Dorcas and her benefactresses

  "But now, I will speak of Dorcas, from the Bible, and her ministries to the poor. This woman was a representative of all those women who make garments for the destitute, who knit socks for the barefooted, who prepare bandages for the wounded, and fix boxes of clothing for the missionaries. This woman did not spend her time idly planning how the poor of her town were to be relieved; she took her needles and relieved them.

  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 the lands and people: "Come now, and hear the widow's mite rattle down into the box for the poor." The Princess of Conti sold all her jewels that she might help the famine-stricken. Queen Blanche of France, hearing that there were some persons unjustly incarcerated in the prison’s, went out amid 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 went down amid the poor and washed their sores and administered to them medicine. Mrs. Retson, at Matagorda, appeared on the battlefield while the missiles of death were flying around, and cared for the wounded.

  But why go so far back? Why go so far away? Is there a man or woman who has forgotten 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 battle field, forgetting all their animosities while they bound up the wounded and closed up the eyes of the slain?

  I suppose you have read of the fact that when Josephine 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 on that day there were 10,000 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." T.Dewitt Talmage.