Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1881-03-29
Lost Children.
"OF SUCH Is THE KINGDOM OF
HEAVEN.U

I. When we speak of our little ones who
have been called away from our earthly
homes to the better land, why do we say
"the children we have 1ost?" Invaria.
bly, do we hear the little ones, whose
vacant chairs stand around our flreside
spoken of as lost children Rather
should we say our rescued little ones
our saved darlings. Have they not been
called within the pearly gate, where
sin, pain, sorrow and death never come.
Their tiny feet can never stray outside
of the golden city. The children who
are left to US may wander into the paths
of temptation and sorrow-they may
occasion many hours Of anxiety and
many tears, but the little children who
have been gathered in among the re-
deemed ones, who left US in their purity
and innocence, will always be pura-nO
taint of sin will tarnish their infant
souls.
| When the darkness gathers around
US at night, and we tremble for
the boys who are outside of the
home walls, liable to all the temptations
that the cever of night throws about
them, we need have no fear for the loved
ones who have been rescued from q
world of sin. There is no night in that
bright land where they dwell-always
bright, eternal noon I" The angel
feet of our children above will never
stray outside the gates of purity and hap
piness. Our children who have gone to
heaven never grow old Leigh Hunt
says, with truth, that 'those who have
lost an infant are never without child
They are the only persons who, in one
sense, retain it always"
Our children who are left to US on
earth, grow up; they suffer all the
changes of mortality. They leave the
paternal roof, scatter in different parts
of the world. and the children never
come back to us again. But the father
and mother, when age has crept over
them, know that for them the little
ones who went to heaven, so long ago,
are children still that the time Ia not
far of when they shall meet the little
ones where partings never come. The
words of Ainsworth are beautiful. He
says 1.-THE lit lie boy who died so long
ago is an eternal child. His parting
look, with heaven shining full upon his
brow-the beauty that the heart grew
warm beholding, remains untouched by
time, even as the unrent sky that lets
the wanderer in"
"Of such is the kingdom of heaven"
said our blessed Saviour. What q large
proportion of the dwellers in heaven
must be little children ! How happy
they are, living in the light of the smile |
of the blessed One. 81 know Jesus
smiled when he was on EARTH" said
dear little girl, "because when he said, |
Suffer little children to come unto me,
they would not have gone in such mum
bers if he had not smiled when he said
It." The faith of a child Is sunquestioned.
Don't cry when am gone. mamma"
said little one q few hours before she
left her earthly home, "I am going up.
up. above all the worlds. to live with
Jesus forever. He loves little children,
and he will be, Q, SO kiE9 t. asss. / nev@i
er Will have to be sick aud suffer paln |
when get where he H. Precious
child! What release to be free from
suffering forever!
When we talk of our little ones who
are gone to the peaceful land we will not !
speak of them any more as the children
we have lost. but as children who have
been lovingly gathered into the arena
of our Father in heaven, and saved to
u to be our children in the eternal
world.
They are not lost, but gone before,
''They shall be mine." o, lay them down to
slumber.
Calm in the strong assurance that he gives;
He calls them by their names, he knows their
number,
And they live as surely as he lives.