Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1889-01-23

LucIc Is uOtulnR IN Lne CnrlSLlan QlSc1pllu
of household. In New Hampshire ther'
were two neighborhoods-the one of si1
families, the other of five families. The
six families disregarded the Sabbath. II
time. five of these families were broken uI
by the separation of husbands and wives
the other by the father becoming thief
Eight or niue of the parents became drunk.
ards, one committed suicide, and all came
to penury. Of some forty or fifty descend
ants, about twenty are known to be drunk
ards and gamblers and dissolute. Four or
five have been in State prison. One fell in
duel. Some are in the almshouse. Only
ons became Christian, and he after first
having been outrageously dissipated. The
other five families that regarded the Sab
bath 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 minister of the Gospel;
one is missionary to China. No poverty
among any of them. The homestead is
now In the hands of the third generation
Those who have died have died in the
peace of the Gospel. Oh, is there nothing
in household that remembers Gods holy
day? Can it be possible that those who
disregard this holy commandment can be
hope of the life that is to come?
Again, we ought to have in the Sab.
bath the Joy of Christian assembage-
Where are all those people going on the
Sabbath? You see them moving up and
down the street. Is it festal day? peo-
pie might ask. Has there been some
public edict commanding the people to
come forth? No, they are only worship
III nh fn hofr
places of religious service. In what deli
tisn convocationP 1t gives brightness to
the eye, and flush to the cheek, and {.
pressure to the hand, and tblili to til.
heart. You see the aged man tottering
along 90 his staff through the aisle. You
mother. You lock around and rejoice
that this is Gods day, and this the com
munion of saints. ''One Lord, one faith.
one baptism" Some familiar tune seis
all the soul quiyef and a-quake with
rapture. We plunge into some old hymn,
and all our cares and anxieties are bathed
off. The glorious Gospel transports us,
the Spirit descends, Jesus appears, and we
feel the bounding, spreading, electric jag
of Christian conyocatioa.
| look upon the Church of God as one
vast hosanna. Joy dripping from the bap
tismal font, jog glowing in the sacrameutsl
cup, joy warbliug iu the anthem, joy beat
ing against the gate of heaven with hal
lelujah like the voice of mighty thunder
ipgs. Beautiful for situation! The joy of
the whole earsh is Mount Zion. 1t Is the
day and the place where Christ reviews his
troops, bringing them out fn companies and
N mania and hoftalinpc ridinn alOnn tha
line, examining the battle-torn flags of past
combat, and cheering them on to future vic.
Iories. Oh, the joy of Christian assem-
olagel
l remark also, we are to have in this day
ieve it possible for any Christian to spend
'he Lords day here without thinking of
heaven. There is something in the gather
ng of people in church on earth to make
me think of the rapt assemblage of the
kies. There is something in the song of
he Christian Church to make one think of
he song of the elders before the throne, the
,arpists and the trumpeters of God accom-
oanying the harmony. TIE light of bet
er Sabbath gilds the top of this, and earth
md heaven come within speaking distance
# each other, the song of triumph waving
backward and forward, now tossed up by
he Church of earth, now sent back by the
Church of heaven.
"Day of ell the week the best,
Emblem OF eternal rest,
The c.. a. man stands radiant 10 it's
ight. z heG t rejoicss at the
houpht . c,ls : whsre there is neither
caffii &c 6 2r4: us weary b1dy glows at
ho idea - z IA 1lere there are no bur-
lens to c ! a4d no exhaustive journeys to
AXE. He eats the grapes of E'hcol. He
tands upon the mountain top and looks off
lpon tbs promised land. He hears the call
If the eternal towers and the tramp of the
,umbsrless multitude with sins forgiven.
This is the day which the Lord hata made
Let US rejoice aud be glad in it. Oh, ye
Who have been hunting for Sunday pleas
Tres in the street., and on the river bank,
md in the houses of sin, commend to you
his holy day and holy service! l do not
invite you to swallow great bitterness or
20 carry heavy yoke, but invite you to
EEL in body, mind and soul the thrill of joy
which God has handed down in the chalices
ot the golden Sabbath.
With what revnlsion aud with what pity
We must look out on that large class of per-
sons in our day who would throw discredit
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
Take away one, and you take
both. Tske either, and farewell to Chris
tianity in this country, farewell to cur civil
and religious liberties. When they 60, all
20. He who has ever spent Sunday in
Paris, or Antwerp, OF Rome, if he be an in
telligeEt Christian, will pray God that the
lay will never come when the Sabbath OF
Europe shall put its foot upon
our shores. l bad 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 his
tory of this country. Sabbath morning
came. We were beyond the reach of civili-
ration. My comrades were all going out
for an excursion. / said: No; won't go;
1t is Sunday Why, they laughed. They
said: we haven't any Sunday here 'Ob,
yes said, You have. | brought it with
me over the mountains
There are tgo 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 this subject, and teach
them that the Sabbath day is the holiest of
ali the days, aud the best and the gladdest-
Unless you teach your child under the pa
ternal roof to keep the Lords day there are
nine hundred and ninety chances out of q
it will never leara to keep the
Sabbath. You may think to shirk respon-
sibility 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, may 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 anywise throw
upon it, you are blasting your
children with an infinite curse. It is
rough truth. know, told in a rough way;
but it is Gods truth, nevertheless. Your
child may go on to seventy or eighty years
Of age, but that child will naver get over
the awful disadvantage of having had a
Sabbath. breaking father or Sabbath
breaking mother. 1t is tho joy Of many of
us that we can look back to an early home
where God was honored, and when the Sab
bath came it was day of great consecra.
tion and joy. We remember ths old faces
around tho table that Sabbath morning.
Cur hearts melt when we think of those