Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-07-20
THE EMPTY CHAIR.
Talmage Takes David'S Vacant Place
at Saul's Banquet as His Text.
MOTHERS BELOVED OLD ROCKER.
The ElOquence Of Furniture Which the Dear
Departed Have Used.
BELOVED OLD ROCKER.
A FINE SERMON UPON HOME INFLUENCES
rsPEcIAL TELEGRAM TO THE pIsPArcH.1

LAKESIDE, O., July 19.-For many year:
people have gathered in multitudes at this
season of the wear for great outdoor as
semblv. The grounds are a short sail from
Sanduskv. The place is beautiful beyond
description. DR.. Talmage preached TINS
morning in this delightful place to vast
multitude His subject was the Vacant
Chair" and his text, Samuel, 2o:lS: Thou
shalt be missed, because thy sest VIII be
empty
Set on the table the cutlery and the chased
silverwnre of the palace. for King Saul will
give n state dinner to-day. 4 distinguished
Olace Is kept at the table for his son-ln-law,
n celebrated warrior, David by name. Ihe
guests. jeweled and plumed, come IN ahl
take their places. When people are m VI ,s
to n kings banquet they are very APP 70 ~ ~
But before the covers are lttted nom the
feast, saul looks around and mas hhcnu.
scat at the table. He says within hlmseIL !;
pernaps audiblv, what does tnis . nleaH'
Where is my son-inlaw? Where is David,
the great warrior? l invited MN. l eA. So
pected him. What. a vacant cnilr RiI a. lne
Kings bGnquet!' The fact was that IN ~; ~,
the warrior, had been seated LOT rue last SisN
time at his father-in-law's table; 1ne uaA
before Jonathan had coaNed David 20 20 d ai.C' ~.
occupy that place at the taplc, s'H sly inS Is ~ y
he missed because Inv seat will be empty
The prediction was fulfilled. DaVlu Mas
missed. His seat was empty. i nLo AZ o occu-
cant chair spoke louder than all '"0 WV
pied chairs at the banquet.
Personality of Furniture.
In almost every house the articles on iui,
niture take q living personality In'U pl"
ture-a stranger would not see anything IT,
markable either IN its design Or execution
but ii is more to yoG than all the pictures OF
the Louvre and the Luxembourg. You re
member who bought 1t ana Who
admired it, And that hymn-bool,
And that cradle-you remember who Rocked
it. And that Bihle-you remember who road
out of it. And that hed-you remember who
slept in it. And that room-you relnember
who died in it, But there is nothing in All ronr
house so eloquent and SO mighty Voiced as
the vacant chair. | suppose thai befr,re
Saul ana his guests got up from this hon
Quet there was a great clatter of wine Mitch
ers, but all that racket was drowned ont
by the voice that came up from the yecent
chair at the table. Millions have gozed and
Wept at Johh quincy ADAMS vacant chair
in the House of Representatives and at
Henry Wilson's vacant chair in the Vice
Presidency, and at Henry Claws vacant
CHAIR in the American Senate and at Primes
Albert'S vacant chair IN Windsor Castle and
at Theirs vacant chair in the councils of
the French nation: but all these chairs are
unlmportant TO you as compared with the
vacant chalrs IN your own household. Have
these chairs any lesson for us to learn? Are
We any better men and women than when
they first addressed u.s.
Your Fathers Chair,
First, point out TO you the fathers vacant
chair. Old men always like to sit in the
same place and in the same chair They
somehow ieel more at home, and some
times when you arc in their place and they
come into the rom, You jump up suddenly
and say, here, father, here's your CHAIR
The probability is it is an armchair, for he
Is not so strong he once was, and he needs
q little upholdiug. His hair is a little frosty
hls gums little depressed, for in his eariv
days there was not much dentistry Per
haps cane chair and old d-fashioned apparel
Tor though you may have suggested some
any OF your nonsense. Grandfather
never had much admiration for new
tangled notions. sat at the
table of one of my par1shioners in a former
congrega tion; an aged man was at the table
ana the son was presiding, and the father
somewhat abruptly addressed the son and
si,H said: my son, don't try to SHOW OF because
liked any new customs or manners; he pre-
ferred the old way of doing things, and he
never looked so happy as when, with his
corner. From the wrinkled brow to the tip
of the slippers, what placidity! The wave
of the past years of his life broke at the
loot OF that chair.
Inc fate OF Lear.
Perhaps, sometimes ne was a little i'm
patient, andAsometimeS told the same story
twice; but over that old chair how many
blessed memories hover! l hope YOU did
not crowd that old chair, and that it did not
get very much IN the way. Sometimes the
old mans chair gets very nuch in the WAY
especially If he has been so unwise es TO
make over all his property to his children,
with the understanding that they are to
take care OF him. l have seen in such cases
children crowd the old mans chair to the
door, and then crowd it clear into the street.
and then crowd ii into the poor house and
keep on crowding it until the old man fell
out of it into his grave.
But your fathers chair was sacred place.
The children used to climb up on the rungs
for goodnight kiss, and the longer he
stayed the better you liked it. But that
chair has been vacant now for some time.
The furniture dealer would not give you 30
cents for il, but it is throne OF influence in
your domestic circle.
so little further on in your house, and
find the mothers chair. L is very apt to
be "A rocking chair She had so MANY cares
and troubles to soothe that it must have
rockers. remember il well. 1t was an old
1oI / was the youngest, and the chair had
rocked the whole family.
The Mothers Throne,
1t made creaking noise as it moved: but
there was music in the sound. 1t was lust
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 a chair that was. 1t was different
from the fathers chair; it was entirely diff
ferent. Perhaps there was about this chair
more gentlcness, more tenderness more
grief when we had done wrong When we
were wayward father scolded but mother
cried. 1t was very wakeful chair. In the
sick days of children other chairs could not
keep awake; that chair ALWAYS kept awake
kept easily awake That chair knew all the old
lullabies and all those wordlesS songs which
mothers sing 10 their sick children-songs
In which al pity, and compassion and SYM
pathetic influences are combined That old
chair has stopped rocking for good many
years. 1t may be set up in the loft or the
garnet, but 1t holds a queenly power vet
When at midnight YOU went into that ofo,y
sho9to get the intoxicating draught, did you
go in there2' Ana louder than the bolster
Gus encore of the place of sinful amusc-
ment, voice saying, MY son, what do you
do here?' And You were provoked with
yourself and you charged yourself with su-
perstition 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 a voice
said: "W hat! prIyerless pillow? Man!
what is the matter" This: You are too near
your mothers rocking-chair.
Distance No Matter.
"oh, pshawIT you say. There's nothing
in that; I'm 800 miles of from where | was
born; I'm 5000 miles of from the church
whose bell was the first music ever heard"
! cannot help that; you are too near your
mothers rocking chair "Oh," you say,
there can't be anything in that; that chair
has been vacant Il great while" / cannot
help that; il is all the mightier for that; 1t is
omnipotent, that vacant mothers chair. 1t
whispers; 1t speaks; it wecps; it carols; it
Young man went of and broke his mothers