Rensselaer Republican, Volume 20, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 September 1887 — WORK FOR WOMEN. [ARTICLE]

WORK FOR WOMEN.

A Ministering An<el to the Sick. and Duttreaaed. Her Position in the World Higher than Man’s and She Is Braver than He WherA True Courage is Required. Rev. Dr. Talmage preached at “The Hamptons” last Sunday. Text, Solo mon’s Songs, vi., 8.: “There are three score queens.” He said; So Solomon, by one stroke, set forth the imperial character of a true Chrisi tian woman. She is not a slave, not a ' hireling, not a subordinate,but a queen; : and in my. text Solomon sees sixty of i these going to make up the loyal pag- I eant of Jibuti. An artttrmer sermon . I ! I showed you at some length that wo-1 I map’s position was higher in the world-. I than man’s, and that, tilthough she had . often been denied the right of suffrage, she al ways did vote and always would vote by her influence, and that her chief desire ought to be that she should have grace rightly to rule in the dominion which she has already won. I began an enumeration of some of her rights, and this morning I resume the subject.

In the first place, woman has the special and the superlative right— not again going back to w hat I have already said—woman has the special and super- ! lative right of blessing and comforting i the sick. What land, what street, what | house, has not felt the smitings of disi ease? Tens of thousands of sick beds!, ' What shall we do with them? Shall I man, with his rough hand and clumsy foot, go stumbling around the sick room trying to soothe the distracted nerves and alleviate the pains'of the tossing patient? The young man at college may scoff at the idea of being under maternal influences; but at the first blast of the typhoid fever on bis cheek, he says: “Where is mother?” It is an awful thing to be ill away, from home, in a strange hotel; once in a w hile men coming in to-look at you, holding their band over their mouth for fear they will catch the contagion. How roughly they turn you in bed! How loudly they talk! How you long for the ministries of home! When we are sick we whnt to be sick at home. When the time comes for us to die, we want to die at home. The robin may be very humble, and the faces j that look into burs may be very plain; hut who cares for that? Loving hands to bathe the temples, Loving voices to speak good cheer. Loving lips to read i the comforting promises of Jesus. - In | our last dreadful war men cast the cannon;men fashioned.the musketry; men cried to the hostfe inarch!” men hurled their battalions on the sharp edges of the enemy, crying: “Charge! charge!” but woman scraped the lint; woman administered the cordials; woman watched by the dying conch; worn an wrote the last message t o the home circle; woman wept at the solitary burial, attended by herself and| four men with a spade. We welcomed the : Generals home with brass bands and triumphal arches and wild huzzas, but the story is too good to be written anywhere save in the chronicles of heaven, of Mrs. Brady, who came down among i the sick in the swamps of the Chicahominy; of Annie Ross, in the cooper-., shop hospital; of Margaret wiio came to men who bad been for weeks with their wounds undressed— I some of them frozen to the ground, | and when she turned them over those that had an arm left waved it and filled the air with their “hurrah”—of Mrs. Hodge, who came from Chicago with blankets and with pillows, until the men shouted: “Three cheers for the Christian Commission! God bless the women at home!” then sitting down to take the last message: “Tell my wife I

not to fret about me, but to meet me in heaven; tell her to train up the boys whom we have loved so well; tell her we shall meet again in the good land; tell her to bear my loss like the Chris tian wife of a Christian soldier;’’ and ot Mrs. Shelton, into whose face the convalescent soldier looked and “Your grapes ami cologne cured me.” Men did their work with shot, and shell, and carbine, and howitzer; women did their work with socks, and slippers, and bandages, and warm drinks, and Scripture texts, and gentle strokings of the hot temples, and stories of that land where they never have any pain. Men knelt down over the wounded and said: •‘On which side fight?” Women knelt down over the wounded and said: “Where are you hurt? What nice thing can I make for you to eat? What makes you cry?’’ To-night, while we men aresound asleep in our beds, there will be a light in yonder loft; theie will be groaning down in that dark alley: there will be cries of distress in that Cellar. Men will sleep and women will watch. Again, woman has a superlative right to take care of the poor. There are hundreds and thousands of them all over the land. There is a kind of work that man can not do for the poor. Here comes a group of little bare foot children to the door of the Dorcas Society. They need to be clothed and provided for. Which of these Directors of banks would know how many yards it would take to make that little girl a dress? Which of these masculine bands could fit a hat to that little girl’s head. Which of the wise men would know how to tie on that new pair of shoes? Man sometimes gives his charity in a rough way, and it falls like the fruit of a tree in the East, which fruit comes down so heavily that it breaks the skull of I the man who is trying to gather it. j But woman glides so softly into the! house of destitution, and finds out all' the sorrows of the place, and pit’s so j quietly the donation on thi\table, that all the family .come out on the front Steps asshe departs,, expecting that from under her shawl she will thrust two wings and go Tight up toward heaven, from whence she seems to have come down. 0, Christian young woman, if you would make yourself happy and win the blessin g of'Christ, go curt among the destitute. " A ’oaf of bread or a bundle of socks may make' a homely load to carry, but the angels of God wiff come out to watch, and the Lord Almighty will give His messenger hosts a charge, saying: "Look alter that woman. Canopy her with your wingg and shelter her from all harm;” and while you are seated in the house of destitution and suffering, the little ones around the room will whisner: “Who is she? Ain’t she beautiful?” And if you will listen right sharplv, you will hear dripping down through'the leaky roof, and rolling over the rotten

