Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1886-09-16
THE PRoUpEsr MOMENT OF LrrE.


moment in my life was when l sent word home !
to my parents that had gained the victory"
And the proudest and most brilliant moment |
IN your life will be the moment when you can |
send word to your parents that you have con- |
quered your evil habits by the grace Of God. |
and become eternal victor. Oh, despise not
parental anxiety! The time will come when
you will have neither father nor mother and
you will 60 around the place where they used
TO watch s"..i and find them gone fro'- -.
.ouse, and gone from t ~. nea and gone from
the mes uporhood Cry as loud for forgive
ness as you may over the mound In the church
yard, they will not answer. Deadl Dead
And then you will take out the white lock Of
hair that was cut from your mothers brow
just before they buried her, and you will take
the cane with which your father used TO walk,
and you will think and think and wish that
you had done just as they had wanted you to,
and would give the world II you had never
thrust pang through their dear old hearts.
God pity the young man who has brought dis
grace on his fathers name God pity the
young man who has broken his mothers
heart! Better II he had never been born; bet
ter II in the first hour of his life instead of be-
ing laid against the warm bosom OF maternal
tenderness he had been confined and sepul-
chered There is no balm powerful enough to
heal the heart of one who has brought parents
to sorrowful grave, and who wandcrs about
through the dismal cemetery, rending the hair
and wringing the hands and crying: "Motherl
Motherl' o. that to-day, by all the memories
Of the past and by all the hopes Of the future,
you would yield your heart to Godl May your
fathers God and your mothers God be your
God forever.
THE INVALID CHAIRS lesson.
Third 90 on q little further! / come to
the inFalid's chair. Whats How long have
you been sckl
90, / have been sick ten, twenty, thirty
years"
Is 1t possiblel What story of endurance
There are in many families of my congrega-
tion these invalid chairs. The occupants of
them think they are doing no good in the
world but that invalid's chair is the mighty
pulpit from which they have seen preaching
all these years. Trust in God One day, on
an island just off from Sandusky, o., /
preached, and there was a great throng Of
people there; but the throng did not impress
me SO much as the spectacle of just one face
the face of an invalid who was wheeled
In on her chair. l said to her afterward:
MADAM, how long have YOU been prostrat-
edt'' for she was lying fiat in the chair. co."
she replied, II have been this way fifteen
years" ! said: DO you suffer very muchs,
80. yes" she said, 81 suffer very much i
suffer all the time. Part of the time was
blind, I always suffer" "Well," l said,
'can you keep your courage upf' 80, yes"
she said, II am happy very happy indeed"
Her face showed it. She looked the happiest
OF any one on the ground. 0, what q means
of grace to the world, these invalid chairs!
On that field of human suffering the grace Of
God gets its victory. Edward Payson, the in
valid, and Richard Baxter, the invalid, and
Robert Hail. the invalid, and the ten thousand
OF whom the world has never heard, but of
whom all heaven is cognizant The most con-
spicuous thing on earth for Gods eye and the
eye of angels TO rest on is not throne of
earthly power, but 1t is the invali rs chair. .,
these men and women who are always suffer-
ing but never complaining-these victims of
I'D
rheumatic excruciaton-will answer to the
roll call of the martyrs, and rise to the
martyrs throne, and will wave the martyrs
PALM
ALWAYS PREACHING SUBMISSION.
But when one Of these invalids' chairs be-
| come vacant how suggestive it is! No more
| Fostering up of the weary head. No more
changing from side to side to get an easy posi-
| ton. No more use of the bandage and the
cataplasm and the prescription. That inva-
| lids chair may be folded up Or taken apart or
| set away, but it will never lose its queenly
| power; II 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"
| FOURTH pass on and | find one more vacant
chair. It is high chair 1t 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
|
at Saul's banquet At any rate it makes more
racket. That is a strange house that can be
| dull with a child in it. How that child breaks
| up the hard worldliness of the place and
! keeps you young to GO, 20 and so years of
| age If you have no child Of your own adop t
one; it will open heaven to your soul 1t wi
| pay its way. Its growing in the morning will
| give the day cheerful starting, and its giee
at night will give the day cheerful close.
You do not like childreni Then you had bet
l 9 hn. farth npn rllt
there they would fairly make you crazy. Only
about 500, 900, coo of them! The old crusty dis
| ciples told the mothers to keep the children
away fIom Christ. "You bother Him." they
said: ''you trouble the Master" Trouble Him j!
| He has filled heaven with that kind of trouble
| STRENGTH OF A CHILD's VOICE.
| A pioneer in California says that for the first
| year or two after his residence in Sierra Ne
| vada county there was not single child in all
| the ranch of a hundred miles. But the Fourth
| of July came and the miners were all gathered
together and they were celebrating the Fourth
| with Grafton and poem and boistrous brass
| band, and while the band was playing an in
fant's voice was heard crying and all the min
| ers 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 filed with Inconsistencies 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, try
|
| when a swarthy miner, the tears running down
his face, cot up and shook his fist and said
''Stop that noisy band and give the baby a
chance" o, there was pathos in 1t as well as
| good cheer in it There is nothing to arouse
and melt and subdne the soul like child:
| voce.
But when it goes away from you the high
chair becomes higher chair, and there is
Oscillation all about you. In three fourths OF
the homes of my congregation there is va
cant high chair. Somehow you never get oVel
it. There Is no one to put to bed at night, nc
one to ask strange questions about God and
heaven. o, what is the use Of that high chair
1t is to call you higher. What drawing up
ward it is to have children in heaven! AnC
then it is such a preventive against SIM II {
father is going away into sin he leaves hi
living children with their mother, but If {
father is going away into sin what is he goin!
to do with his dead children floating abou
him and lowering over his every ,waywart
step! 0, speak out, vacant high chair ant
say: Father, come back from sin; mother
come back from worldliness. l am watchin!
you. am waiting for you" With respec
to YOUR child the words of my text have beef
fulfilled: Thou shalt be missed because tn
seat will be empty"
VOICES CALLING TO HEAVEN.
Ny hearers, have gathered up the voices o
your departed friends and tried to inton
them into one invitation upward set in al
ray all the vacant chairs Of your homes and
! your social circle, and L bid them cry out
Time is short. Eternity is near Take m
Saviour. Be at peace with my God. Come u
/ where am. We lived together on earth
! come, let us live together in heaven" W
! answer that invitation. We come. Keep
seat for us, as Saul kept seat for David; bu
that seat shall not be empty. When we ar
, all through with this world and we hav
shaken hands all around for the last time, an
. all our chairs in the home circle and in tn
! outside world shall be vacant may we be wo
i Shipping God in that place from which we sha
! go out no more forever. j thank God theI
: will be no vacant chairs In heaven
g The Glamour of Consulship.
Thnrn IL M dnnuinn the glamour c