Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1886-12-03

a very llut AIttt Dul MuaL u tuTlOuh NNbDh
there is in itln "Yes,n said he, ~ planted
that tree, and when it was q year old,
went to New York and worked as a me-
chanic for a year or two, and when l 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: "Get out Of my way,
you lame brat!" What chance for boy like
thatl
Two young men come TO the door OF sin.
They consult whether they will go in. The
one young man goes in and the other retreats.
o, you say. the last had better resolution.
No that was not 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 if to see some one, and
he felt an invisible hand on his shCul-
der, saying: "Don't go in; don't go
in" Whose hand was it, A 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 go in. That night there was to be
very immoral play enacted in the Park Thea
TIRE. One man went in; the other stayed out
The young man who went IN, went on
from sin to sin, and through a
crowd of iniGuities, 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 caves as
his reason for turning back from the Thea
tire that night, that there was an early
voice within him, saying: "Don't go i'll
don't go inP' And for that reason, my
friends, | believe so much in Bible
classes But there is something better than
the Bible class, and that is the Sunday-school
class like it because it takes children at
an earlier point; and the infant class l 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
comes down dropping from the rock, and
with your knife you make a course in this or
that dire 2tion 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, aud not what
you say. You tell your chilren TO become
Christians while you are not, and they will
not Do YOU think Noah's family would
nave gone into the ark II he nad not gone
in! They would say: NO, 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 a tower or castle
looking at his army fighting, but that is not
the kind of q man TO arouse enthusiasm
among his troops. 1t is Gariballi or Ma
poleon l. who leaps into the stirrups and
dasheS into the conflict, and has his troops
following him with wild huz2a So you
cannot stand off 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 CO. Do you know that
ali the instructions you give to your chill"
dren in a religious direction goes for nothing
unless you illustrate it in your own life! The
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 the 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
you teach.
Have family altar. Let it be a cheerful
place. the brightest room in your house. Do
net wear your children's knees out with long
prayers. Have the whole exercise spirited
If you have a melodeon, or an organ, or a
piano in the house, have it open. Then lead
in prayers Ii you cannot make prayer of
your own, take Matthew Henry's Prayers
or the Episcopal Prayer Book. None
better than that. Kneel down with
your little ones morning and night,
and commend them to God Do you
think they will ever get over It'll Never!
After you are under the sod good many
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 sin and
death
BIT want you to make a strict mark, q
sharp, plain line between innocent hilarity
on thu part OF your children and a vicious
proclivity. Do not think your boys will go
to ruin because they make racket A glum,
unresponsive child makes the worst form of
villain. Children, when they are healthy, al
ways make racket. Iwaut you, at the very
first sign of depravity in the child, to correct
it. Dono laugh because it is smart If you
do, you will live to cry because it is mali
aiOnc No ot fol ~ ob;IJranf. froil
ties lightly in their presence, thinking they
do not understand you; they do understand.
Do not talk disparagingly of your child,
making him feel shat hi is reprobate Do
not say to your little one you're the worst
child over knew" II you do, he will be the
worst man you ever knew.
Are your children safe for heaven! You
can tell better than any one else. l put to
you the question: Are your children safe
for heavens" | heard of a mother who,
when the house was a-ire, in the excitement
of the occasion, got out great many of the
valuable things-many choice articles Of fur
nlture-butd did not think to ask until too late:
rs my child safeF 1t was too late then.
The flames hal encircled ALL the child was
gone! O, my dear friend when sea aud land
shall burn in tho final conhagration, will
your children be safe!
wonder if what | have said this morning
has not struck chord in some one in the au
dience who has a good fa'her and mother,
but who is not yet Christian! Is that your
history!
Do you know why You cams here this
morning! God sent you to have that mem
DRY revived. Your dear Christ a. mother,
how she loved you! You remember, when
you were sick, how kindly she attended you
the night was not Uoo long, and you never
asked her to turn the pillow but she did It'll
You remember her prayers also; you re-
member how some of you'll do not know
where the man is in the audience-how
some one here broke his mothers heart You
remember her sorrow over your hayward
ness;you remember the oil place where she
did YOU so many kindnesSes; the chairs, the
table, the door-sill where you played: the