: stair the angel chant that shook Bfekhle- j hem: “Glory to God in th- -highest, and on earth peace, good will to men.” j Can you tell me why a Christian woman, ■ goingdown among the haunts of iniquity : on a Christian errand, never meets with ' any indignity? I stood in the chapel of Helen Chalmers, the daughter of the , celebrated Dr. Chalmers, in the most abandoned part of the city of Edinburgh, and I said to her as I looked around upon the fearful suroundings of that ' place; “Do yon come here nightsto hold ; service?” “0, yes,” she said. “Can it I be possible that you neve? meet with ; an insult while performing this Chris- > tian errand?” “Never,” she said, “nev-| j er.” That young woman who has her j father by her side walking down the' street, an armed police" at eachcorner, I 1 is not*so well defgjided as that Christian j i woman who goes forth on Gospel work I I into the haunts of Iniquity, carrying I i the Bibles and bread. God with the j ’ red right arm of His wrath omnipitent,; j would tear to pieces any one who,' should oiler indignity. 'He would 1 } smite him with lightning, him with floods, and swallow hini'with j earthquakes, and damn him’ with eter- [ nal indignations.- ' It seems as if the Lord had ordained : woman f or an especial work in the. soli citation of charities. Backed tip bv bar-1 rels in which there is no lour, and by i stoves in which there are no fire t and by } wardrobes in whicn there are no clothes, a woman is irresistible; passing on her errand, God says to her; “You go into that bank, or store, or shop, and get the money.” She goes in and gets it. The man is hard-fisted, but she gets It. She could not help but get it. It is decreed from eternity she should get.it. No need of yOiir turning your back and pretending you don’t hear; you do hear. There is no need of your saying you are begged to death. There is no need of your wasting your time, and you might as. well submit first as last. You had better right away take down your check-book, mark the number of the check, fill up the blank, sign your name and hand it to her. ’ ~ '•

