Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1890-01-23

They wait until their children swear
before they teach them the Importance
of righteous conversation They wait
until their children are all wrapped up
in this world before they tell them of
better world. Too 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 not
put the chief care between four and
nine?
The third thought hand to You from
my text is that the church of God is
good hiding place. When Jehosheba
rushes into the nursery of the King and
picks up Joash, what shall she do with
him? Shall she take him 10 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. But
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; so 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 enforcement.
Would God that we were as 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 golden
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 I'M
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 want, like Joash, to |
stay there until coronation. 1 mean to
be buried out of the house of God.
l tell you there is not more than one |
man out of a thousand that appreciates |
what the church is. Where are the |
souls that put aside one-tenth for Chris
tian stitutions-one-tenth 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 |
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
lying 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-
liction. l don't care how hard you
are, that is so. I said to a man
Of the world: ''Your son and
laughter are going to join our
Church next Sunday. Have you any
''Bless you," he said, Job
ections? 1 wish all my children be-
onged to the Church. 1 don't attend
70 those matters myself know l am
very wicked-but am very glad they
ire going, and l shall be there to see
hem. l am very glad, sir; l am very
ylad. l want them there" And so,
though you may have been wanderers
rom 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
III their lives within this sacred inclos-
Ire.
More than that, you yourself will
want the church for hiding place when
he mortgage is foreclosed, when your
laughter, Just blooming into woman
lood, 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
lall, and the nursery, you will want
ONE shelter from the tempest. All,
ONE of you have been run upon by mis-
ortune and trial; why do you not come
nto the shelter? l said to a widowed
mother after she had buried her only
after 1 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?"
Then she said:
81 can't bear to see the sun shine; my
cart is so dark that all the brightness
{ the natural world seems a mockery
D me-" o, darkened soull o, broken
earted man, broken-hearted woman.
ny do you not come into the shelter?
swing the door wide open. 1 swing it
rom wall to wall. Come in! Come in
,Ou want place where your troubles
hall be interpreted, where your bur-
ems shall be unstrapped, where your ,