News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1889-01-24

hoy, | never got over it. and never will
Those parents did not call the Sabbath a
delight they made it a gloom. But there
are houses represented here this morning
where the children say through the week: Il
wonder when Sunday will Gomez They are
anxious to have it come. | hear their no.
sauna in the house: | hear their hOsanna in
the school. God intended the Sabbath to be
especially a day for the father. The mother
IS bone all the week. Sabbath day comes,
and God says to the father, who has been
busy from Monday morning to Saturday
night at the store, or away from home: This
is your day. See what you can do in this
little flock in preparing them for heaven.
This day l set apart for you" You know
very well that there are many parents who
are mere suffers of the household; they
provide the food and raiment; once in a
while, perhaps, they hear the child read q
line or two in the new prim r; or if there be
a case of especial discipline, and the mother
can not manage it, the child is brought up
in the court-martial of the fathers discipline
and punished. That is all there is of it. No
scrutiny of that child's immortal interests,
no realization of the fact that the child will
soon go out in a world where there are gigan-
tic and overwhelming temptations that have
swamped millions. But in some households
it is not that way; the home. beautiful on
ordinary days, is more beautiful now that
the Sabbath has dawned. There is more
joy in the good morning" There is
more tenderness in the morning prayer.
The father looks at the child,
and tho child looks at the
father. The little enc dares now to ask
questions without any fear of being an
swered: Don't bother mel must be off to
the stors.n Now the father looks at the child.
and he sees not merely the blue eyes. the
arched brow. the long lashes, the sweet lip.
He sees in that child a long line of earthly
destinies; he sees in that child an immeasur-
ably eternity. As he touches that child he
says: II wonder what will be the destiny of
this little one?' And while this Christian
father is thinking and praying, the sweet
promise flows through his soul: "Of such is
the kingdom of heaven" And he feels a joy.
not like that which sounds in the dance, or is
waited from the froth of the wine-cup, or
that which is like the Cracking of thorns
under a pot but the joy of domestic reunion
and conservation.
Have | been picturiEg something that is
merely f~anciful, or is it possible for you and
and for me to have such a home as that? |
believe it is possible.
l have a statistic that I would like to give
you. A great many peop'e. You know, say
there is nothing in the Christian discipline of
a household. In New Hampshire there were
two neighborhoods-the one of six families,
the other of five families. The six families
diSregarded the Sabbath. In time, five of
thes families were broken up by the separa-
t on of husbands and wives; the other by the
father becoming a thief. Eight or nine of
the parents became ~drunkardS, one com
mitted suicide, and all came to penury
OF some forty or fifty desc ndants,
about twenty are known to be drunkards
and gamblers and dissoluto. Four or five
have been in State prison. One fell in a
duel. Some are in the almshnusc. Only one
became a Christian, and he after first having
been OutrageOuSly diSSipatei. The other five
families that regarded the Sabbath were all
prospered. Eight or ten of the children are
consistent members of the church. Some of
them became officers in the church; one is a
minister of the Gospel; one is a missionary to
China. No poverty among any of them.
The homestead is now in the hands of the
thir generation. Tho7e who have died have
died in the peace of the Gospel. oh, is there
nothing in a hCu~eho d that IT members Coils
holy day. Can it be possibly that those who
disregard this holy commandment can he
prospered for this life, or have any good
hope of the life that is to come.
Again, we ought to have IN the Sabbat
the ioy of Christian aSSembl1ge. here are
all those people going on the Sabbath! You
see them moving up and down the street Is
it a festal day, people might ask! has
there been some public edlct commanding
the people to come forth9 No, they are wor-
shippers of God who are going to their places
of religious service. In what delicate scale
shall l weigh the Joy of Christian convoca-
ton? 1t gives brightness to the eye, and a
flush to the cheek. and a pressure to the
hand, and a thrill to the heart. You see the
aged man tottering along on his staff through
the aisle. You see the little child led by the
hand of its mother. You look around and
rejoice that this is Gods day, and this IS the
communion of saints. One Lord, one
faith, one baptism" Some familiar tune
gels all the soul aquiyer and aquake with
rapture. We plunge into some old hymn,
and all our cares and anxletles are Dathed
off. The glorious Gospel transports US, The
Spirit descends, Jesus appears, and we feel
the bounding, spreading, electric JOY OF
Christian Convocation-
1 look upon the Church of God as one vast
hosanna. JOY dripping from the baptlsInal
font, joy glowing in the cup,
Joy warbling in the anthem. JOY beating
against the gate Of heaven with a haIleluJah
like the voice of mighty thuuderlngs.
