, at anniversary of restoration of Charles IL, or on the death of Oliver Cornwell amid the worst temptest that ever swept over England: ‘•To God be rendered and abscribed, as is most dne, all praise, might, majesty and dominion, both now and forever. Amen.”