Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1876-05-27
@elisiolrs Department.
CHEERFUL SUNDAYS.
BY FANNIE FERN.


summer, and selecting some lovely grove,
there talk not preach, to the people
Where could be the harm of letting the
Jews and the doctrines alone till cold
weather and giving, now and then, a
natural burst, born of the woods and
hills, and streams? Every summer how
long, as l travel about, and these love-
ly, calm, sweet Sabbaths dawn upon US,
to have an out-of-door church Nor |
would it distress my sanctity to see the
little children rambling round us-now
listening to catch a word, now straying
off to pluck flower, now spell-bound
by the sweet hymn, as the leaves whis-
per to each other "Glory to God in the
highest; peace on earth, and goodwill
to men," No admonishing hand should
be laid by me on their little shoulders
with the petrifying announcement so
impossible for young childhood to under
stand You must not run-itis Sunday
you must not play-it is Sunday; you
must not Taught is Sunday.
How can little child of four or five
years, keep from laughing, because it is
Sunday? How can he keep his little,
busy, restless hands folded while birds
are singing and leaves are dancing, and
the brooks are sparkling in the sunlight,
and earth is as fair as his own sweet
happy face?
o, don't make him hate Sunday by
this mistaken method of teaching him
to keep it holy. Don't begin so early to
make him little hypOcrite. You will
soon find in his pocket strings and balls
and pins and dead bugs, and every other
surreptitious continuance to relieve the
! horrid tedium Of such a Sunday. Do
you never, my good sir or madam, get
up later and go to bed earlier on that
. day than any other (? Do you never sleep
. away its monday hours, because your
mind gets weary with prolonged reading?
y Do you never, under the disguise of a
Is ride, on a beautiful Sunday, think it
! best to 90 to more distant church than
4 your chosen one, to hear preaching? Dc
8 you, who exact of your restless chlld
4 such motionless prOpriety in these hours
- never stray off, yourself, to discuss warn
~ political questions, or vexed business
"A matters, with your next neighbor? Loci
% closely into these points, before settling
your children's programme for the Sab
"A bath hours. Should not the Sabbath b
= "a delight" and is this the way to max
- it so? Will there not come to childre
is so managed, terrible rebound of licens
10 and lawlessness when they are out Q
90 leading strings? think so; and it
!. because | think so, because l have S
often seen it, that beg these well-mear
ing but mistaken parents to consider
little if what | say may not be tru
Anything seems to me preferable to tn
IL compulsory Sabbathism of young chill
EAR hood. Anything better than hearing
he little child, so brought up, say, sorrow
to fully, %, dear, it is Sunday again y
me put down that SCOTS Commentary "
tly are already half asleep over, and ia
to that disguised, weary little child by t
re- hand, and walk out into the fields wi
n a it, and show it Gods wonderful wor
Ugh manship in the varieties of trees, leay
In and flowers. Do you call that wicked
irst | tell you it is much more wicked
on make sanctimOnious hypocrite of
the little creature, whose heart is so bur
and ing with love and glee that you mil
reat as well try to stop the birds from sill
felt ing until Monday, as to repress It's utt
was ance, because III is Sunday
lids, Sunday? why, on Sunday, throw o.
rsed all the blinds, instead of closing the
the as if joy lay cofined and shrouded wi
ZONE in as truly 1t often does with these n
at taken people. Sunday? why. on ev
more table and mantle, lay bright, OdOr
tered flowers. Sunday? always have Sol
not thing nice for the little palate, to m
ome' the day; prepared on Saturday, if
rates choose. but have it. Sunday9 W
life give your children twenty kisses on
Of day over and above every other da,
man the week. Look more smiling Oh
fail. day. Speak more cheerfully. De
how yourself to happyfying your house
e old your children instead of grOaning
, and 'Doddridge's Rise and Progress
res of calling yourself miserable sinner
b the you are Try to mend matters, if
ose OF are sincere, by active Piety,' sue
coun- this. Let your children look back
trou- a serene old age, upon-happy Sundi
home instead of feeling. even at that late
o re- when its light dawns upon them, an
COM pulse to escape its rigidity and ted
in so. 1t is because l love the day. AM
un- sweet, calm hours, that l ask this.
Is are is because l want these children to
a new this home anchor, to keep them
ick to straying into the paths of lawles:
ID you and license in after years. 1t is bee
sstead. God is love, that ] dread your teac
vonv you children to run away from Hin
th the ''e'U VI iH'0 Ills 0Pen ARMS
tn the