The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1891-07-24

heaven TO your soul. III VIII pay It's
way. Its growing In the morning will
give the day cheerful starting, and
It's glee at night will give the day a
cheerful close. You do not like chill
irenl Then you had better stay out
Of heaven, for there are so many there
hey would fairly make you crazy |
Only about five hundred millions OF
theml The old crusty Pharisees told
the mothers to keep the children away
from Christ, "You bother him." they
said; you trouble the Master" Trou-
BILE himl He has filed heaven with
that kind Of trouble.
a pioneer in California says that, for
the first year or two after his residence
in Sierra Nevada county, there was not
single child in all the reach of hun
dred miles. But the Fourth of July
came, and the miners were gathered to
gether, and they were celebrating the
Fourth with Grafton and poem and a
boisterous brass band, and while the
band was playing an infants voice was
heard crying, and all the miners were
startled, and the swarthy men began to
think of their homes on the eastern
coast, and of their wives and children
far away, and their hearts were thrilled
with homesickness as they heard the
babe cry.
But the music went on, and the child
cried louder and louder, and the brass
band played louder and louder, trying
to drown out the infantile interruption,
when a swarthy miner the tears rolling
down his face, got up and shook his
fist and said, stop that noisy band
and give the baby chance" Oh,
there was pathos in it, as well as good
cheer in it. There is nothing to arouse
and melt and subdue the soul like a
child's voice. But when it goes away
from you the high chair becomes a
higher chair, and there is desolation all
about you.
In three-fourths of the homes of this
congregation there is a vacant high
chair Somehow you never get over it,
There is no one to put to bed at night !;
no one to ask strange questions about
God and heaven. Oh, what is the use
of that high chair2 1t is to call you
higher. What drawing upward it is
to have children in heaven! And then
it is such preventive against sin. If
a father is going away into sin he leaves
his living children with their mother
but if father is going away into sin
what is he going to do with bis dead
children floating about him and hover
ing over his every hayward step3 Oh,
speak out, vacant high chair, and say
Father, come back from sin; mother
come back from worldliness. | am
watching you. am waiting for you.
With respect to your child, the words Of
my text have been fulfilled, "Thou
shalt be missed, because thy seat will
be empty"
DEPARTED VOICES.
My hearers, have gathered up the
voices of your departed friends and
tried to intone them into one invitation
upward, set in array all the vacant
chairs of your homes and of your So
cial circle, and bid them cry out this
morning; thine is short. Eternity is
near Take my Saviour Be at peace
with my God. Come up where !
am We lived together on earth, come
let us live together in heaven" We
answer that invitation. We come.
Keep seat for US, as Saul kept seat
for David, but that seat shall not be
empty. And OH when we are all
through with this world and we have
shaken hands all around for the last
time, and all our chairs in the home
circle and in the outside world shall be
vacant, may we be worshiping God in
that place from which we shall 60 out
no more for ever. l thank God there
will be no vacant chairs in heaven
There we shall meet again, and talk
over our earthly heartbreaks. How
much you have been through since you
saw them lastl On the shining shore
you will talk it all over The heart
aches. The loneliness. The sleepless
nights. The weeping until you had no
more power to weep, because the heart
was withered and dried up. Story OF
empty cradle, and little shoe Only half
worn out never to be worn again, just
the shape of the foot that once pressed
it. And dreams when you thought the
departed had come back again, and
the room seemed bright with their
faces, and you started up to greet
them, and in the effort the dream
broke and you found yourself standing
amid room in the midnight-alone.
Talking it all over, and then, hand
in hand, walking up and down in the
light. No sorrow, no tears, no death.
Oh, heaven, beautiful heaven! Heaven
where our friends are Heaven where
we expect to be. In the east they take
a cage of birds and bring it to the tomb
of the dead, and then they open the
door of the cage, and the birds, flying
out, sing. And / would today bring q
cage of Christian consultations to the
grave of your loved ones, and would
open the door and let them fill all the
air with the music of their voices.
Oh, how they bound in these spirits
before the throne Some shout with
gladness. Some break forth into un-
comfortable weeping for joy. Some
stand speechless in their shock of de-
light They sing They CULVER with ex-
cessive gladness. They gaze on the tenn
pies, on the palaces, on the waters, on
each other. They weave their joy into
garlands, they spring it into triumphal
arches, they strike in on timbrels, and
then all the loved ones gather in a
great circle around the throne of God
fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters,
sons and daughters lovers and friends,
hand to hand around about the throns
Of God-t the circle ever widening
hand to hand, joy to joy, jubilee tc
jubilee, victory to victory, until the
day break and the shadows flee away
fUV,r,, fI,r,., l., l..