The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1886-09-22

encs to your father, the words of my text
have been fulfilled:
Thou shalt be missed, because thy seat
will be empty.
Z 60 little further on in your house,
and find the mothers chair. 1t is very
apt to be a rocking chair. She had SO
many cares and troubles to soothe that 1t
must have rockers. remember il well.
1t was an old chair and the
rockers were almost worn out,
for was the youngest. and the chair had
rocked the whole family. 1t made
creaking noise as 1t moved, but there was
music in the sound. 1t was just high
enough to allow US children 10 put our
heads into her lap. That was the bank
where we deposited all our hurts and
worries. O, what a chair that was 1t
was different from the fathers chair;
entirely different. You ask me how?
can not tell, but we all felt it was differ.
ent. Perhaps there was alb out this chair
more gentleness, more tenderness, more
grief when we had done wrong. When
we were hayward father scolded, but
mother cried. II was a very wakeful
chair. In the sick days of children other
chairs could not keep awake; that chair.
always. kept awake, kept easily awake.
That chair knew all the old lullabies and
all those worthless songs which mothers
sing to their sick children--songsi In which
all pity and compassion and sympathetic
influences are combined. That old chair
has stopped rocking for a good many
years. 1t may he set up in the loft or the
garrett, but it holds squeenly power yet.
When at midnight you went into that
erog shop to get the Intoxicating draught,
did you not hear voice that said:
my son, why 60 in theres" if y
| And louder than the boisterous encore
of the place Of wicked amusement, voice
saying: w 81 @
my son, what do you here?"
And when you went into the house Of sin
a voice saying: ~ ~
"What would your mother do il she
knew you were here?"
And you were provoked with yourself,
and you charged yourself with supersti-
ton and fanaticism, and your head got
with your own thoughts, and you went
home and you went to bed, and no sooner
had you touched the bed than a voice
said: g 60 cams .v .w'
"What a pray erless pillow! Man, what
! is the matter?" EHk
This: You are too near your mothers
rocking chair.
"Oh, pshaww you say. "The-e's moth
ing in that. Pm 800 miles of from wher,
l was born. Pm 5000 miles of from tn
church whose bell was the first music
ever heard"
lean not help that; you are too nea
} your mothers rocking chair. ...
"Oh," you say, "there can't be any thin
in that; that chair has been vacant grea
WHILE"
can not help that; it is all the mightie
for that; 1t Is omnipotent, that vacan
mothers chair. 1t whispers; 1t speaks;
weeps; 1t carols; it mourns; It prays;
warns; II thunders. A young man wen
; off and broke his mothers heart, an
while he was away from hume his mothe
died, and the telegraph brought the son
, and he came into the room where she Ia,
and looked upon her face, and he crie'
: out: ESE AN
"Oh, mother, mother! what your liz
could not do your death shall effect. Thi
3 moment give my heart to God"
? And he kept his promise. Another vic
tory for the vacant chair. With refer
l ence to your mother the words of my tex
p were fulfilled: Ae.
Thou shalt be missed. because thy seat wi
be empty. t
Some one said to a Grecian general:
"What was the proudest moment
your lifes"
He thought moment and said:
! 1.-THE proudest moment in my life wa
: when I sent word home to my parent
that had gained the victory"
y And the proudest and most brilliant me
ment in your life will be the moment whe
you can send word to your parents this
y you have conquered your evil habits b
= the grace of God, and become eternal vic
!, tor. Oh, despise not parental anxiety
:, The time win come when you win hay
neither father nor mother, and you will 9
around the place where they used to watc
you, and find them gone from the hous
and gone from the field, and gone frol
|, the neighborhood. Cry as loud for fol-
u giveness as you may over the mound
u the churchyard, they will not answe
Dead! Dead! And then you will take OF
the white lock Of hair that was cut frol
!. your mothers brow just before the
). buried her, and you will take the cane wit
- which your father used to walk, and yo
will think and think, and wish that yo
= had done just as they wanted you to, an
= would give the world IL you had new.
! thrusta pang through their dear old heart
= God pity the young man who has brougl
9 disgrace on his fathers name! God pit
. the young man who has broken his mott
% er's hearth Better If he had never bee
10 born; better il the first hour Of h
life, instead of being laid against IL
!. warm bosom of maternal tenderness, b
u had been cofiined and scpulchered. The
IL is no balm powerful enough to heal I'll
a heart of one who has brought parents to
~ sorrowful grave, and who wanders abo,
~ through the dismal cemetery, rending th
hair and wringing the hands, and crying
u "Mother! Mother!" Oh, that to-day /
~ all the memories of the past and by all Il
u hopes Of the future, you would yield yov
:. heart to God! May your fathers God al
,, your mothers God be your God forever
J. g. so on little further; come to Il
invalid's chair. What! How long ha,
you been sick?
"Oh, have been sick ten, twenty, thi
- - ty years."