Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1886-09-24

N"A ehOhEhloi anu yOu W6ilJ hDuls anu JOu
went to led, and no sooner had you touched
the bed than voice said: What d prayer
less pillow Man, what is the matterln This:
You are too near your mothers rocking
chair. "Oh, pshawn you reply; there's
nothing III that. I'm five hundred miles off
from where l wds born. I'm three thousand
miles off from the church whose bell was the
first music l ever heard" l cdnn0t help
that; you are too near your mothers r0cks
lng-chalr. oh" you say, "there can't be
anything in that: that chair has been vacant
With reference TO your father, the words OF
my text have been fulfilled: "Thou shalt be
missed, bee ause thy scat will be empty"
III 60 little further on in your house
and l Ind the mothers chair. 1t is very apt
to be roCking-chair. She had so many
cares and troubles to soothe that it must
have rockers. remember it we'll 1t was
an old chair, and the rockers were almost
worn ont, for | was the youngest, and the
chair had rocked the whole family. 1t made
q creaking noise as it moved: but there was
music in the sound. 1t was just high enough
to allow us children to put our heads into
her lap. That was the bank where we de-
posted all our hurts and worries. Oh, what
chair that was! 1t was different from the
fathers chair; it was entirely different You
aSke me how? cannot tell; but we all felt
it was different. Perhaps there was about
this chair more gentleneSs, more tender
hSSoi hlOlG BTlel "uen We udu uOIo
wrong. When we were wayward father
.Eded, but mother cried. It was
q very wakeful chair. In the sick days Of
children other cha IS could uot keep awake;
that chair always kept awake, kept easily
awake. That chair knew all the old lula
bies and all those wordless songs which
mothers sing to their sick chillren-songs in
which all pity and compassion and symra-
thetic influences are combined. That cid
chair has stopped rocking for a good many
years. 1t may be set up in the loft or the
garret, but it holds queenly powor yet
When at midnight you went into that grog-
shop to get the intoxicating draught, did you
not hear voice that So d: "My son, why go
in there!n And lou Ter than the boisterou3
encore of the pla'e of wicked amusement, a
voice saying: MY son, what do you here"
III. Igo on little further: come to the
invalid's chair. WHAT How long have you
been sickl "Oh, have been sick ten,
twenty, thirty years" Is itpossible2 What
a story of endurancel There are in many
families of my congregation these invalid
chairs. The occupants Of them think they
are doing no good in the world; but that in
! valid chair is the mighty pulpit from which
they have been preaching, all these years,
trust in God. One day, on an island Just off
from Sandusky, Ohio, preached, and there
was great throng of people there; but the
| tuIOIlS ulu uOL I'LL llJIeSS Ills SO Hlucl as Un0
| spectacle of just one face-the face of an in
valid who was wheeled in on her chair
said to her afterwa"d: MADAM, how long
have you been prostratedm p for she was lying
fiat in the chair "Oh,n she replied
81 have been this way fifteen years -"
l said: DO You suffer very muchW "Oh,
yes she said; 81 suffer very much. l suffer
always suffer-" "Wel,o l said, "can you
keep your courage up" Oh yes" she said,
I am happy, very happy indeed" Her face
showed it. She looked the happiest of any
one on the ground Oh, what means of
grace to the world these invalid chairs!
On that field of human suffering the gra"e
OF God gets its victory. Edward Payson, the
invalid, and Richard Baxter, the invalid,
and Robert Hall, the invalid aad the ten
thousand of whom the world has never heard,
but Of whom all heaven is cognizant. The
most conspicuous thing on earth Tor Gods
eve and the eye of angels to rest on is
not throne of earthly power, but it is
the invalid's chair. Oh, these men
and women who are always suffering but
never omplaining-these victims of spinal
disease, and neuralgia torture, and rheu-
matte excruciation, will answer to the roll
call OF the martyrs, and rise to the martyrs
throne, and will wave the martyrs palml
But when one of these invalid chairs be-
come vacant, how suggestive it isl No more
| bolsterlng up of the weary head No more
changing from side to side to get an easy
position. No more use of the bandage, and
the catapasm and the prescription. That
invalid's chair may be folded up OF taken
apart or set away, but it will never lose it's
queenly power; it will always preach of trust
in God and cheerful submission. Suffering
all ended now. With respect to that invalid
the words of my text have been fulfilled:
"Thou shalt be missed, because thy seat will
be empty
". pass on and find one more vacant
chair. 1t is a high chair. Ii is the child's
chair. If that chair be occupied, / think it
is the most potent chair in all the household.
| All the chairs wait on it; all the chairs are
turned toward it, ltmeans more than David's
chair at Sauls banquet. At any rate, it makes
more racket That is strange house that
can be dull with child in it. How that child
breaks up the hard worldlineSs of the place,
and keeps you young to sixty, seventy aud
eighty years Of age If you have no child of
your own, adopt one; it will open heaven to
your soul. 1t will lay it; way. Its growing
in the morning will give the day cheerful
starting, and its glee at night will give the
day acheerful close. You do not like children9
Then you had better stay out of heaven, for
there are so many there they would fairly
make you crazy! Only about five hundred
million of them The old crusty disciples told
the mothers to keep the children away from
Christ. You bother Him. they said: "you
trouble the Master" Trouble himl He has
filled heaven with that kind of trouble.
A pioneer in California says that for the
| first year or two after his residence in
Sierra Nevada County, there was not q
single child in all the reach of hundred
miles, But the 4th of July came, and the
miners were gathered together, and they
were celebrating the 4th with Grafton and
poem, and boisterous brass band; and
while the band was playing an infants
voice was heard crying, and all the miners
were startled, and the swarthy men began to
think of their homes on the Eastern coast,
and of their wives and children far away,
and their hearts were filled with homesick-
ness as they heard the babe cry But the
music went on, and the child cried louder
and louder, and the brass band played louder
and louder, trying to drown out the in.
| fantile interruption, when swarthy miner,
the tears rolling down his face, got up and
shook his fist, and said: "Stop that noisy
band, and give the baby a chancen Oh,
there was pathos as we'll as good cheet
in it, There is nothing to arouse and melt,
aud subdue the soul like childs voice
But when it goes away from you the high
chair becomes higher chair, and there is
desolation all about you. In three-fourths
of the homes of my congregation there is a
| vacant high chair. Somehow you never get
over it, There is no one to put to bed at
night; no one to ask strange que tions about
God and heaven. Oh. what is the use OF
that high chair9 1t is to call you higher
What drawing howard it is to have chill
dren in heaven And then it is such pr J.
ventive against sin. If father is going
away into sin he leaves his living children
with their mother; but if father is going
away into sin what is he going to do with his
dead children floating about him and hovol.
ing over his every wayward steps On, speak
out, vacant high chair and say: "Father
come back from SIN; mother, come back from
worldliness. l am wat hing you am wa t
ing for you" With respect TO your ch Id the