Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1883-05-24


an abode at once far better adapted 10
your wants and more comely in appear
ance, and therefore more suited to your
years and station and the profound re-
gard entertained for you by the COM
munity, all the members of which must |
feel greatly indebted to you for many |
good words of counsel and cheer and |
many good works of Christian love and |
benevolence. There is no doubt that |
you and the family take much solid |
satisfaction in the improved comforts |
and conveniences of the new house.
But after all for me, who left your
roof before these changes occurred,
there is great deal yet of the ''sweet, |
sweet homen atmosphere about that |
old combination of clap boardI and |
plaster which used to shelter us For
there occurred some of the sweetest and
most solemn experiences of my life.
There was given you, dear mother, my
promise that | would try to follow
Jesus as my master and live in love and
helpfulness towards my brothers and
sisters. There it was that the body
broken for our sake and the blood
poured out for us, were imaged wildly
to the sense by my first tasting of the
bread and wine of communion and of re-
membrance. And there 1t was that
devout men laid hands upon my head.
setting me apart to the tolls and the
joys OF the gospel ministry, when | had
heard providential voice saying to
me, "Son, go work to-day in my vine
yard.''
of hn NH nh
make the memory of past years pre-
cious one and which have been brought
freshly to mind by the anticipation of
your festival day. Let me again ex-
press my sympathetic joy in your pros
perity and my earnest desires for still
larger blessings to come upon you.
And may all my brethren of the house
hold be impelled, by the recollections
OF the hour, to manifest tilial devoted
ness more marked, and simplicity and
purity of life more in harmony with
the wish of the Master, than has ever
before been shown.
"The Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make his face to shine upon
you and be gracious unto you; the Lord
lift up his countenance upon you and
give you peace" is the prayer of your
absent son.
JAMES ID. EATON.
A solo Zone sweetly solemn thought
by Miss Carrie Barber followed, and
was rendered with the feeling and ten
derness that characteristics all Of that
lady's work.
AT the conclusion of the solo Super
intendent Baxter said, zone of the child
rem of this Sunday school, who has been
away, is here tonight and will address
you on the needs of the Sunday School,
| now have the pleasure of introducing
to you DR.. Chas. Eaton, of Iowa"
DR.. Eaton then stepped forward and
opened his address by saying that he
had been informed some weeks before
that he might be called on and had
thought it might he well to prepare
something for the occasion, as if called
upon for an impromptu speech it was
always best to be well prepared. How
ever busy hand had found little time
to take the thoughts from the heart and
transcribe them on the meaner recep-
tacle of paper Therefore he could
not speak, as was the case with
his honored father, from manuscript,
but could do as did his equally honored
mother who generally spoke, he beliey-
ed. without paper.
Then followed quantity interesting
speech, full of tender and touching re-
membranes of the times of long ago,
when it was the ambition of the boy to
drive the family carriage just close
enough to the church step, then stand
| ing in front of the old church, not to hit
and yet near enough ''to scare mother"
and later on to ring the new bell or
carry the end of the melodeon which
furnished the music for the Sunday
School. Nor were old members forgot
ten in the retrospect, but their memoir
les touched with a gentle and reverent
hand. Concluding and taking up the
| theme on which he had been announced
to speak DR.. Eaton referred briefly to
the tcxtual critisism which was endeav-
oring to reduce the testaments to a
mass of conflicting accounts but thought
that textual critlsism or its intricacies
was not what was wanted in the Sun
day School, but the continued repetition
of the teachings of kindness and for
glveness one toward another as G cd for
Christ's sake had forgiven us. Christ
said "feed my lambs" and the strict
adherence to this doctrine was, in the
speakers opinion, the present need of
the Sunday School.
After another song, "When Jesus
Comes" in which the congregation all
joined, Mr.. Watkins made brief,
thoughtful and well-considered address,
on. 1.-The relation of the Sunday School
to the State" Taking the ground that
the future prosperity and welfare of the
state was in the rising generation, the
speaker argued for an increased interest
by all classes in the Sunday School as a
moral instructor, teaching a code of
morals which are admitted, even by
those who deny the authority of the BIZ
bic, as the best moral code ever pre-
sented to the world. Whatever held
good in the state held good in
town and city, and now when
our population was increasing was the
time to see that the incoming ones, es-
pecially the younger generation, were in
structed in the truths of religion and
morality People in Rome were apt to
do as the Romans do, and those who
are arriving should be led on the side of
morality rather than immortality, so
that in the next forty years this founda-
ton stone of good government might be
stronger and more universally sup
ported
As the speaker concluded, he started to
return to his seat, but retracing his
steps said: Zone word more. As an
excuse for offering that word would
say that myself and many members of
the congregation first learned this morn
Inr that this was the thirtv-sixth ami