The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1890-02-20


alas! alas! There may be geranium and
cactus in that family window, and up
holstery lowering over IL, and childish
faces looking out of 1t, but there is no
scarlet thread stretched across it. Al
though that house may seem to be on
the best street in all the town or city,
it is really on the edge of marsh
across which sweep most poisonous
malarias, and it has a sandy foundation,
and its splendor will come down, and
great will be the fall of it. A home
without God! A prayerless fatherl An
undevoted motherl Awful! awful! Is
that you? VIII you keep on, my broth
err, on the wrong road, and take your
loved ones with you? Time is so short
that we can not waste any of it on apol-
ogies, or indirections, or circumlo-
cutions. You owe to your children, o,
father, q. mother, more than food, more
than clothing, more than shelter-you
owe them the example of a prayer
full, consecrated, pronounced, out-and-
out Christian life. You can afford to
keep it away from them.
Now, as | stand here, you do not see
any hands outstretched toward me, and
yet there are hands on my brow and
hands on both my shoulders. They are
hands of parental benediction. 1t is
quite good many years ago now since
we folded those hands as they began
the last sleep on the banks of the
Raritan in the village cemetery; but
those hands are stretched out toward
me to-day, and they are just as gentle as
when sat on her knee at five years of
age. And | shall never shake off those
hands. | do not want to. They
have helped me so much o thousand
times already, and l do not expect
to have a trouble or a trial between
! this and my grave where those hands
will not help me. 1t was not a very
| splendid home, as the world calls it;
but we had family Bible there, we'll
worn by tender perusal; and there was
a family altar there, where we knelt
morning and night and there was a
| holy Sabbath there; and stretched in a
straight line or hung in loops or fes-
toons there was scarlet line in the
window. Oh, the tender, precious,
blessed memory of Christian home! Is
that the impression you are making
|
and it will not be long before you are
when you are dead will your child
say:
IF there ever was a good Christian
father, mine was one. If there ever
was good Christian mother, mine was
one"
Still further: we want this scarlet
! line of the text drawn across the win
dow of our prospects. / see Rahab and
! her father, and her mother, and her
! brothers and sisters looking out over
Jericho the city of palm trees, and
across the river, and over at the army
invading, and then up to the mountains
and the sky. Mind you, this house was
on the wall, and suppose the prospect
| from the window must have been very
wide. Beside that, do not think that
the scarlet line at all interfered with
the view of the landscape. Tho assur-
ance it gave of safety must have added
to the beauty of the country. To-day,
my friends, we sit in the window Of
earthly prospects, and we look off to-
wards the hills of Heaven and the land
scape of eternal beauty. God has
opened the window for us, and we look
out We now only get dim outline Of
the inhabitants. We now only here and
there catch a note of the exquisite har.
mony.
But blessed be God for this scarlet
line in the window. That tells me that
the blood of Christ bought that home
for my soul, and l shall go there when
my work is done. And as put my hand
on that scarlet line, every thing in the
future brightens. My eyesight gets
better, and the robes of the victors are
more lustrous, and our loved ones who
went away some time ago-they do not
stand any more with their backs to us,
but their faces are this way and their
voices drop through this Sabbath air,
saying with all tenderness and sweet
ness: Come! Come! Come!" And the
child that you think of only as buried
why, there she is, and it is May day in
Heaven; and they gather the amaranth,
and they pluck the lilies, and they
twist them into garland for her brow,
and she is one of the May queens of
| Heaven.
o do you think they could see our
waving to-day? 1t is quite pleasant
day, pretty clear, and not many clouds
in the sky. l wonder if they can see us
from that good land? l think they can.
If from this window of earthly prospects
we can almost see them, then from their
towers of light l think they can fully
see us. And so l wave them the glory.
and l wave them the joy, and l say:
''Have you got through with all your
| trOubles?" and their voices answer:
God hath wiped away all tears from
our eyes"
say: SIS it as grand up there as you
thought it would be?" and the voices an,
swer:
Eye hath not seen nor ear heard,
neither hath it entered into the heart Of
man, the things which God hath pre-
pared for those that love Him."
''Do you have any more struggle for
bread?"
1--WE hunger no more, we thirst no
more"
'Have you been out to the cemetery
of the golden city?"
There is no death here"
And look out through the heavens,
and 1 say: where do you get your
light from nights and what do you burn
in the temple?" and they answered:
There is no night here, and we have
no need of candle or OF star"
"What book do you sing out Of p
| '"The Halleluiah Chorus"