The Brookhaven leader., 1889-01-24

| IaTeWell 10 our civil ana TtilHiOuS hDcT'
ties. When they go, all go. He who has
ever spent Sunday in Paris, or Antwerp
or Rome, IL he be an intelligent Chris
tian, will pray God that the day will never
come when the Sabbath Of Continental
Europe shall put its foot upon our shores
had friend in Syracuse who lived to be
one hundred yeas of age. He said to me
in his ninety year: al went across
the mountains in the early history of this
country. Sabbath morning came. We
were beyond the reach of civilization.
Ny comrades were all going out for ar
excursion. | said: mo, | won't GO; il Is
sunday Why, they laughed. They said:
we haven't any Sunday here ooh,
yes,' sad, y ii have. Wrought II with
me over the moGatainy.'o
| There are two or thr ec 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 hottest of all the days, and the best
and the gladdest. Unless You teach your
| child under the paternnl roof to keep the
Lords day there are nine hundred and
ninety chances out ot a thousand it Will
never lea 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. / 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 rsclf, or in anywise throw con-
tempt upon it, you are blasting your chill
dren with an infinite curse. 1t is rough
I tnl1 IN, n uo Int
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 hav-
ing 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 honOrcd, and
when the Sabbath came it was day of
great conservation and joy. We rcmem-
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 aud committed
many indiscrctiouS 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 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 inspiring. l
plead not for gorgeous audience cham
Der; | plead not for groined rafters or
magnificent fresco; but do plead for
comfortable churches. HON 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 whateve. may have
been their past history: for l think the
Church of God Is not so muca 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. 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: 'IIl 90 to the
house of God" Perhaps he comes from
ore motive, perhaps from another. He
finds the church dark and the Christian
people frigid (and there are no pc o lie on
earth who can be more frigid than Chris
tan people when they try), and the musi,
pose one OF these men enters the churc,
As he comes in he hears song which his
mother sang when he was boy; he re-
members it. He sit; down, and some one
hands him book, open at
Jerusalem, my happy home,
Name ever dear to me.
eyes" he says, 81 have heard that
many times" He sees cheerful Christian
nan,1n thaTa nvarI- r,tan3 y 20 a nc 1y, of
Thanksgiving to God. He says: ADO you
have this so every Sunday? l have heard
that the house of God was doleful place,
and Christians We're lugubrious ana re.
peling! l have really enjoyed myself"
The next Sabbath tn 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: 81 am surprised to find You here.
I thought you didn't believe In such
things" "Ah!" he says, 81 have beer
captured. l came i'll one day, and found
yOa were all so loving and cheerful here
that concluded would come among you.
Where thoI goast will go; thy people
shall be my people, AMI thy God my God.
Where thou diest wild die, and there will
l be buried"
All! you can't drive men ont of the ir
sius, but you can coa1 them ont you can
charm them out.
would to God that we could all come to
o higher appreciation OF this Sabbath her
itagel We can not count the treasures of
one Christian Sabbath. 1t spreads out
over US the two wings of the archangel Of
mercy. Oh, blessed Sabbath! blessed
Sabbath! They scott great deal about
the old Puritanic Sabbaths, and tn GRE is a
wonderful amount Of wit expended upon
the subject now-the Sabbaths they used
to have in New England.
l never lived in New E1glan d, but l
would rather trust the old Puritanic Sab
bath, with all its faults, than this m 1dern
Sabbath, which is fast becoming no Sab.
bath at all. II OR modern Sabbatism
shall produce as stalwart Christian char
acter as the old New England Puritanic
Sabbatism, | 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 a d ying blessing, should like
to look off upon some Christian assem-
blage 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. Hark! 1 hear the bell of the old
kirk on the hillside of Heaven. 1t is a
wedding bell, for behold the bridegroom
cOmeth. 1t is victor's bell, for we are
more than cOnquerOrs through Him who