The Dalles daily chronicle. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1890-1948, 1891-08-08

high enough to allow us children TO put
our heads into her lap. That was the bank
where we deposited all our hurts and wor
ries. AhI what a chair that was. 1t was
different from the fathers chair; it was en-
tirely different. You ask me bows can
not tell; but we all felt it was differ
ent Perhaps there was about this chair
more gentleness, more tenderness, more
grief when we had done wrong. When we
were wayward father scolded, but mother
cried. 1t 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. The chair
knew all the old lullabies and all those
wordless songs which mothers sing to their
sick childreu-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 the garrett but it holds queenly
power yet. When at midnight you went
into that grog shop to get the intoxicating
draught, did you not hear a voice that said,
my son, why go in theres" And louder
than the boisJerous encore of the place of
sinful amusement, a 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 here?" And you
charged yourself with superstition and fa-
naticism and your head got hot with your
own thoughts, and you went home and
you went to bed, aud no sooner had you
touched the bed than voice said: What
a prayerless pillow? Mani what is the
matter?" This, You are too near your
mothers rocking chair.
"Oh, pshawr you say. There's moth
ing in that. I'm five hundred miles of
from where l was born. I'm three thou
sand miles off from the church whose bell
was the first music ever heard.'' | can
not 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 a great while."
cannot help that. 1t is all the mightier for
that. 1t is omnipotent, that vacant moth
er's chair 1t whispers, it speaks, it weeps, it
carols, it 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, mother, what your life could not
do your death shall effectl 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"
THE INvALID's CHAIR.
I go on little further, and come to the
! invalid's chair. Whatl How long have
you been sick? ''Oh have been sick ten,
twenty, thirty years" Is it possible;
| What a 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 h11t thai in valid;S hal 10 no
pulpit from which they have been preach
ing, all these years, trust in God. The first
time l preached here at Lakeside, Ohio
amid the throngs present, there was moth
ing that so much impressed me as the spec
tacle of just one face-the face of an in
valid who was wheeled in on her chair
said to her afterward, Madam, how Ione
have you been prostrated?" for she was
lying fiat in the chair. "OhI' she replied
81 have been this way fifteen years." said
do you suffer very much?" "Oh, yes,
she said, 81 suffer very much; suffer al
the time; part of the time was blind.
always suffer- WELL" said, 'can yor
keep your courage up?" "Oh, yes," sh,
said, Il am happy, very happy indeed" He
face showed it. She looked the happiest O
any one on the ground.
Oh, what means of grace to the world
these invalid chairs. On that field of hu
man suffering the grace of God gets it
victory Edward Payson, the invalid
and Richard Baxter, the invalid, ant
Robert Hall, the invalid, and the ten thou
sand of whom the world has never heard
but of whom all heaven is cognizant. Eh
most conspicuous thing on earth for God
eye and the eye of angels to rest on, is no
a throne of earthly power, but it is the in
valid's chair. Oh, these men and womel
who are always suffering but never com
plainiRg-tbese victims of spinal disease
and neuralgic torture, and rheumatic eX
cruciation will answer to the roll call O
the martyrs, and rise to the martyr
throne, and will wave the martyrs palm
But when one of these invalids' chair
becomes vacant how suggestive it isl N
more bolstering up of the weary head. n
more changing from side to side to get al
easy position No more use of the band
age and the cataplasm and the prescriI
tion That invalids chair may be TO lde
up or taken apart or set away, but it vii
never lose its queenly power; it will a.
ways preach of trust in God and cheerfu
submission. Suffering all ended now
With respect to that invalid the words c
my text have been fulfilled. ''Thou shal
be missed, because thy seat will be empty
THAT EMPTY HIGH CHAIR.
pass on and | find one more vacan
chair. 1t is high chair. 1t is the child
chair. If that chair be occupied 1 think
Is bhe most potent chalr In all the nOuS'
hold All the chairs wait on it; all th
chairs are turned toward it. 1t means MOI
than David's chair at Saul's banquet A
any rate it makes more racket. That is
strange house that can be dull with chill
in it, How that child breaks up the har
worldliness of the place and keeps 20
young to sixty, seventy and eighty years
age. If you have no child of your ow
r adopt one; it will open heaven to you
3 soul 1t will pay its way. Its Growing
: the morning will give the day a cheerfr
starting, and it's glee at night will give til