SUNDAY READING.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 4137, 25 October 1884, Page 5 (Supplement)

SUNDAY READING.

SERMON BY .--THE REV. J. G. PATE.RBON. Acts, 9eh. 36rci\, '" Now. thero was at Joppa a certain disciple named Tabitha, which by interpretation is called Dorcas." One ; of the seaport towns along the shore of the' Mediterranean Sea was called Joppa-. In Joppa there-lived a woman called Dorcas, who by tho aid of her needle has embridered (For continuation see next page.)

her name into the charities of the world. In a seaport town like Joppa there are always plenty of orphans in need of food and clothing, for frequently hardy fishermen, in order to gain that which will supply the wants of their wives and children, have been obliged to go to sea when the skies were lowering and the glass falling and the waves crested with foam, for men must work and women must weepj if there is little to earn and many to keep. Frequently Dorcas sitting in her home would hear the frenzied shriek of the mother when intelligence was brought, to her that her husband hud been drowned far out at sea, and as she walked through the streets her heart would be smitten by the sad and plaintive faces of the poor, and she resolved to try and do something for them. She was a woman whoso sympathy did not develop itself into mere emotional" sentiment, she was a woman whose sympathy went out in the direction of charitable work, she had begun to cast around her to see what she could do for them. There was one thing she could do, she was skilful in the use of her needle, and she resolved to make use of this, in order that she might benefit the poor and the destitute. I think I see her sitting in her home, says a writer, round about her house and in the porch beside her are the poor and the destitute and the afflicted. She listens to their complaints, she resolves to do something for them, she adjusts the manufactured article to the bent form of the helpless one find the cripple that comes along the street. She gives a garment to the "one, a coat to that one, and sandals to the other, and she gives at the same time words of cheer and comfort and Christian consolation. As she rounds the corners of the street those who sec her coining cay Dorcas is coming, the sick look up to her and see in her face comfort and consolation. Eyes blurred and wearied with the midnight of long weeping take comfort from her. Men* whose eyes are half closed with sin fancy they see a hnlo of glory about her head and a trail of glory in her path. That night a tired and ill-paid shipwright comes up to his home, as he draws near his home his children come out to meet him. He hardly knows them, they are well clad, what angel"lias given his children clothes. Dorcas has been there. In another home in Joppa all the family sit down to table to a full meal. What" angel has been distributing comfort ? Dorcas has been there. By and by a pause comes in her administrations, people do not sco her, they miss this active, energetic, Christian woman, they miss her face in the street, and they cannot understand what is the matter. |At last it is discovered she is sick, and no bulletins coming rom a palace telling about the heir of a grand empire are watched for as earnestly as the news from the sick bedside of this poor woman, At last there are weeping and wailing and lamentation in Joppa, for Dorcas is dead. The hand that smoothed and soothed so many a wrinkled brow will do it no more. At last cold and still is the voice that has spoken words of cheer and comfort and consolation to many a bereaved mother and weeping orphan, and will never move do it,. the voice is silent. In every home in Joppa where there is a sick child and no balm, where there is hunger and no bread, where there is sorrow and no prayer, there are streaming eyes and uplifted, hands and broken hearts, for Dorcas is dead. In grave distress the disciples send word to Peter. Peter is not far distant, and they believe- if anyone can help them in this emergency Peter can and will, and they send wovcUo Peter to come with all haste. Peter comes with all haste, and when he reaches the house at Joppa he finds it is all surrounded with women and children. This one says look at that chikl of mine, Dorcas made those clothes, and another says look at that child of mine, Dorcas made those garments. Dorcas did this and Dorcas did that. I do not believe in all Joppa there was anyone more popular than this woman who had died. Peter goes into tho room where she is lying, kneels by the bedside and he prays, and as he prays the heart begins to beat and the nerves begin to quiver, and the cheeks begin to flush and her eves are opened, and she rises up. Dorcas is raised from the dead. This is a very beautiful story I have tried to tell you as simply and as correctly as I can, but what I have been telling you the story for is in order that we may draw the lessons it teaches us. 'Ihe first lesson I wish to learn from the story is that here we have an earnest Christirn worker. I do not know whether Dorcas had to work to earn her daily bread or not. Ido not think she had, but no doubt she made her needle go very fast, a great deal faster than the tongues of some good people I have como in contact with, and that is saying a good deal, and thus her needle has become more famous than any Queen's sceptre. By means of this needle of hers she has embroidered her influence into the world's history, and she has given a name to those societies which have for their aim the clothing of the needy and the feeding of the hungry. Nay more like that other woman of the Gospel, wherever this Word is preached that which this woman hath done will be told as a memorial of her. Now I want every y<mng woman here to take Dorcas as her model. I do not believe you can get v better model than this earnest, sincere, Christian worker. Move than twenty-five centuries ago a wise king wrote for al 1 the after ages the character of a Christian woman, and that king ought to know, for he had a. prot ty good experience of what women were. If you wanf; to know what he thought a virtuous woman should bo, you will find it and you can read it when you gohomeinthoSlstchapterofthcßooksof Proverbs. In the Home country there is a class of women given almost entirely to idleness, and the plans they devise to kill time as they call it—alas! alas! what has time done that it should be killed—and the plans they havo devised to kill time are wonderful. I am very glad to say that there is not so much of that in this polony. No matter how well people are off they try to bring up their children and their daughters to do some kind of work. Young women, I am going to address you, lam going to give you this evening a few homely words of advice. I find it a more delicate and difficult subject to do this than to speak to my own sex, but it is because I wish you well Ido it. By and by, if God spares you, you will get homes of your own, and your own happiness and the happiness find comfort of those associated with you will depend very much on your ability to order the j affairs of your homo in ft thorough systematic fashion. You may not need to do your own work, you may not need to be your own servant, but unless you know how to do work how can you direct others to do it, and unless you wish to bo a mere cypher in your own "homes, dependent on the experience of others, you must bo trained in those home utilities,' It is necessary for you to learn those things. Of course if you have no mother to teach you those things there is some excuse for you not learning them, but it is of so much importance that you should learn them that oven this great disadvantage should be got over. As I havo <=aid your own happiness, your own selfrespect will depend upon the knowledge you have of homo work. Ido not know a better compliment that can bo paid to any young woman than the compliment of being a good housekeeper. Many a good servant has been humiliated and lias received injustice because tho mistress did not know what to set her to do. I would say in the first place that they ought, to do their own sewing, that they keep their own rooms, that they dust every 'part of the house, and that they help others. By these means they would acquire habits of practical industry, they will acquire habits that will bo good for both body and mind, they will acquire habits that will giro them a knowledge of practical labor, and give them more sympathy with those whoso, lots are toil. Young women, let me say to you that you make a terrible mistake if you imagine the work is low and menial, and let mo say to you that there is no young man whoso good opinion is worth having who thinks anything less of you because you can do home work. You have much to do, and if you are resolved to be anything .higher and bet-, tor than a mere ornamental appendage to a comfortablo establishment then you must be up and doing, and if there is a spark of truo "womanliness in you your hearts will respond to tho words I have just addressed to you.

There are ten members of the House of Representatives New Zealand bom, not including the Maoris., viz Messrs Hobbs,W. F. BucHand, J. U. Buckland, Cadman, Fitzlierberfc, Peareon, Hursthouse, Mitcheleon, and Hamlin.