Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1886-09-18
The Vacant Chair of the Household Ar
rayed and Mighty Voiced.
THE ENTITY LACE.

1.-THE NIT PLACE"
BROOKLYN, Sept. 5.-The Rev. T. De
Witt Talmage resumed his pulpit in the
Tabernacle to-day. His text was |.
Samuel, Oh. xX., v. IS:
Thou shalt be missed, because thy seat will
be empty.
Following is the sermon in full:
Set on the table the cutlery and
chased silverware of the palace. for
King Saul will give a state dinner to-
day. A distinguished place is kept at
the table for his son-in-law, IA celebrated
warrior, David by name. The guests,
jeweled and plumcd, come in and take
their places. When people are invited
to a kings banquet they are very apt
to 90. But before the covers are lifted
from the feast Saul looks around and,
finds a vacant seat at the table. He says,
within himself, or perhaps audibly:
What does this mean? Where is my
son-in-law? Where is David, the great
warrior? invited him. expected
him. What? A vacant chair alta
kings banquet The fact was that
David the warrior had been seated for.
the last time at his father-in-law's
table. The day before Jonathan had
coaxed David to 90 and occupy that
place at the table, saying to David in
the words of my text: Thou shalt be
missed, because thy seat will be
empty
The prediction was fulfilled. David
was missed. His seat was empty. That
one
VACANT
spoke louder than all the occupied
chairs at the banquet. In almost every
house the articles of furniture take n
living personality. That picture--a
stranger would not see anything re-
markable either in its design or exeeu-
ton, but it is more to you than all the
pictures of the Louvre and the Luxem-
bourg. You remember who bought it
and who admired it. And that hymn book
you remember who sang out of it. And
that e~rrdle-you remember who rocked
it. And that B%ible-you remember
who read out of it. And that bed
YOU remember who slept in it: But
there is nothing in all your house SO
eloquent and SO mighty-voiced AS the
vacant chair. | suppose that before
Saul and his guests got up from this
banquet there was a great CHATTER OF
wine pitchers, but IA that racket wa.
drowned out by the voice thaa came up
from the vacant ca.i at the table.
Many have gazed and wept at John
Quincy Adams vacant chsdr in the
house of representatives, AID at ny
Wilson's vacant chair in the v~ice-pres
idency, and at Henry Clay's vacant
chair in the American senate, and a
Prince Albert's vacant chair in TIT
Windsor Castle, and at Thiers's vacan
chair in the councils of tie French ma
ton; but all these chairs are unimpor
tant to YOU as compared with tn
vacant chairs in your own household
E, Have these chairs any lessons for yo'
to learn2 Are we Any better a an
women than when they first aadresse
usp
t First: l point o to you the father
vACA CHAIR.
I Old men always like to sit IN the sam
s place and in the same chair. The
i somehow feel more ut home, and som
= times when YOU are in their place an
they come into the DON you jump u
0 suddenly and say: Here, fathe'
here's your chair The probability
it is an armchair, for he is not S
" strong rs ne once was. His hair a Ii
e tie frosty, and his gums a little d
I. pressed, for in his early days thel
r. WIS not much dentistry. Perhaps
cane chair and old fashioned appare
70. though You may have suggestt
some improvement, father does n
want any of your nonsense. Gran
= father never had much admiration f
new tangled notions. | sat at Il