Rensselaer Republican, Volume 22, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 December 1889 — DR. TALMACE IN JOPPA. [ARTICLE]

DR. TALMACE IN JOPPA.

From the frequency of royal marriages in Europe of late it would ap- • pear that representatives of monarchy are forming a crown trust. ' An unusual wedding ceremony occurred not long ago in Dublin, where a well known artist was married to his second wife by a clergyman who was ids son by hi# first wife. There has been a marked decadence in the use of the French language at Montreal during the last ten years. Formerly it was the prevalent tongue, but now the English predominates.

Nonaco, to which only consuls are accredited, has a big diplomatic corps in the rest of Europe, and its diplomats display a profusion of gold lace and titles purely for the honor of serving the principality gratis. The Indianapolis Journal says that, “the American sovereign votes as he thinks and thinks as he pleases.”! Granted. But he most always pleases: to think what his father pleased to think before him. - ~ < " Sir Francis de Winton says that, in spite of the scores of explorers who have been traversing in Africa in all directions Since Livingston began his travels, the larger part of the many millions of natives have never yet seen a white man. .Pretended rivals of Boston in refinement afid culture have often appeared, but they have never made good their claims. The Hub still holds its own as a literary centre, and it is still the home of some of our most eminent literary men. They are telling of a Maine man who asked two boys to carry half a cord of wood from the sidewalk up a flight of stairs to his office, -and -when they had finished the task handed one of the lads a cent, with instructions to “divide it” between them. A sensible suggestion is made that the movement to restore the monument to the memory of Mary Washington, the mother of the first president, shall include the purchase of the old house in which she lived and died. It is a small house at Fredericksburg. An American orator, at a dinner at the Grand Hotel in London, recently made use of the following metaphor in his speeoh: “Let the Russian bear put his paw upon the fair land of Australia and the British lion, the American eagle and the Australian kangaroo will rise up as one man and drive him ignominiously to his lair.” According to the New York Tribune the paupers of the llockley Almshouse, Philadelphia, can’t complain that their lives are monotonous. While they are sleeping the sleep of the pauper, large and hungry rats nibble their toes, and while they are partaking of their dinners, the resident physician and officials engage in ratshooting contests. “Looking Backward” ha 3 sold to the extent of 175,000 copies. This is immense when it is considered that the ordinary novelist thinks success ha 9 been attained when his production has reached a sale of 5,000 copies. Belamy's book is still selling at the rate of 1,000 a week. It has passed by “Ben Hur” and promises to overtake “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” There is a plant in New Grenada known as the “ink plant,” the juice of which serves without the least prepa-1 aration, as ink. The writing at firsl appears red. but in a few hours assumes' a deep black hue. Several sheets of j manuscript, written with this natural ink, became so iked with sea water oh their journey to Europe, but when dried the writing was found to be still perfectly clear. More remnants of the famous old bridge of the Romans at Mayence * have been discovered recently. In i digging for the foundation of a factory laborers found a massive pillar of square cut stones, which 1,900 years ago helped to support the bridge. j The pillar was without seam or crack. ! After digging down sixteen feet the workingmen gave up trying to find the pillar's base. As A rule, there is very little in the average marriage that involves the sacred ness of a sacrament Men aad women drift together, are interested, and they marry with as small regard for its real importance as if it were an evening calL Society is largely frivolous, shallow, unthinking. These superficial people marry on sight; none of the deeper and more serious feelings are involved In the union. The great Bear riyer canal in Utah, (or the construction of which $2,000,009 has been provided, is expected tc be one of the most evtensive irrigation works in America. To get the river along the side hill along Baar river canyon and out onto the plain neat Plymouth will necessitate moving 222.000 cubit yards of solid rock, 19,000 cubit yards of loose rock, 1,528,080 cubit yards of earth, aod digging 1,20 C last of tuuacL

