The Hillsborough recorder. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1820-1879, 1844-09-12
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Tie following e1trars d ! repensly pab-
lishad semen, - Rer. ssaals IN SAINT
Foord. wilI b responded 10 b she sibrai-
iag heart-ssEings Il many beIeared r.
rent:
There re but frp famfiies uf mankind
who hare not been called 10 rOmmii ID
The rold and silent dust, some of lheir H.
fant members, Millio:s of onr rzce ale
II infancy. They Just open der eve
upon The light u this word, tllcii are con-
rulsed, and in agony sink In lie grave.
Aud while you have fastened your ewes
upon their litsle cofrses, ard have hung
over ilieir graves, dis inquiry has ollen
been made: Why did they de. sine they
weFe incapable 81 actual iraasgression. and
consequently, could not knowingly have
violated ans Of The laws Of their Creator!
How. then. could II be consistent with he
justice Of God, and the goodness Of the
most wise and meFcilul, to inllict upon
them the suferings of disease, and lilen
make them the victims Of death! To this
inquiry, neither unassisled Reason nor
bold Infidelily can give any satisfactory
answer. This can only be found III lie
volume Of inspiration, and i announced
By that voice which cries, !. The wages Of
sin i death. BY one man sin entered in
10 die world, and death BY sin; and 20
death passed upon al men, Cor that all
have sinned." II would, however. afford
but little consolation 10 explain 10 mourn
ing parents the cause Of their bereayc-
mems, If We could not II tic same time
answcrthe more Interesting inquiry: What
Is now, and what will be forever, lie con-
diiion Of our departed babes! Here again.
iniidclity i dumb, Or can only give wa
serng hope. The oily light which can
direct Us on this all-imporlant subject,
beams from the word Of God. Close The
divine record, and what consolation i left!
Ex,inglish the torch Of revelation, and
then look upon the Wondering bones Of
your children, and ask" Can these dr.
bones liye!" Reason alone has never
been able TO answer the question, and
show that this sleeping dust shall awake
from the long, slumber Of the grave, al the
voice Of the Archangel and tie trump of
God. Reason can never prove that this
corruptible must put on interruption, and
this mortal must put on Immortality.
That this tender plant, cui down and with
cred, shall hereafter spring up, beautiful
and immortal, in the Paradise Of God,
This is dortrine only taught in the re-
violation of God, by him who holds the
keys Of death and the grave, and cries, !.
am the resurrection and the liie." II is
this precious gospel which assures bereav-
ed parents that their departed babes are
now in the regions Of glory; and this as
surance is obtained by the following ar
guments, drawn from the word of God:
/. From the many tender declarations
of God, with regard TO children, we con-
clude that lie cannot Danish them TO outer
darkness when he withdraws them from
this world. .s.
When God entered into covenant with
Israel, in the land of Moab, their feeble
babes were included in that covenant. He
commanded his servant Moses TO say un-
to them: "Ye stand this day, all Of you,
before the Lord your God; your captains
of your tribes, your elders, and your Off
GERS, with all the men of Israel; your lit.
tie ones, your wives, and the stranger that
is in Thy camp" When the Jews We're
seduced by the idola:rous nations with
whom they were surrounded. to immediate
their offspring to Moloch, the Lord re-
proves them with the crime OF sacrificing
what was not their own. Thou hast
sacrificed thy sons and daughters to be de-
voured, and hast slain my children, and
delivered them, TO cause them to pass
through the fire." When Jonah, jealous
for his cwn reputation as a prophet, was
angry that the Lord had not destroyed
Nineveh, as he had predicted, God assigns
as principal reason for its preservation,
the great number ofinfants within tswalls.
-" Should not spare Ninevah, that great
city, wherein are more than six score thou
sand persons that cannot discern between
their right hand and their left hand!" Ii,
then, innocent children were the cause of
averting the temporal judgments of the
Almighty, surely he could not Danish them
forever from | Is presence, and make them
the victims OF his eternal vengeance.
Again: when Israel, because OF theirre-
peated rebellions, were doomed to perish
in the wilderness, their children were ex-
empted. "As live, saith the Lord, yoar
earcasses shall fall in the wilderness; and
all that were numbered of you, according
to your whole number, from twenty years
old and upward, WHICH have murmured
against me, shall not come into the land,
concerning which | sIare to make You
dwell therein, save Caleb and Joshua; but
your little ones, which you said should be
prey, them will bring in, and they shall
know the land which We have desplsed."
Who does not understand that Israel rep
resented the Church militant on earth; and
their journeyings through the Wilderness
amid enemies, the world through which
ibn (Hburob ,,,nss ,,oe, avid all tho dam