The Newberry herald. [volume] (Newberry, S.C.) 1865-1884, 1875-12-01
MINISTRY OF LITTLE chill.
DREN.

1OuI 1dSteru CLUES dmOuuGSO u
43,432, and of this number "a, ,767
were children under five years of
age.
The last sentence fixed our at
tention: 24,767 children perished
during the year-we prefer to say,
died. This is in four cities only !!
OF the rest of the 43,432, who can
tell their eternal destiny? Some to
heaven some to hell! But of these
little ones none can doubt. Taking
the aggregate of other cities and
villages, and the country at large,
We comprehend a fact that finds
expression at the Saviour's lips
"Of such is the kingdom Of God,
and in the sacred couplet
Millions of infant souls compose
The family above.
The adults had worked out their
mission, or failed to do it. But
these little ones, had they no mis-
sion? Was their being a failure ?
Lived they and suffered and died,
and is the world all the same as
though they had not been? Nay,
verify. Theirs was a precions min
istry, and such as they could only
fulfill.
What a waste of Life! exclaims
the worldly economist as he figures
up the statistics of population.
They lived in vain, is the thought
of the man ambitious of making
his mark on the age. Mere blanks,
beings in vain, flowers that came to
no fruit, broken of; fallen, faded, is
the thought and feeling of many:
But Christian philosophy presents
a more ennobling and comforting
view.
How cold and selfish would this
world Of ours be without these chill
dren! They preach the evangel OF
beauty and innocence; they break
the incrustations of worldliness ;
they touch cords vibrating solemn
ly, sweetly, reserved only for their
tiny hands; they stir in tn g
heart hidden wells of feeling; they
preserve human sympathies from
utter ossifcation; they deeply sub
soil our hard natures.
Biologists often show US, deep
down in the earth's layers, the clear
and well defined print of a frail leaf,
or the track of a little bird, made
in the dim ages past. These have
left imperishable memorials OF
themselves on the face of a world
from which whole species, and races,
and kingdoms, have passed away
without a record.
The Bible makes many records,
minute and kind, of the death OF
little children. They have their sig
niicance. Take the case OF d.
vid's family. We lose sight OF
the sickness and suffering, and
death of the unweaned child, in the
effects produced upon the royal pa
rent. It is not saying too much that
a large proportion OF those who are
saved will be saved by the ministry
of little children.
Summing up the moral results OF
the year, we must not credit all to
orators, and press, and institutions.
These little preachers have visited
homes, and softened the hearts Of
the indwellers, and drawn them
heavenward, where, other voices
have not been needed.
The strong man, unused to tears,
has bowed over the little coffin and
wept. Under what sermon was he
ever so melted down? What other
preacher ever availed to bow that
pride of strength, and unseal that
fountain of tears?
The gay worldly-minded mother
sits silent and sheds secret tears,
and prays; and, peradventure, as
these two hearts are drawn closer
by a common grief, they think of a
common tie in heaven, and resolve,
through grace, as the babe cannot
come to them, that they will go to
it.
"When our little boy died, has
been the beginning Of pilgrimage Of
many bereaved parents. ''When
the baby died." dates impressions