The Brooklyn Freachw Tafkson- -* * the Charities of the Needle. , . Ha Arrives at the Birthplace of Be wing Societies, in the Courae of His Pilgrimage and Entertains a Company of Christian People. Rev. T. De WlttTalmage reached ancient Joppa in time to preach to an appreciative company of Christians last Sunday. His subject was: “The Birthplace of Sewing Societies.” He took for his text Acts ix, 89: “And all the widows stood by him weeping, and showing the coats and garments which Dorcas made while she was with them.” The preacher said: Christians pf Joppa! Impressed as lam with your mosque, the first I ever saw, and . stirred as I am with the fact that your harj bor once floated the great rafts of Lebanon 1 cedar from which the temples St Jerusalem were builded, Solomon’s oxhh drawing the logs through this very town on the way to Jerusalem, nothing can make me forget that this Joppa was the birthplace of the sewing society that has blessed the poor of all succeeding ages to all lands. The disasters to your town when Judas Maccabaeus set it on fire, and Napoleon had five hundred prisoners massacred in your neighborhood, cannot make me forget that one of the most magnificent charities of the centuries ’ was started in this seaport by Dorcas, a , woman with her needle embroidering her I name lueffacoably into the beneficence of the j world. I see her sitting in yonder bome_ !In the doorway, and around about the building, and in the room where she sits, are the pale faces of the poor. She listens to their plaint, she* pities their woe, she makes garments for them, she adjusts the manufactured articles to suit the bent form of this invalid woman, and to the cripple that comes crawling on his hands and knees. She "gives a coat to this one, she gives sandals to that one. VV ith the gifts she mingles prayers and tears and Christian encouragement. Then she goes out to be greeted on the street corners by those whom she has blessed, and all through the street the cry is heard: “Dorcas is coming!” The sick look up gratefully in her face as she puts her hand on the burning brow, and the lost and the abandoned start up with hope as they hear her gentle voice, as though an angel had addressed them; and as she goes out the lane, eyes half put out with sin think they see a halo of light about her brow, and a trail of glory in her pathway. That night a half paid shipwright climb 3 the hill and reaches home, and sees his lit Lie boy weii _ciad, ami says:. —VV here did these clothes come from(” And they tell him, “Dorcas has been here.” In another place a woman is trimming a lamp; Dorcas bought the oil In another place, a family that had not been at table for many a week are gathered now, for Dorcas has brought bread. I'BA-rn and resurrection of dorcas. ! But there is a sudden pause in that woman’s ministry. They say: “Where is Dorcas? Why, wo haven’t seen her for many a day. Where is Dorcas?” And one of these poor people goes up and knocks at the door and finds the mystery solved. All through the haunts of wretchedness, the news comes, “Dorcas is sick!” No bulletin flashing from the palace gate telling the stages of a king’s disease, is more anxiously awaited for than the nows from this sick benefactress. Alas 1 for Joppa! there is wailing, wailing. That voice which uttered so many cheerful words is hushed; that hand which had so many garments for the poor is cold and still; the star which had poured light into the midnight of wretchedness is dimmed by tne blinding mists that go up from the river of death, lu every Gcd forsaken place in this town; wherever there is a sick child and no balm; there is hunger and no bread; wherever thero is guilt and no commiseration; wherever there is a broken heart and no comfort, there are despairing looks streaming eyes, and frantic gesticulations as they cry: “Dorcas is dead !” They send for the apostle Poter, who happens to be in the suburbs of this place, stopping with a tanner by the name of Simon. Peter urges his Way through the crowd around the door, and stands in the presence of thedead. W hat expostulation and grief all about him! Here stand some of the poor people, who show the garments which this poor woman had made for them. Their grief cannot be appeased. The apostle Peter wants to perform a miracle. He will not do it amidst the -excited crowd, and he kindly , orders that the whole room be cleared. The door is shut against