Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1876-04-19
Death OF a Child.

The following is a part OF the beautiful
address made by Rev A. +. Beard, u. d., of
| Syracuse, N. Y, az the funeral of the only
son Of Rev. w. A. Robinson, Of Homer. II.
Y, March 18th Text, II. Kings iv; 1921,
%, 2G
al have just read to you the history OF a
sorrow which came to happy home three
thousand years ago 1t was home in the
land which the Lord had chosen as the place
in which Heshould especially reveal His grace
TO The world three days Journey north
ward from Jerusalem, between the pleasant
hills Of Samaria, would bring one to a quiet
home Of country life, which was not too OBJ
scure for God to see, and TO fill ith His love
and peace The life there was not one of
marked character. II was quiet life which
held, perhaps, more Of thoughtfulness and Of
life's true sweetness, by as much as there was
less of cares aud anxieties There was in
that home a treasured strength Of character
born Of true faith in God
&C. Into this quiet home there came little
sojoumer Of earth. And to the mother there
came the consciousness Of a new tenderness
and sacredness in her relations toward God.
4 new sense OF nearness TO God was hers,
when she who was Gods creature became a
mother Of Gods creature. She has a right
to look upon her little babe with reverence
and solemnity. There is new fountain OF
love in that home The mother does not
forget God in her remembrances aud when
she bends over her babe and consecrates the
child 10 Him who has said, Z" will be God
to you and to your children" this is part
Of her remembrance. Then by all her
watchings, and her care in weakness and in
sickness, her heart grows stronger with love.
II.v ga. - lg.ts.I ~, ba 81 tlu
little one for whom She has cast out the sci
fshness of nature And if she thinks some
times what if this little one should die. the
thought is pain unspeakable How keen
would be that sorrow.
at is one Of the compensations Of this
quiet home life, especially Of one who tills
the soil that the mother is not the sole IN
hertor Of the blessings Of holy home com
munion. In some ayocations, by kind Of
necessity and by demands thought to be i'm
peratiye, the father is almost a stranger to
the early looks and early development Of the
child Il is no small blessing when life is
so that the father can learn TO be ike God
in respect to personal care and goodness
toward his children.
" The child's earliest piety is mother-loye.
lie sees everything in her light, and the logic
OF the heart is enough. The religion of the
home becomes everything 10 the child. | do
not know that this family at Shunem three
thousand years ago was an ideal one, where
the father was Gods representative 10 min
lister at Gods holy home altar. only know
that the child had pious mother who took
possession Of the child's heart in Gods name,
and who iadiated her own love in her life,
and made her quiet home a place where
Gods anointed prophet, the man Of God,
loved to come, and where he found it type
Of the heaven which he preached.
"The child increased in years and strength.
In the harvest days the boy would divide
his time between father and mother, watch
ing the reapers, and reporting his little JOYS
aud sorrows at the house. 1t was a good
thing for the boy to have his pleasure with
his parents Happy children they, whose
parents are their confidential friends But
this little lads innocent pleasure was one
day stopped. Stricken with pain, he went
to his father with his agony. True to ma
ture, the father sends him to the mother.
The father had no thought then of anything
serious, but the mothers quick eye per-
ceiyed Her heart beat with fear. She
could not hold his spirit 10 the earth and
that day he sank and died in her arms.
"Dead So we call it, She placed the
| little one in bed, and there was death in its
| purest image. That face was beautiful in
death no hatred, no hypocrisy, no suspicion,
no care for the morrow, nothing darkened that
| face there were no traces on it Of that which
| older faces wear of the struggles with the
world and with SIM strong in power Death
| came 10 the lad not unloyingly