Connecticut western news., 1891-07-23

in purple and gold the letter "F." Have all the prayers of that old chair been answered2 Have all the counsels of that old chair been practiced7 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 their 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, o man, going to bring a wreath of joy and Christian usefulness and put it on your fathers brow, or on the vacant chair, or on the memory of one departed2 Speak out, old armchair With refer ence to your father, the words of my text have been fulfilled, Thou shalt be missed. because thy seat will be empty
 MOTHERS CHAIR
 go little further on in your house and find the mothers chair It is very apt to be a rocking chair. She had so many cares and troubles to soothe that it must have rockers re member it we'll. It was an old chair and the rockers were almost worn out, for was the youngest, and the chair had rocked the whole family. It made a creaking noise as it 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 Ahl what chair that was It was different from the fathers chair; it was entirely different. You ask me how. cannot 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 It was a 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 Iullabies and all those worthless songs which mothers sing to their sick children-songs in which all pity and compassion and sym pathetic influences are combined.
 That old chair has stopped rocking for good many years. It may be set up in the loft or the garret, but it holds 8 queenly power yet When at mid night you went into that grog shop to get the intoxicating draft, did you not hear voice that said, My son, why go in there2' 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 abandonment, a voice saying, What would your mother do if she knew you were here2" And you were provoked with yourself, and you charged yourself with super stition and fanaticisIn 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 voice said: "Whatl a prayer less pillow2 Man! what is the matter2' This, You are too near your mothers rocking chair
 "Oh, pshawl" you say. "There's nothing in that; I'm five hundred miles off from where was born; Pm three thousand 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 any thing in that; that chair has been va cant great while." cannot help that; It is all the lnightier for that; it is om- nipotent, that vacant mothers chair It whispers, it speaks, it weeps, it carols, it mourns, it prays, it warns, it thunders. A young man went of 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! mother! what your life could not do your death shall effect This moment l 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"
 AN INvALID's USEFULNESS.
 go on a little further. and 1 come to the invalid's chair. What How long have you been sick' "Oh. have been sick ten. twenty, thirty years Is it possible9 What a story of endur ancel There are in many of the fami lies of my congregation these invalids' chairs The occupants of them think they are doing no good in the world but that invalid's chair is the mighty pulpit from which they have been preaching. all these years, trust in God The first time preached here at Lake ide, Ohio amid the througs present there was iot!lins that SO much i'm pressed ll, ;,s the spectacle of just one face the face of an invalid who was wheeled u ,n her chair. l said to her afterward "Madanl, how long have you been pro>tratedI /" for she was lying Hat in the chair 'OH." sine replied,
 T have beel, thIs way fifteen years. I said. Do you suffer very ,nuch2" "Oh, yes" she said. II suffer very much suffer all the time Part of the time was blind always suffer"
 We'll" l said, can you keep your courage up2" "Oh, yes" she said. ''I am happy, very happy, indeed" Her
 face showed it. Sle looked the hap
 piest of any one on the ground
 Oh, what means of grace to the
 world, these invalid chairs. On that field of human suffering the grace of God gets it's victory. Edward Payson. the invalid, and Richard Baxter, the in
 valid, and Robert Hall. the invalid