the populace. The apostle stands now with the dead. Oh, it is a-Seri-ous moment, you know, when you are alone with a lifeless body! The apostle gets down on his knees and prays, and then ho comes to the lifeless form of this one all ready for the sepulcher, and in the strength of him who is the resurrection he exclaims: “Tabitha, arise!” There is a stir in the fountains of life; the heart flutters! the nerves thrill; the cheek flushes; the eye opens; she sits up! \\ e see in this subject Dorcas the disciple ; Dorcas the benefactress; Dorcas the lamented; Dorcas the resurrected. If I had pot seen that word disciple in my text, I would have known this woman was a Christian. Such music as that never came from a heart which is not chorded and strung by divine grace. Before I show you the needlework of this woman, I want to show you her regenerated heart, the source of a pure life and all Christian charities. I wish that the wives and mothers and daughters and sisters of all the earth would imitate Dorcas in her discipleship. Before you cross the threshold of the hospital, before you enter upon the temptations and trials of to-morrow, I charge you, in the name of God, and by the turmoil and tumult of the judgment day, oh women! that you attend to the first 1 last and greatest duty of your life—the seeking for God and being at peace with him. When the trumpet shall sound, there will be an uproar, and a wreck of mountain and continent, and no human arm can help you. Arniast the rising of the dead, and amidst the boiling of yonder sea, and amidst the 1 live, leaping thunders of the fiying heavens, calm and placid will be every woman’s heart who hath put her trust in Christ; calm nut withstanding all the tumult, as though the fire in the heavens were only the gildings of an autumnal sunset, as though the peal of the trumpet were only the harmony of an orchestra, as the awful voices of the sky were but a group of friends bursting through a gateway at eventime with Inugh--1 ter, and shouting “Dorcas, tho disciple!” Would God that every Mary and every Martha would this day sit down at the feet of Jesus! Further, we see Dorcas the benefactress. History has told the story of the crown; the epic poet has sung of tho sword;Jfbapastorai poet, with his versos full of tho redolence of clover tops, and a-rustlo with the Bilk of tho corn, has sung the praises of tho plow. I tell you the praises of tho needle. From the fig leaf robe prepared in the garden of Eden to the last stitch taken on the garment for the poor, the needle has wrought wonders of kindness, treneroviiy and benefaction. Unadorned

—— - —■ - ■ . ... the girdle of the high priest; it fashioned the euriams in the ancient tabernacle; it cushioned the chariots of King Solomon: it provided the nt ‘?ii‘“n j’ltrimrtTT and in hi h places and in low places, by the fire of the pioneer’s back log and finder the flash Of the t-hitnrin’iiwr, PTroryiyhen-. tt has clothed nakedness, preached the Gospel, it has overcome hosts of penury and want with the war cry of “Stitch, siitch stitch !” Thoopcratives have found a livelihood by it, and through it the mansions of -the employer have been constructed. Amidst the greatest triumph in all ages and lands, 1 set down the conquests of the needle. I admit its crlm’es ; I admit its cruelties. It has had more martyrs than the fire; it has punctured the eye; it has pierced the side; it has struck weakness into the lungs; it has sent madness into the brain; it has Ailed the potter’s field; it has pitched whole armies of the suffering into crime and wretchedness and woe. But now that lam talking of Dorcas and her ministries to the poor, 1 shall speak only of tho charities of the needle. This woman was a representative of all those women who make garments for the destitute, who knit socks for the barefooted, who prepare bandages fQr the lacerated, who fix up boxes of clothing for missionaries, who go into the asylums of the suffering and destituta-hoaring that Gospel which is sight for the blind, and hearing for the deafusstT which makes the same mam leap like a hart, and brings the dead to life, immortal health bounding in their pulses. V\ hat a contrast between the practical benevolence of this woman ana a great deal of the charity of this day! This woman did not spend her time idly planning how the poor of your city of Joppa were lo be relieved: she took her needle and relieved them. She was not like those persons who symyathise with Imaginary sorrows, and go out in the street and laugh at the boy who has upset