The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1886-12-08
Of everything. I stood in house In one OF

! CQeTe Is III les, Sdiu uc, p3oSVoS
that tree, and when it was a year old.
| went to New York and worked as me.
chanic for a year or two. and when came
back found that they had allowed some
thing to stand against tho tree: 50 it has
always had that crook" And so thought it
| was with the influence upon children. If you
allow anything to stand in the way OF moral
influence against 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 boy like
that!
Two young men come to the door OF sin.
| They consult whether they will go in. Ina
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 rs if to see some one, and
be felt an invisible hand on his shoul-
der, saying: Don't go in; don't go
in" Whose hand was itl A motheri
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
stopred at the door of the Park Theatre, in
| New York The question was whether they
should 20 in. That night there was to be q
very Immoral play enacted in the Park Thea
ire. One man went in: the other stayed out
The young man who went in, went on
from sin to sin, and through q
crowd of ini1uities, 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
| tre that night that there was an early
voice within him, saying: "Don't 60 in!
don't go inr' Aud for that reason, my
friends, I 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 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
that direction for the dropping to take, and
YOU decide the course of the river. You
| stand and see your chldren'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, on 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 to become
| Christians while you are not, and they will
not. Do you think Noah's family would
have gone into the ark if he had not gone
inl 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
has been many general in a tower or castle
looking at bis army fighting, but that is not
+ the kind of a man to arouse enthusiasm
among his troops. It is Garibaldi or Ma
| poleon I. who leaps into the stirrups, and
dashes into the conflict and has his troops
following him with wild huzza. 30 you
cannot stand off In your impenitent
state, and tell IL you; yhr;.ti.a Shildfsn dfs anG 10
6ave 6a adsan them go You must Yourself dash into
the Christian conflict; you must lead them
and not tell them to 60. Do you know that
all the instructions you give to your chill
dren In religious direction goes Tor nothlng
| unless you illustrate it in your own life! The
teacher at the school takes 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
che 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. It is what you are not so much what
Have family altar Let it be cheerful
place, the brightest room in your house. do
NOT wear your childrens knees out with long
PRAYERS Have the whole exercise spirited.
ff YOU have melodeon, or an organ, or Q
piano in the house, have it open. Then lead
in prayers. If You cannot make prayer OF
your own, take Matthew Henry's Prayers
or the Episcopal Prayer, Book. Mons
better than that Kneel down with
and commend them to God. Do you
think they will ever get over itl Neverl
After you are under tina sod good many
years, there will be some powerful tempta.
tion around that son, but the memory OF
father and mother at morning and evening
bring him back from the path OF SIN ana
But want you to make a strict mark, a
sharp, plain line between INNOCENT hllaritJ
on thu part OF your children and vicious
proclvity. Do not think your boys will go
to ruin because they make racket glum,
unresponsive child makes the worst form OF
a villain. Children, when they are healthy al
ways make racket. wantyou, at the very
frstsign of dspravity in the child, to correct
it. Do not laugh because it is smart If you
do, you will live to cry because it is mali.
cious. Do not talk Of your children's frail.
ties lightly in their presence, thinking they
do not understand you; they do understand.
Do not talk disparagiugly of your child,
making him feel that he is reprobate. DO
not say to your little one: You're ths worst
child ever 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 heavenY' Lsard Of a mother who,
when the house was a-fre, N the excitement
of the occasion, got out great many OF the
! valuable things-many choice articles OF fur
niture-but did not think to ask until too late:
It's my child safe." 1t was too late then.
The flames had encireled all; the child ,, was va
gonel 0, my dear friend, when sea and land
shall burn in the final conaagration, will
your children be safel
wonder if what have said this morning
has not struck q chord in some one in the au-
dience who has a good fa:her and mother,
but who is not yeta Christianl Is that your
hiStoryl
Do you know why you came here this
morningl God sent you to have that mem'
ory revived. Your denr Christ an mother,
how she loved you! You remember, when
YOU were SICK how kindly she attended you
the night was not t:o long, and you never
asked her to turn the pillow but she did it!
You remember her prayers also; you re-
member how some Of you'll do not know
where the man is in tho audience-how
some one here broke his mothers heart. You
al,nr harc II rd.