The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1880-12-30
THE sUNSTRUCK CHILD.
A Sermon by DR.. Talnage in the Brook
lyn Tabernacle, December 10Th.
Lights That Can Be Kin
died.

; died.
ii Kings, iv, 1920: "And when the child was
grown, it fell on a day that he went out tc
his father to the reapers, and he said unto
his father My head My head 7 And be
said to lad, carry him to his mother.
And when he had taken him end brought
him to his mother, he sat on her knee till
noon, and then died
: There is at least one happy home in
Shunnem. To the luxuriance and splendor
of great house, has been given the advent
of child. Even when the Angel of Life
brings a new soul to the poor mans hut a
star of joy shines over the manger. Infan-
cy, with its helplessness and innocence, had
passed away. Days of boyhood had come,
days of laughter and frolic, days of sun
shine and promise, days of strange ques-
tions, and curiosity and quick development.
l suppose among all the treasures of that
house, the brightest was the boy. One day
| there is the shout of reapers heard afed.
A boys heart always bounds at the sound
of sickle or scythe. No sooner have the
| harvesters cut a swath across than the lad
joins them, and the swarthy reapers feel
young again as they look down at the lad.
BRIGHT AND BEAUTIFUL AS WAS RUTH
in the harvest fields Of Bethlehem cleaning
after the reapers But the sun was too hot
| iOA HILL SOuSSSIIOH Vi lIG UIdlH S6ILeQ on
him. | see the swarthy laborers drop their
sickles and they rush out to see what is
| the matter and they find him, and they try
to cool his brow, but all is i'll vain. In the
instant of consciousness he puts his hands
against his temples and cries out, "My
head my head p and his father said,
| Garry him to his mother" just any
father would have said, for our hand is too
| rough and our voice too harsh and our foot
/ ia too LARGO n doctor a SiPx child If fbara bn
in our house gentler voice and gentler
hand and gentler foOtstep. But all of no
avail. While the reapers of Shunem were
busy in the field there came a stranger
reaper that way, with keener scythe and for
richer harvest. He reaped only one
sheaf; but oh! what a golden sheaf was
| that. L don't want to know any more
about that heart-breaking scene than what
| see in just this one pathetic sentence:
! "He sat on her knees till noon and then
died" Though hundreds of years have
passed since that boy skipped to the harvest
| fields and then was brought home and died
on his mothers lap the story still thrills
US. Indeed,
CHILDHOOD HAS A CHARM
always and everywhere. / shall this ever
| ing speak to you of childhood, its beauty, its
susceptibility to impression, its power over
! the parental heart and its blissful transition
from earth to heaven.
The chid's beauty does not depend upon
| FORM or feature, or complexion, or apparel
| That destitute one that you saw on the
street, bruised with undkindness and in rags,
has a charm about her. even under her des-
! titution. You have forgotten a great many
persons whom you met of finely cut features
| and with erect posture, and with faultless
complexion, while you will always remem
| Der the poor girl who, on cold, moonlight
/ l. IL L
| her thin shawl and bare foot foot the
pavement, put out her hand and said:
| 'Please give me penny :" All how often
we have walked on and said, ooh, that is
| nothing but street vagabondism," but after
| we got a block or two on we stopped and
said, "Ah, that is not right" and we passed
up the same way and dropped a mite into
the suffering hand, as though it were not a
matter of second thought so ashamed were
we ofour hard-heartedness. With what adj
miration we all look upon group of chill
| dren on the play ground or in the school,
and we clap our hands almost unintention-
ally and say: CHOW beautifulP' All stiff
ness and dignity are gone, and your shout is
heard with theirs, and you trundle their
hoop and fly their kite and strike their ball,
| and all your WEAKNESS and anxiety are gone,
as when a child you bounded over the play
ground yourself That father who stands
rigid and unsympathetic amid the sportful
ness of children never ought to have heen
tempted out of crusted and unredeemable
solitariness. The waters leap down the
rocks, but they have not the graceful step
of childhood. The morning comes out of the
gates of the East, throwing its silver on the
lakes and its gold on the towers and its fires
on the cloud, but it is not so bright and
| beautiful as
THE MORNING OF LIFE.
| There is no light like that which is kim
| kled in the chifd's eye; no color like that
which blooms on a child's cheek; no music
| like that of child's voice. Its face, in the
poorest picture, redeems any imperfections
! in art. When we are weary with toll, their
| little hands pull the burden off our back.
| Oh, what mean, dull, stale world it would
be without the sportfulness of children.
| When find people that do not like children,
Immediately doubt their moral and Chris
tian character. But when the grace of God
comes upon a child, how unspeakably attrac-
tive. When Samuel begins to pray, and
when Timothy begins to read the Scriptures,
and Joseph shows himself invulnerable to
temptation, how beautiful the scene. know
| that parents sometimes get nervous when
| their children become pious, because they
have the idea that good children always die.
The strange questions about
GOD AND ETERNITY AND THE DEAD
excite apprehension in the parental mind
| rather than congratulation. Indeed, there
are some children that seem marked for
heaven. This world is too poor garden
for them to bloom in. The hues of heaven
are in the petals. There is something about
| their forehead that makes you think that
the hand of Christ has been on it, saying
] sLet this one come to me, and let it come
| to me SOON" While that one tarrled IN the
house, you felt that there was an angel in
| the room, and you thought that every sick
ness would be the last, when, finally, the
| winds of death did scatter the leaves, you
were no more surprised than to see star
come out above the cloud on a dark night,
/ for YOU had often said to your companion,
ssMy dear. we shall never raise that child"
/ But scout the idea that good children
always die. Samuel, the pious boy, became
| Samuel, great prophet. Christian limo
| thy became minister of Ephesus. Young
| Daniel, consecrated to God, became Prime
| Minister to all the realm. and there are in
hundreds of the schools and families of this
/ country to-day, children who love God anu
keep his commandments, and who are to be
| foremost among the Christians and philan-
thropists and reformers of the next half
/ century. The grace of God never kills any
one. A child will be more apt to grow up
| with religion than it win be apt to grow up
| without It Length Of days Is promised 70
the righteous The religion 81 CHRIST does
not cramp the chest or curve the spine or
weaken the nerves. The religion of Christ
throws over the life Of child q supernaI
beauty. aHer ways are ways OF pleasant
ness. and all her paths are peace.
/ THR SUSCEPTIBILITY OF CHLDH0on.
pass on to consider the susceptibility Of
! childhood. Men pride themselves On their