his basketof eoldvituais, oriike that charity which makes a rousing speech on tho benevolent platform, and goes out to kick the begger fropi the step, crying: “Hushyour; miserable howling!” The sufferers of the, world want not so much theory as practice; not so much tears as dollars ; Dot so much kind wishes as loaves of bread; not so much smiles as shoes; not so much “God bless yous 1” as jackets and frocks. I will put one earnest Christian man, hard working, against five thousand mere theorists on the subject of charity. There are a great many who have fine ideas about church architecture who never in their life helped to build a ehurch. There are men who can give you the history of Buddism and Mohammedanism, who never sent. a farthing for their evangelization. There are women who talk beautifully about the suffering of the world, who never had the courage like Dorcas to take the needle and assault, it. ——— r — —“ I am glad that there is not a page of the world’s history which is not a record of female benevolence. God says to all lands and people, Come now and hear the widow’s mite rattle down into the poor box. The princess of Conti sold all her jewels that she might help the famine stricken. Queen Blanche, the wife of Louis VfHyof France, hearing that there were some persons unjustly incarcerated in the prisons, went out amidst the rabble and took a stick and struck the door as a signal that they might all strike it, and down went the prison door and out came the prisoners. Queen Maud, the wife of Henry I, went down amidst the poor and washed their sores and administered to them cordials. Mrs. Ret.son, at Matagorda, appeared on the battlefield while the missiles of death were flying around, and cared for the wounded. Is there a man or woman who has ever heard of tho civil war in America who has not heard of the women of the Sanitary and-Christian commissions, or the fact that, before the smoke had gone up from Gettysburg and South Mountain, the women of the north met the women of the south on the battlefield, forgetting ail their animosities while they bound up the wounded, and closed thq eyes of the slain? Dorcas the benefactress. I come now to speak of Dorcas the lamented. When death struck down that good woman, oh, how muclrsorrow there was in this town of Joppa! I suppose there were women here with larger fortunes; women, perhaps, with handsomer faces; but there was no grief at their departure like this at the death of Dorcas. There was not more turmoil and upturning in the Mediterranean sea, dashing aeainst the wharves of this seaport, than there were surgings to and fro of grief because Dorcas was dead. There arc a-great many who go out of life and are unmissed. There may be a very largo funeral; there may bo a great many carriages and a plumed hearse; there may be high sounding eulogiums; the bell may toll at the cemetery gate; thero may be a very fine marble shaft reared over the resting place; but tho whole thing may be a falsehood and a sham. The church of God has lost nothing, the world has lost nothing. It is only a nuisance abated; it is only a grumbler ceasing to find fault; it is only an idler stopped yawning; it is only a dissip ued fashionable parted from his wine cellar; wuile, on the other hand, ho useful Christian leaves this world w.thout being missed. The church of God cries out liko tho prophet: “Howl, fir tree, for the cedar has fallen.” Widowhood comes and shows the garments which tho departed had made. Orphans are lifted up to look into the calm face of the sleeping benefactress. Re laimed vagrancy comes and kisses the cold brow of her who charmed it away from sin, and all through the streets of Joppa there is mourn-ing-mourning because Dorcas is dead; When Josephine of France was carried out to her grave, there were a great many men and women of pomp and pride and position that went out after her; but I am most affected by the story of history that ou that day there w re ten thousand of the poor of France who followed her coffin, weeping and wailing until the air rang again, because, when they lost Josephine, they lost their last earthly friend. Oh, who would not rather have su.h obsequies than all tho tears that were ever poured in the lachrymals that have been exhumed from ancient cities. There may be no mass for the dead ; there may be no costly sarcophagus; thero may bo no elaborate mausoleum; but in the damp cellars of the city, and through the lonely huts of the mountain g'en, there will be mourning, mourning, mourning, because Dorcas is