The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1886-12-09
PRICE THREE CENTS.

| n@lonl tell i'ol tne dry dock or
the Christian han il the place where
we are to fit them for usefulness and
for heaven. In this world, under the storm
| Of vice and temptation, it will be too late.
In the domestic circle YOU decide whether
your child shall be truthful or false-whether
it shall be generous or penurious You can
tell by the way a child divides an apple Just
what its future history will be You ought
to oversee the process. II the child take nine
tenths of the apple giving tho other tenth to his
sister. il he should live to be one hundred he
will be grasping and want the biggest piece
OF everything. stood in house in one OF
the Long Island villages, and l saw a beau
tiful tree, and said to the owner: "That is
a very fine tree, but what curious crook
there is in itm "Yes," said he, ~ planted
that tree, and when it was a year old,
went to New York and worked as a me-
| chanic for year or two, and when came
back / found that they had allowed some
thing to stand against the tree: 50 it has
always had that crook" And so THOUGHT it
was with the influence upon children. II you
| allow anything to stand in the way of moral
| influence against a child on this side or that
side, to the latest day Of its life on earth and
through all eternity it will show the pres
sure. No wonder Lord Byron was bad. Do
| you know his mother said to him, when she
saw him one day limping across the floor
with his unsound foot: sect out of my way,
you lame brat" What chance for a boy like
thatl
Two young men come to the coor OF sin.
They consult whether they will go in. Tho
| one young man goes in and the other retreats
| 0, you say, the last had better resolution
| No, that was no. it. The first young man
had no early good influence; the last had
been piously trained, and when he stood at
the door Of sin discussing the matter, he
looked around as il to see some one. and
ho felt an invisible hand on his shCul-
der, saying: Don't 60 in; don't 60
in" Whose hand was itl mothers
hand, fifteen years ago gone to dust. A gen.
tleman was telling me of the fact that some
years ago there were two young men who
stopped at the door OF the Park Theatre, in
New York. The question was whether they
should 60 in. That night there was to be a
very immoral play enacted in the Park Thea.
tre One man went in: the other STAYED out.
the young man who went IN, went on
from sin to sin, and through
crowd of iniquities, and died in the
hospital, of delirium tremens The other
young man who retreated, chose Christ,
went into the Gospel, and is now one OF the
most eminent ministers Of Christ in this
country. And the man who retreated gave as
his reason for turning back from the Thea
tire that night, that there was an early
voice within him, saying: "Dont go in!
don't go inr' And for that reason, my
friends, l believe so much in Bible
classes. But there is something better than
the Bible class, and that is the Sunday-school
class. 1 like it because it takes children at
an earlier point; and the infant class like
still better because it takes children before
they begin to walk or to talk straight, and
| puts them on the road to heaven. You can
not begin too early. You stand on the bank
Of a river flowing by. You cannot
| stop that river, but you travel days
and days toward the source of it,
and you find after awhile where it
! i L H.,
with your knife you make course in this or
| that direction for the dropping to take, and
you decide the course of the river. You
stand and see your children's characters roll
ing on with great impetuosity and passion,
and you cannot affect them. Go up toward
the source where the character first starts,
and decide that it shall take the right direc-
ton, and it will follow the path you give it.
But want you to remember, oh father
| oh mother! that it is what you do that is
going to affect your children, and not what
you say. You tell your chilren 10 become
Christians while, you are not, aud they will
not Do you think Noah's family would
nave gone INTO the ark II ne nad NOT gone
in! They would say: mo, there is
something about that boat that is not
right; father has not gone in. You can
not push children into the kingdom of
God; you have got to pull them in. There
has been many general in tower or castle
looking at his army fighting, but that is not
the kind of o man to arouse enthusiasm
among his troops. 1t is G Gariballi or Ma
poeon |. who leaps into the stirrups, and
dashes into tie conflict, and has his troops
| following him with Will huzga So you
cannot stard OF in your impenitent
state, and tell your children to
go ahead into the Christian life, and
have them go. You must yourself dash into
the Christian conflict; you must lead them
and not tell them to go. Do you know that
Aren in a religious direction goes for nothing
unless you illustrate it in your own life. lac
| teacher at the school takes a copy-book,
writes specimen of good writing across the
| top of the page. but he makes mistake in one
letter of the copy. The boy comes along on
! the next line, copies the top line, and makes
the mistake, and if there be fifteen lines on
that page they will have tho mistake there
was in the copy on the top. The father has
an error in his life-a very great error. The
! son comes along and copies it now, to-mor-
row, next year, copies it to the day OF his
death 1t is what you are, not so much what
yon teach.
Have family altar. Let it be cheerful
place, the brightest room in your honse. DO
not wear your children's knees out with long
PRAYERS Have the whole exercise spirited.
If YOU have q melodeon, or an organ, or a
piano in the house, have it open. Then lead
in prayers. Ii you cannot maze prayer OF
your own, take Matthew Henry's Prayers
or the Episcopal Prayer Book. None
better than that. Kneel down with
your little one; morning and night,
and commend them to God Do you
think they will ever get over itl Never!
After you are under tie sod good manv
years, there will be some powerful tempta-
ton around that son, but the memory of
father and mother at morning and evening
prayers will have its effect upon him; it Will
bring him back from the path OF s.n and
death.
Bat want you to make strict mark, a
sharp, pain line between innocent hilarity
on ths part OF your children and vicious
proclivity. Do not think your boys will go
to ruin because they make IA ,ket. glum.
unrespon nsive child makes the worst form or
u villain. Children, when they are healthy al
ways make aracket. lwantyou, at the very
first sign o. depravity in the child, to correct
it. Do no laugh b,calse it is smart. Ii you
do, yol will live to cry because l6 IS mall
cious Do not talk Of your children's frau
tie, lgitly in their presence, thinking tn y
do not understand you; they do underS1a99.
Do not talk diSparagiuSly OF your chlli,
making m feel that ha is re2robate DO
not say to your little one: You're the worst
child ever knew Ii you do, ho will be tho
worst man yol ever knew.
Are voar children safe for heaven! Iou
can te'l better than any one else. l put 70
you the question: "Are your chil1rel safe
for heayens' ! heard of mother who,
when the house was a-fre, in the excitement
of the occasion, got out great many OF the
valuable thing chocs articles of fur
nltre-but did not think to ask until too late.
"Is my ch Ii safer 1t was too lat. then.
The flames hal encircled all the child was
gonel o, my dear friend, when sea aud Ia nd
Shall burn in the final colaagration. VII
your children b. safes
wcaiar il wha5 | have said this morning
has not struck chord in some one in tle an
dience who hasa good fa her ani m pther,
but who is not yet a Christiaal Is that your
history!
Do yo1 know why you came here thi:
morningi God sent yoI to have that me n
ory revived. Your dear Christ an moth ,r,
how she loved yoll You remember, when
you were sick, how kindly she attended you
the night was not o loay, and YOU never
asked her to turn the pillow but she did it
You remember her prayers alsD; you re-
member how some Of vou-I do not know
whers the man is in the audience Nv
some one here broke his m )ther's heart You
remember her sorrow over your wayw ,rd
ness; YOU RENE nber the oil place. whsrs sh-
did Won 50 many kindnesSes the chair, t q
table, the doors II where yJa playet- ths
,neS of her yoire Wlv Won ras, ,.bint- ~ A,r