The Russellville Democrat., 1889-01-24
Day Of oil the week the best

The Christian man stands radiant in it's light. His bereft heart rejoices at the thought of q country where there is neither
 coffin nor grave this weary body glows
 at the idea of land where there are no burdens to carry, and no exhaustive jour- neys to take. He eats the grapes of Esh- col. He stands upon the mountain top and looks of upon the promised land. He hears the call of the eternal towers. and the tramp of the numberless multitude with sins forgiven. Let is rejoice and be glad in 1t. Oh, ye who have been hunting for Sunday pleasures in the street, and on the river bank, and in the house of sin, commend to you this holy day and holy service I do not invite you to swallow great bitterness or to carry heavy yoke, but invite you to feel in body, mind and soul the thrill of joy which God has hand. ed down in the chalices of the golden Sabbath.
 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 Christianity in this country, farewell to our civil and religious liber- ties. When they go, all go. He who has ever spent Sunday in Paris, or Antwerp, or Rome, if he be an intelligent Chris. tian, will pray God that the day will never come whan the Sabbath of Continental Europe shall put it's foot upon our shores. 1 had friend in Syracuse who lived to be one hundred years of age. He said to me In his ninety ninth year: "I went across the mountains in the early history of this country. Sabbath morning came. We were beyond the reach of civilization, My comrades were all going out for an excursion. I said: No, won't go; it is Sunday Why, they laughed. They said: We haven't any Sunday here.' oh, yes,' sad, you have. I brought it with me over the mountains.'"
 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 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 Sabbath school and the house of God. That will not relieve the matter. I 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 anywise throw con- tempt upon it, you are blasting your chil-
 T.. l..Q T& s. truth, know, told in @ rough way; but it is Gods truth, nev ertheless. Your child may go on to seventy or eighty years of age, but that child will never get over the awful disadvantage of hav- ing had a Sabbath breaking father or Sabbath breaking mother. It 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 1t was day 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 associations, and we may have been off and committed many indiscretions and done many wrong things, but the day will never come when we forget the early home in which Gods day was regarded, and father and mother told us to keep holy the Sabbath.
 
 There is another way in which we con 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 inspiring. I plead not for gorgeous audience cham Der; I plead not for groined rafters or fresco; but I do plead for comfortable churches, home-li like churches places where the church-going popula- ton 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 1 think the Church of God Is hot 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 ar rest them. An? when the prodigal comes into the church, do not stars 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: "I'll go to the house of God" Perhaps he comes from one motive, perhaps from another. He finds the church darl. and the Christian people frigid (and there are no people on earth who can be more frigid than Chris ' is dull, and he never comes again. Sup pose one of these men enters the church. As he comes in he hears song which his mother sang when he was a boy; he re- members it. He site down, and some one hands him book, open at
 Jerusalem, my happy home,
 Name ever dear to me.
 "Yes," he says, 'I have heard that many times" He sees cheerful Christian people there, every mans face a psalm of to God. He says: Do you have this so every Sunday? I have heard l that the house of God was doleful place, | and Christians were lugubrious and re- peling 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: q am surprised to find you here. | I thought you didn't believe in such | things" "Ahi" he says, "I have been | captured. I came in one day, and found | you were all so loving and cheerfu hero | that concluded would come amo ong you. | Where thou goest will go; thy people shall be my people, and thy G cd my God. | Where thou diest will die, and there will | be buried"
 An you can't drive men out of the ir | sins, but you can coax them out you can | charm them out.
 would to God that we could all come to | \ higher appreciation of this Sabbath her. tagel We can not count the treasures of | one Christian Sabbath. It spreads out | over us the two wings of the archangel of | mercy. Oh, blessed Sabbath blessed | Sabbath They sooff great deal about | .he old Puritanic Sabbaths, and there is a wonderful amount of wit expended upon | he subject now-the Sabbaths they used | 10 have in New England.
 I never lived in New Englaa d, but | would rather trust the old Puritanic Sab path, with all it's faults, than this modern | khaf tob is faO harAYf,tpn Gah. |