Again: I have to tell you that it is a : woman’s'specific right to comfort under the stress of dire di-aster. She is called the weaker v<-sse]; b it all profane as well as sacred history attest that when the crisis comes she is better prepared j than man to meet the emergency. How j often you have seen a woman who s emI ed to be a disciple of frivolity and indo-, j leiiee, who,under one stroke of calamity, ; changed to a heroine. Oh, what a great | mistake those business m,en make who never tell their business 1 doubles to their wivesl There comes some great loss.to their store, or some of their companions lin business plav them a sad trick, and I they carry the burden all alone. He is j asked in the household again: What is tiiwaaattei’ Jmitdie believes it sori A>f Christian duty to keep all that trouble within ins own son). Oh, sir! your first duty was, to tell your wife all about it. She. perhaps, might not..have disentangled your finances, or : extended your credit, but she would have helped you t.> bear misfortune. You have no right to carry on one shoulder that which is [intended for two. There are sometimes I women who sit reading sentimental novels, and who wish that they had some grand field in which to display their ChristiaiijipoweTS, Oh, what grand and glorious things they could do if they jonly bad an opportunity! My sister,you need not wait for any such time. A crisis will come in your affair. There will be a Thermopylae in your own household, where God will ttdl .you to stand... There ! are scores and hundreds of households I to-day where as much bravery and courage are demanded of women as was exhibited by Grace Darling, or Marie Antoinette, or Joan of Arc. Again: I remark, it is woman’s right to bring to us the kingdom of heaven. It is easier for a woman to be a Christian than for man. Why? You say she is weaker. No. Her heart is more responsive to the pleadings of Divine love. She is in vast majority. The fact that she. can.more easily become a Christian, I prove by the statement that threefourLhs..cd the members of the churches in ail Christendurji are women.SO'God appoints them-to be the chief agencies I for bringing this world back to God. I may stand here and say the is immortal.; There, is a man who wi ! l refute it. Ij may stand here and say we are lost and undone without Christ. There is a man ; who.will refute it. I may stand here and j say there will be a judgment day after | while. Yonder is some one who will refute it. But a Chistian woman in a Christian household, living in the faith and the consistency of Christ’s Gospel—nobody can refute that.. The greatest sermons are not preached j on celebrated platforms;, they are I preached with an audience; of two or three, and in private home lite. A consistent, consecrated'Christian service is an unanswerable demonstration oil God’s truth. A sailor came slipping down the ratline one night, as though something had happened, and the sailors cried: “What’s the matte’? ’ He said: “My mother’s prayers haunt me like a ghost.” Home influences conse secrated. Christian home influences are the mightiest of all influences upon the soul. There are men here to*day who have maintained their integrity, just because there were home influences praying for them all the time. They got a good Mart. They were launched on the world with the benedictions of a Christian mother. They may track Siberian snows, they may plunge in African jungles, they may fly to the earth’s end—they cannot’go so far and so fast but tie pravers will keep up with them. ' ’ r r I stand before women to-day who have the. eternal salvation of their husbands in th,eir right hand. On the marriage day you took an oath before m*ui and angels that you would be faithful and kind until death did you part, and I believe you are going to keep that oath; but after that parting at the doOr oft be. grave, .will i t beane tern al separation? Is there any such things as* an immortal marriage, making the!flowers that grow on the-top of the sepulcher brighter than the garlands which at the marriage ba'nqhet flooded the air with -aroma?—Yes: . I.stand here as a priest of most high God to proclaim .the bans of an immortal union for all . those who jrunm an ds in the of Christ. O, is yotrr husband} your father, your son away from God?’ The Lord , demands their redemption at your hands. Thereare prayers for you to give, t here at e ex am pies for y outo se t. A man was dying and he said to his wifg: “Rebecca, you wouldn't let nib; have family prayers, and you laughed about all that, and you got me away into worldliness, and now lam going to die and my fateis sealed, and you are the cause of my ruin!” 0 woman, what

I knowest thou hut thou canst destroy 'thy husband? Are there not some here [ who have kindly influences at home? I Are there not some here who have wandered far away from God wim can remember the Christian influences in their early home? Do not despise those i influences, my brother. If you die ' without Cnrist what will you [do with your mother's prayers, ■iwith your wife’s importunities, with your sister’s entreaties? What will '■ you do with the letters they used Ito write to you, with the memory ; of those days when they attended you so I kindly in times Of sickness? Oh, if there be just One strand holding you from 1 floating off on that dark I wotrid just Hike this morning to take fiold of that '.strand arid pull you to the beach! For wife’s-Tjiffa, for the I sake of yOffr mother’s God, for the-sake j of your daughter’s. God, for the sake of ! your sister’s God,‘dome thia day and be , sffved... Lastly: I wish to say that one of the I sm cific rights of woman is, through the grace of Christ, finally to reach heaven. I Oh, what a multitude of women in I heaven! Mary. Christ’s mother, in J heaven; Elizabeth Fry in heaven; Chari lotte Elizabeth in heaven; the mother of I Augustine in heaven; the Countess or . Hunting ion, who sold her splendid ' jewels to build chapels, in heaven; while a great many others who have never been heard of on earth, or known but little, have gone into the rest and peace of heaven. What a rest! What a change it was from the small room, with no fire and one window, the glass broken out, and the aching side and worn-out eyes, to the “house, of many mansions!’ No more sitting up until midnight for the coming of staggering steps. No more rough blows across the temples. No more sharp, keen, bitter curses, dome of you will have no rest in this world. It. will be toil, and struggle, and suffering all the way up. You will have to stand at the door fighting back the wolf with your own hand; red with carnage. But God has a crown for you. I wanTto realize thismorningthat He is now making it and whenever you weep a tear He sets another gem in that crown; whenever you have a-pang of body or soul, He puts another gem in that crown, until, after a while, in all the tiara there will be ho room for another splendor, and God will say to His angel: “The crown is "done; let lii-r up and she may wear it.” And as the Lord of Righteousness puts the crown ppon your browv angel will cry to angel: “Who is she?” and Christ will say: “I will tell you who she is. She is the one that came up out of great tribulation, and had her robe washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb.”