Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1889-02-01

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heavy yoke; but invite you 10 feel in body,
mind and soul the thrill of JOY which God
has handed down in the chalices of the golden
Sabbath.
With what revulsion and 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 Sab
hath. Take away one. and you take both.
Take either, and farewell TO Christianity in
this country, farewell to our civil and relig-
lous liberties. When they go, all go He who
has ever spent Sunday in Paris. or Antwerp,
Or Rome, il he be an intelligent Christian,
will pray God that the day viii never come
when the Sabbath of Continental Europe shall
but its foot upon our shores. had friend
n Syracuse who lived to he 100 years of age
He said TO me- in his ninety ninth year: 81
went across the mountains in the early his
rory of this country. Sabbath morning came.
We we're beyond the reach of civilization.
NY comrades were all going out for an excur::
sion. I said: g No, won't go; il Is Sunday
WHY. thew laughed. They said: I'VE haven't
any Sunday here' oh, yes said, you
have. brought it with me over the noun
tains "
mere are two or Jnree ways in wnicn We
can war against Sabbath. breaking usages in
this day; and the first thing is to get
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 thousand it will never learn to keep
the Sabbath. You may think to shtrK re-
sponsibilitv in the matter and send your
child to the Sabbath school and the house of
God; that will not relieve the matter. l
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. It is a
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 never get over the
awful disadvantage of having had Sab
bath breaking father or a misunderstanding
mother. 1t is the Joy of many Of us that we
can look back to an early home where God
was honored, and when the Sabbath came it
was a day of great conservation and joy.
We remember the old faces around the table
that Sabbath morning. Our hearts melt
when we think of those blessed associations,
and we may have been off and committed
many indiscretions and done many wrong
things but the day will never come when
was regarded, and father and mother told
us to keep holy the Sabbath.
There is another 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 re-
ligious services inspiring. l plead not for a
gorgeous audience chamber: | plead not for
groned rafters or magnificent fresco; but l
do plead for comfortable churches, home-like
churches-places where the church-going
population behave as they ought to- Make
the church welcome 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 treading on toward death
with no voice of mercy to arrest them.
All when the prodigal comes into
the 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 man wakes up from his sin, and
he says: "pll go to the house Of God" Per-
haps he comes from one motive perhaps
from another. He finds the church dark
and the Christian people frigid (and 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 one of these men enters
the church AS he comes in he hears q song
which his mother sang when he was a boy;
he remembers it. He sits down, and some
one hands him book open at
"Jerusalem, my happy home,
Name lear to me "
eyes, he saws, 81 have heard that many
times.n He sees cheerful Christian people
there, every mans face psalm of thanksglv-
ing to God. He says: do you have TINS SO
every Sunday? have heard that this house
of God was a doleful place, and Christians
were lugubrious and repelling lhave really
enjoyed myself" The next Sabbath the man
is again in the same place. Tears OF re-
pentance 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: 81 am surprised to find you here,
| thought you didn't believe in such things.
"Ahn he says, 81 have been captured, L
came in one day, and found you were all SO
loving and cheerful here that concluded
would come among you. Where thou goest
l 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't drive men out OF their sins,
but you can coax them out-you can cnarn
them out,
would to God that we could all come to
higher appreciation of this Sabbath heri..
tage We can not count the treasures or
one Christian Sabbath. 1t spreads out over
us the two wings of the archangel OF mercy.
Oh, blessed Sabbath! blessed Sabbath! They
scoff a great deal about the old Puritanc
Sabbaths, and there is wonderful amount
of wit expended upon that subject now-the
Sabbaths they used to have in New England.
l never lived in New England, but would
rather trust the old Puritanic Sabbath, with
all its faults, than this modern Sabbath,
which is fast becoming no Sabbath at all. If
our modern Sabbatism shall produce as stall
wart Christian character as the old New
England Puritanic Sabbatism, I shall be
satisfied, and | shall be surprised.
Oh, blessed day! blessed day ! should
like to die some Sabbath morning when the
air is full of church music and the bells are
ringing. Leaving my home group with
dying blessing, / should like to look off upon
some Christian assemblage chanting the
praises of God as went up to join the one
hundred and forty and four thousand and
the thousands of thousands standing around
the throne of Jesus Hank l hear the bell
of the old kirk on the hill side of heaven. 1t
is wedding bell, for behold the Bridegroom
cometh. 1t is victors bell for we are more
than conquerors through Him who hath
owed us. 1t is a Sabbath-bell. for it calls
the nations of earth and heaven to everlast'
ing repose.
"Oh when, thou city Of my God,
Shall ] thy courts ascend?
..A1nu haAAl