dead. “Blessed aro the dead who die in the Lord; tfifiy rest from their labors, and their works do follow them.” I speak to you of Dorcas the resurrected. The apostle came to where she was and said: “Arise; and she sat up!” In what a short compass the great writer pm that—- “ She sat up!” Oh, what a time there must have been around this town, when the apostle brought her out among her old friends! How the tears of joy must have started! What clapping or hands there must have been! What singing! Uhit laughter! Sound it all through tuatUne! Shout It down that dark alley! Let all Jopp.i hear it! Dorcas is resurret ted? You and 1 have seen the same thing many a time ; not a dead body resuscitated, but the deceased earning up ugain after death in the good accomplished. If a man labors up to fifty years of age, serving God, and then dies, we are apt to think that his earthly work is done. No. His influence on earth will continue till the world ceases. Services rendered for Christ never s,op-

*f : >~ : l.J' ■ _ A Christian woman toils for-the upbuilding of. a church through many anxieties, through many self denials, with prayers and tears, and then she dies Ts ls fifteen years since she went away. Now the spirit of God descends upon that church; hundreds of Souls stand up and confess the faith of Christ. Has that Christian woman, who went awa.v fifteen yoaiSs ago, nothing to do with these things? I see the Anwar* ing out of her noble heart. I hear the echo of her footsteps in &H the songs overkfcg: forgiven, in all the prosperity of tho church. The good that seemed to be buried has come up again. Dorcas is resurrectedAlter a while all these womanly friends of Christ will put down their needle forever. After making garments for others, some one will make a garment for thein'; the last robe we ever wear—the robe for the grave. You will have heard the last cry of pain. You will have witnessed the last orphanage. You will have come in worn out from your last round of mercy. Ido not know where you will sieop, nor what your epitaph will be; but there will bo a lamp burning at the tomb and an angel of God guarding it, and through all the long night no rude foot will disturb the dust. Sleep on, sleep ou! Soft bed, pleasant shadows, undisturbed repose! Sleep on! Asleep in Jesus' Blessed sleep! From which none ever wake to weep. Then one day there will be a sky rending, and a whirl of wheels, and the flash of a pageant; armies marching, chains clanking, banners waving, thunders booming, and that Christian woman will arise from the dust, and she will be suddenly surrounded —surrounded by the wanderers of the street whom she reclaimed, surrounded toy The wounded souls to whom she had adtn mistered! Daughter of God, so strafigely surrounded, what means this? It means that reward has come, that the victory is won, that the crown is ready, that the banquet is spread. Shout it .through ail the crumbling earth. Sing it through all the flying heavens, Dorcas is resurrected! In 1835, when some of the soldiers came back from the Crimean war to London, the Queen of England distributed among them beautiful medals, called Crimean medals. Galleries were erected for the two houses of paraliament and the royal family to sit in. There was a great audience to witness the distribution of the medals. A colonel who had lost both feet in the battle of Inkerman was pulled in on a wheel chair; others came in limping on their crutches. Then the queen .of England arose before them in tho name of her government, and uttered words of commendation to the officers and men, and distributed these inodals, inscribed with the four great battlefields, Alma, Balaklava, Inkerman and Sebastopol. As the que. n g;ive these to the wounded men and the wounded officers, the bands tof music struck up the national air, and the people with streaming eyes joined in the song: God save our gracious gueen! Long live our noble queen! God save the queen! And then they shouted “Huzza! huzza!” Oh, it was a proud day for those returned warriors! But a brighter, better aud gladder day will come when Christ shall gather those who have toiled -in his service, good soldiers of Jesus Christ. He shall riso bo- I fore them, and in the presence of all the glorified of heaven he will say: “vV’ell done, good and faithful servant!” and then he will distribute the medals of eternal victory, not inscribed with works of righteousness which we h ivo done, but with those four great battlefields, dear to earth and dear to heaven, Bethlehem! Nazereth! Gethsgmaao! Calvary! .