Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1889-01-24

] the Christian church to make one think of
the song of the elders before the throne.
the harpists and the trumpeters of God
accompanying the harmony. The light of
better Sabbath gilds the top of this, and
earth and Heaven comes within speaking
distance of each other, the song of triumph
waving backward and forward, now tossed
up by the church of earth, now sent back
by the church of Heaven.
"Day Of all the week The best,
| Emblem OF eternal rest"
With what revulsion and with what pity
we must look out on that large class of
persons in our day who would throw dis
credit upon the Lords day. There are
two things which Christian people ought
never to give up: the one is the Bible, the
other is the Sabbath. Take away one and
| you take both. Take either and farewell
to our civil and religious liberties.
When they go, all go. He who has
ever spent Sunday in Paris, or Ant
werp, or Rome, il he be an intelligent
| Christian, will pray God that the day will
never come when the Sabbath of CONT
mental Europe shall put its foot upon our
shores. l had friend in Syracuse who
lived to be one hundred years of age. He
said to me, in his ninety-ninth year: 81
went across the mountains in the early
history of this country. Sabbath morn
ing came. We were beyond the reach OF
civilization. My comrades were all
going out for an excursion. l said:
No, won't go; it is Sunday Why, they
laughed. Thew said: 'We haven't any
Sunday here o. yes,' said, you have.
brought it with me over the mountains"
There are two or three ways in which we
can war against Sabbath br eaking usages
in this day; and the first thing is to get
our childi en- right upon this subject, and
teach them that the Sabbath day is the
holiest of all the days, and the best and
the gladdest. Unless you teach your child
under the paternal roof to keep the Lords
day, there are nine hundred and ninety
chances out of a thousand it will never
learn to keep the Sabbath. You may think
to shirk responsibility in the matter, and
send your child to the Sabbath school and
the house of God; that will not relieve the
matter. want to tell you in the name of
Christ, my Maker and my Judge, that your
example will be more potential than any
instruction they get elsewhere, and if you
disregard the Lords day yourself, or in
any wise throw contempt upon it, you are
blasting your children with an infinite
curse.
1t is rough truth, l know, told in
rough way; butitis Gods truth, neverthe-
less. Your child may go on to seventy or
eighty years of age, but that child will
never get over the awful disadvantages
of having had Sabbath breaking father
or Sabbath breaking mother. 1t is the
joy of many of us that we can look back to
an early home where God was honored,
4 A. C.L = :.
Of great conservation and joy. We remem-
Der the old faces around the table that
Sabbath morning. Our hearts melt when
we think of those blessed ass ociations, and
we may have been off and committed many
indiscretions and done many wrong thingsi
but the day will never come when we for
get the early home in which Gods day
was regarded, and father and mother told
us to keep holy the Sabbath.
There is anorher way in which we can
war against the Sabbath breaking usages
of the country at this time and that is by
making our houses of worship attractive
and the religious services inspiriting. /
plead notfor gorgeous audience chamber;
plead not for grained rafters or magnifi-
cent fresco; but plead for comfortable
churches, home-like churches places
as they ought to. Make the church well
come to all, however poorly clad they may
be, or whatever may have been their past
history; for / think the Church of God is
not so much made for you who could have
churches in your own house, but for the
vast population of our great cities, who
are trsading on toward death, with no
voice of mercy to arrest them. All,
when the prodigal comes into che church,
do not stare at him as though he had no
right to come. Give him the best seat you
can find for him.
Sometimes a man wakes up from his sin
and says: 'I'il go to the house of God"
Perhaps he comes from one motive. per-
haps from another. He finds the church
dark and the Christian people frgid land
there are no people on earth who can be
more frigid than Christian people when
they try), and the music is dull, and he
never comes again. Suppose enc OF these
men enters the church. As he comes in
he hears a song which his mother sang
when he was boy; he remembers it. He
sits down and some one hands him a book,
open at
Jerusalem, my happy home,
Name ever dear to me-"
eyes" he SAYS, az have heard that many
times" He sees cheerful Christian peo-
pie there, every mans face a psalm of
thanksgiving to God. He says: "Do you
have this so every Sunday? 1 have heard
that the house of God was a doleful place,
and Christians were lugubrious and re-
polling! l have really enjoyed myselfw
The next Sabbath the man is again in the
same place. Tears of repentance start
down his cheek; he begins to pray; and
when the communion table is spread he
sits at it, and some one reaches over and
says: Il am surprised to find you here.
thought you didn't believe in such |
things" "Ahw he says, 81 have |
been captured. l came in one day and |
l found you were all so loving and cheer |
full here that l concluded l would come |
among you. Where thou goest will go; |
thy people shall be my people, and thy |
God my God. Where thou diest will die, |
and there will be buried"
All, you can not drive men out Of their |
sins, but you can coax them Out-you can /
charm them out
l would to God that we could all come to
a higher appreciation of this Sabbath
heritaget We can not count the treasures
Of one Christian Sabbath. 1t spreads out
over us the two wings of the archaugel of
mercy. o, blessed Sabbath! blessed Sab
bath! They scott great deal about the
old Puritanic Sabbaths, and there is
amount of wit expended upon
that subject now-the Sabbaths they
used to have in New England.
l never lived in New England, but 1
would rather trust the old Puritanic Sab
bath, with all its faults, than this modern
which is fast becoming no Sab
bath at all. If our modern Sabbatism
shall produce as stalwart Christian char