The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1890-01-24

They wait until Their children sweal
before they teach them the importance
of righteous conversation. They wait
until their children are all wrapped W
In this world before they tell them Of q
better world. Toe late with your
prayers. Too late with your discipline
Too late with your benediction. You
put all care upon your children between
twelve and eighteen. Why do you moi
pat the chief care between four and
nine?
The third thought I hand to you from
my text is that the church Of God Is Z
good hiding place. When Jehoshebs
rushes into the nursery of the King and
picks up Joash, what shall she do with
him? Shall she take him to some room
in the palace? No; for the official
desperadoes will hunt through every
nook and corner of that building. Shall
she take him to the residence Of some
wealthy citizen? No; that citizen would
not dare to harbor the fugitive. Blu,
she has TO take him somewhere. She
hears the cry of the mob in the streets;
she hears the shrek Of the dying nobil-
ity; 50 she rushes with Joash unto the
room of the temple, into the house OF
God, and then she puts him down. She
knows that Athaliah and her wicked
assassins will not bother the temple a
great deal; they are not apt to go very
much to church, and so she sets down
Joash in the temple. There he will be
hearing the songs of the worshipers
year after year; there he will breathe
the odor Of the golden censers; in that
sacred spot he will tarry, secreted until
the six years have passed, and he come
to enthronement
Would God that we were az wise as
Jehosheba. and knew that the church of
God is the best hiding place. Perhaps
our parents took us there in early days;
they snatched us away from the world
and hid us behind the baptismal fonts
and amid the Bibles and the psalm
books. o, glorious inclosure! We have
been breathing his breath of the golde n
censers all the time, and we have seen
the lamb on the altar and We have
handled the plants which are the pray
ers of all saints, and we have dwelt un-
der the wings Of the cherubim. Glori-
GUS inclosure! When my father and
mother died and the property was set
tied up, there was hardly any thing left:
but they endowed us with a property
worth more than any earthly possession,
because they hid us in the temple. And
when days Of temptation have come
upon my soul have gone there for shell
ter; and when assaulted of sorrows
have gone there for comfort. and there
i mean to live. l wans, like Joash, tC
stay there until coronation. l mean tc
be buried out of the house of God.
| tell you there is not more than one
man out of thousand that appreciates
what the church is. Where are the
souls that put aside one-tenth for Chris
tan institutions-one-te of their in
come? Where are those who, having put
aside that one-tenth, draw upon it cheer
fully? Why, it is pull, and drag, and
hold on, and grab, and clutch; and Civ
ing is an affection to most people when
it ought to be an exhilaration and
rapture. Oh, that God would remodel
our souls On this subject, and that we
might appreciate the house of God as
the great refuge. If your children are
to come up to lives of virtue and happi-
ness, they will come up under the shadow
of the church. If the church does not
get them the world will.
All, when YOU pass away-and it will
not be long before you do-when you
pass away it will be satisfaction to
see your children in Christian society.
You want to have them sitting at the
holy sacraments. You want them min
Cling in Christian associations. You
would like to have them die in the sa-
cred precincts When you are on your
dying bed, and your little ones come up
to take your last word, and you look in
to their bewildered faces. you will want
to leave them under the church's bene-
diction. l don't care how hard you
are, that is so. l said to a man
Of the world: Your son and
daughter are going to join our
Church next Sunday. Have you any
''Bless you" he said. ''ob-
sections? l wish all my children be-
longed to the Church. l don't attend
20 those matters myself know l am
very wicked-but l am very glad they
are going, and l shall be there to see
them. / am very glad, sir; l am very
glad. l want Thorn there" And so,
though you may have been wanderers
from God, and though you may nave
sometimes caricatured the church of
Jesus, it is your great desire that your
IONS and daughters should be standing
Ill their lives within this sacred inclos-
ire.
More than that, you yourself will
want the church for a hiding place when
he mortgage is forecloSed, when your
laughter, just blooming into woman
hood, suddenly Clasps her hands in a
lumber that knows no waking, when
,aunt trouble walks through the parlor,
md the sitting-room, and the dining
fall, and the nursery, you will want
ome shelter from the tempest. All,
ome of you have been run upon by mis-
ortune ard trial; why do you not come
nto the shelter? l said to a widowed
mother after she had buried her only
on-months after said to her:
'How do you get along nowadays?"
''Oh," she replied, Il get along toler-
.bly well, except when the sun Shines
1 said: What do you mean by that?"
when she said:
81 can't bear to see the sun shine; my
,eart is so dark that ell the brightness
# the natural world seems a mockery |
o me-" o, darkened soul! o, broken |
learted man, broken-hearted woman.
Why do you not come into the shelter? |
swing the door wide open. swing it !
rom wall to wall. Come in. Come in, |
iou want place where your troubles |
hall be interpreted. where your bur- |
lens shall be unstrapped, where your |