The Hazel Green herald. [volume] (Hazel Green, Wolfe County, Ky.) 1885-19??, 1891-08-21

throne room of your heart, and your
affections have embroidered the back
of that chair in purple and gold the
letter "F." Have all the prayers of
that old chair been answered? Have
all the councils of that old chair been
practiced? Speak out! old armchair.
History tells us of an old man whose
three sons were victors in the Olympic
games, and when they came back,
these three sons, with their garlands,
put them on the fathers brow, and the
old man was so rejoiced at the victories
of his three children that he fell dead
in their arms.
And are you, oh man, going to bring
a wreath of Joy and Christian useful
ness and put it on your fathers brow,
or on the vacant chair, or on the memo
ry of the one departed? Speak out! old
armchair With reference TO your
father, the words of my text has been
fulfilled: Thou shalt be missed, be-
cause thy seat shall be empty"
90 little further on in your house,
and find the mothers chair. 1t Is very
apt TO be a rocl1ing-chair. She had so
many cares and troubles to soothe that
it must have rockers. ! remember
it well. 1t was an old chair, and the
rockers were almost worn out, for
was the youngest, and the chair had
rocked the whole family. 1t made n
creaking noise as il moved; but there
was music in the sound. It was just
high enough to allow us children to put
our heads into her lap. That was the
bank where we deposited all our hurts
and worries All! what chair that
was.
1t was different from the fathers
chair; it was entirely different. You
ask me how? | can not tell; but we
all felt it was different. Perhaps there
was about this chair more gentleness,
more tenderness, more grief when we
had done wrong. When we were way
ward father scolded, but mother cried.
1t was n very wakeful chair. In the
sick days of children other chairs could
not keep awake; that chair always kept
awalSe-kept easily awake. That chair
knew all the old lullabies and all those
wordless songs which mothers sing to
their sick children-songs in which all
pity, and compassion, and sympathetic
influences are combined. That old
chair has stopped rocking for a good
many years. 1t may be set up in the
loft or garnet, but it holds a queenly
power yet
When at midnight you went into that
grogshop to get the Intoxicating
draught, did you not hear a voice that
said: "My son, why go in there?" And
louder than the boisterous encore of
the place of sinful amusement
voice saying: my son, what
do you do here?" And when
you went into the house of abandon
ment n voice saying: what would
your mother do II she knew you were
here?" And you were provoked with
yourself, and you charged yourself with
superstition and fanaticism, and your
head got hot with your own thoughts,
and you went home and you went to
bed, and no sooner had you touched the
bed than n voice said: what. a prayer
less pillow? Man! what is the matter?"
This: You are too near you mothers
rocking-chair.
''Oh, pshaw"' you say. There's
nothing in that; I'm five hundred miles
off from where i was born; I'm three
thousand miles off from the church
whose bell was the first music I ever
heard" l can not help that; you are
too near your mothers rocking-chair.
oh" you say there can't be any
thing in that; that chair has been va
cant great while" l can not help
that; it is all the mightier for that; it is
that vacant mothers
chair. Ii whispers; it speaks; it weeps;
it carols; il mourns; it prays; it warns;
it thunders. A young man went off
and broke his mothers heart, and while
he was away from home his mother
died, and the telegraph brought the
son, and he came into the room where
she lay and looked upon her face, and
he cried out: "Oh, mother motherl
what your life could not do your death
shall effect This moment give my
heart to God"
And he kept his promise. Another
victory for the vacant chair. With
reference TO your mother, the words of
my text were fulfilled: Thou shalt be
missed, because thy seat will be
empty"
go on little further, and come to
the invalid's chair, What! How long
have you been sick? "Oh, have been
sick ten, twenty, thirty years." Is it
possible? What story of endurance.
There are in many of the families of
my congregation these invalids' chairs.
The occupants of them think they are
doing no good in the world, but that in
valid's chair is the mighty pulpit from
which they have been preaching, all
these years, trust in God.
The first time that / nreached here nj