Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1874-10-24
SUNDAY sCHOoLADDREsS.

f-osas " iSfoSSSs eaC iOA1OW-
ing address, delivered By Col. T. Y.
Dixon, at Sunday School Celebration
of the Coilinsville Sunday School,
last month:
/ have requested to address you
to-day on the subject Of Sunday Schools.
1t affords me pleasure indeed to feel
aud know that the interest / have
manifested for theschool is appreciated
by its patrons and pupils. as is indicat-
cd in the request that brings me before
you to-day. Feeble as my efforts may
prove, upon this occasion, TO do justice
TO the subject so important to the
future of these little people and the
best interest Of the country, | know
that no one feels deeper or more alb
sorbing interest in the all important
subject of Sunday Schools than
myself. Like many of you, / too
have little children growing up,
whose course in life, for veal or woe,
must soon be shaped, and il behooves
me now to look to those interests by
fostering and building them up, which
| conceive to be best calculated to
guide, enlighteu and direct the youth
full mind into that channel which will
couduce most TO their well being and
future happiness. The subject then
under consideration should be dear to
the heart Of every church loving man
and woman in this broad land; and if
you will give me your attention for
few moments. 1 will in plain, I'M
vanished manner endeavor to give
expression to few thoughts on the
subject-hoping, praying they may
sink deep into the hearts of my
hearers and bring forth sound and
luscious frits hereafter, a noble appre-
citation of the great and inestimable
blessings Sunday Schools must ever
prove in any community. and hearty
cooperation in any attempt to plant
and foster them in your midst 1t is
to the mothers Principally that / ad-
dress myself. most of whom, thank
God, are praying mothers. In their
hands the minds of their young and
tender offspring are as plastic clay to
receive good or bad Impressions, which
time, like the potter's furnace, renders
indelible; but they require aid in
their high and holy work of love, and
the Sunday School is the one to up
hold their hands. and they will prove
mutually sustaining. Without the
one, half the usefulness of the other
is lost. One day in the week is Sci
aside by our Master for rest, prayer
and reading his Holy Word, but to
the young children, if left to their own
devices, it will prove snare, Satan 5
trip to catch unwary souls. Witness
the many lost, degraded beings who
are annually cast into Jail for INSIDE
meanors, crimes of every grade, from
petty larceny to murder, nine-tenths
of whom will tell you that their parents
knew NO Sabbath day-that their
Sundays from early youth were spent
in idleness, playing marbles, or hunt
ing and fishing, then following at the
heels of bigger boys, drinking in their
Boosting stories of wonderful exploits
i n robbing orchards, stealing melons,
etc, interlarded plentifully with vulgar
words and oaths. till the little fellows
ancy themselves heroes enough to 90
and do likewise and they, step by
step, sink lower and lower in the scale
of morality, till jails, dungeons and
scaffolds receive them, and in their
last extremity to throw the whole re-
sponsibility, where it justly belongs
upon their parents, who knew Their
duty, but did it not. Oh bloodiest
picture in the book of time. God
never intended this to be so. The
Holy Sabbath day is the children
Sabbath as well as their elders, and z
way should be provided for them tc
spend it pleasantly to themselves and
proftably to their souls. Mothers
ook at the dark picture | have draw
remember, Just as the twig is ben
the tree inclines, clasp to your fond
maternal breast those little innocent
prattlers, whose artless tongues you
have taughtto lisp their Makers name
as nightly. with clasped hands and
dewy eyes, they bow in prayer at your
knees, and say if you would have the
sweet seeds of piety which you arc
striving to implant in their tender
breasts, which many among you water
with your tears, choked up, and per,
haps finally uprooted by sin and cor
ruption ere they can bud and blossom
beneath your hand, In community
where there is no outside restraining
influence, no Enclosure in which t
collect the little lambs while tn,
prowling wolves are abroad, this i,
always liable to be the case. Sunda,
Schools are TO the opening souls an,
the young and impressible minds o
children what the mothers milk is {,
the infant The latter nourishes anC
strengthens the body till it is capabi'
OF receiving stronger food, and ever
so to the Sunday School. The littl,
open-mouthed urchins, too young TO b
attracted by sermons or appreciat,
them, drink in lessons of wisdom suit
ed to their tender years, which ar,
never forgotten. The little familia
Bible stories of God. our Savior anC
the Angels, told in pleasant CONVEX
sational way, are readily imbibed and
understood, sink deep into their hearts
infusing in them the germs from whicl
in maturer years spring solid religious
principles. Soon they learn to low,
their school, their teacher and thei
Bible, and are anxious to read all tn,
pretty stories themselves, and thu
early is eugendered taste for Bibl