beautiful for situation! The JOY of the
whole earth is Mount Zion. 1t is the day
and the place where Christ reviews his
troops, bringing them out in companies ana
regiments and battalions, riding along the
line. examining the battle-torn flags of past
combat. and cheering them on to future
victories. Oh, the joy of Christian assem-
blage!
l remark also, we are to have in this day
the Joy of eternal Sabbatism. l do not be-
lieve it possible for any Christian to spend
the Lords day here without thinking OF
heaven. There is something in the gathering
of people in church on earth to make one
think of the rapt ~assemhlage of the skies.
J here is something in the song of the Chris
tian Church TO make one think of the song of
the elders before the throne, the harp'sts and
the trumpeters of Col accompanying the
harmony. The light of a better Sabbath
gilds the top of this, and earth and heaven
come 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.
"Dav of all the week the hest,
Emblem Of eternal rest"
The Christian man stands radiant in its
light. His bere3t heart ~reioices at the
Thought of a country where there is neither
n coffin nor grave; his weary BODY g!ows at
the idea of a land where there are no bur
dens to carry, and no exhaustive Journeys to
take. He eats the grapes of EshcOl. He
stands upon the mountain top and looks off
upon the promised land. He hears the call
of the eternal towers, and the tramp of the
numberless multitude with sins forgiven.
This is the dav which the Lord hath made.
Let us rejoice and la glad in it. Oh, We who
have been hunting for Sunday Pleasures in
the street, and on the river bank, and in the
houses of sin, ] commend to you this holy
day and holy service! | do not invite you
to swallow a great bitterness or to carry n
heavy yoke; but I invite you to feel in body,
mind and soul the thrill of Joy which God
has handed down in the chalices of the golden
Sabbath.
With what revu1s:on and with what pity
we must look out on that large class of per-
SOILS III our nav WHO Nlllil blfb" NlSCICtib
upon the Lords day. There are two things
which Christian pnoDle ought never TO give
up: the one is the Bible, the other is the Sab
hath. Take away one, and you take both.
Take eitherr and farewell to Christianity in
this country, farewell to our civil and relig-
ious liberties. When they 60, all 20 He who
has ever spent Sunday in Paris, or Antwerp,
or Rome, if he be an intelligent Christian,
will pray God that the day will never come
when the Sabbath of Continental Europe shall
-,N . F1-A 1900 ~.r- 49, lid - f~to-A
in Syracuse who lived to be 100 years of aga
He said to me, in his n~inetv-ninth year: Il
went across the mountains in the early his
tory of this country. Sabbath morning came
we were beyond the reach of civilization.
NV comrades were all going out for an excur.
sion. ! said: No. I won't GO: it is Sunday
WHY, thew laughed. They said: I'VE haven't
sny Sunday here oh, yes ] slid, you
have. 1 brought it with me over the noun
tains'"
There are two or three ways in which we
can war against Sabbath breaking usageS in
this day; and the first thing is to get
our children right upon tn s subject, and
teach them that the Sabbath day is the
hottest 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 re-
sDonsibility in the matter, and send your
child to the abbath-s school and the house of
God; that win not relieve the matter. l
want to tell ynu, in the name of Christ. my
Maker and my Judge, that your example
will be more potential than any instruction
thoy get elsewhere: and if you disregard the
Lords day yourself, or in any wise throw
contempt upon it, you are blasting your
children with nm infinite curse. It is a
rough truth, know. tod in a rough way;
but it is Gods truth, nevertheless. Your
child may go on to seventy or eighty years
of age, hut that child will never get over the
awful disadvantage of having had a Sab
h-breaking father or a Sahhath-hreaking
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