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

/ Nhiististi u''Niuiiioan uiio pun ~ vi ypu'
fathers brow, or on the vacant chair,
or on the memory of one departedi
Speak out, old armchairl With refer
ence to your father the words of my
text have Leen fulfilled, ''Thou shalt
be missed, because thy seat will be
empty"
MOTHERS CHAIR.
Igo little further on in your house
and | find the mothers chair. 1t Is
very apt to BE rocking chair, She
had so many cares and troubles TO
soothe that it must have rockers, re-
member 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
a creaking noise as it moved but there
was music in the sound. 1t was just
high enough to allow us children toput
our heads into her lap, Tho 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, 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.
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 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 1t may be set
up in the loft or the garnet, but it holds
queenly power yet When at mid
night you went into that grog shop to
get the intoxicating draft, did you not
hear a voice that said, my son, why
go in there's" And louder than the
boisterous 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 hereW
And you were Provoked with yourself,
and you charged yourself with super
stition 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 voice said What prayer
| less pillow Man! what is the matter2'
This. You are too near your mothers
rocking chair,
"Oh, pshaw!" you say. There's
nothing in that; Tn five hundred miles
off from where ! was born; Pm three
thousand miles off 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 nightier for that; it is ON
nipotent, that vacant mothers chair
i 1t whispers, it speaks, it weeps, it
carols, it mourns, it prays, it warns,
i, thunders. A young man went off
ard 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. motherl 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 little further and ] come
to the invalid's chair. What How
long have you been sick2 "Oh, have
been sick ten, twenty. thirty years. "
Is it possible2 What story of endur-
ance 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
side, Ohio, amid the throngs present
there was nothing that SO much i'm
pressed Inc as the spectacle of just one
face the face of an invalid who was
wheeled in on her chair. said to her
afterward, Madam, how long have
you been prostrated3' for she was lying
fat in the chair. oh she replied,
II have been this way fifteen years 9
said, do you suffer very much2'
ooh, yes" she said 81 suffer very
much suffer all the time. Part OF
the time was blind always suffer V
We'll" said, ''can you keep your
courage up?" ''Oh, yes" she said. II
am happy, very happy, indeed" Her
face showed it. She 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 its victory. Edward Payson,
the invalid, and Richard Baxter, the in
valid, and Robert Hall, the invalid,
and the ten thousand of whom the
world has never heard, but of whom
all heaven is cognizant The most con,
'picuous thing on earth for Gods eye
md the eye of angels to rest on is not a
;hrone of earthly power, but it is the
.nvalid's chair OH these men and
women who are always suffering but
aever complaining victims OF
spinal disease and neuralgia torture and
rheumatic excruciation will answer tc
the ron call of the martyrs and rise tc
the martyrs throne and will wave the
martyrs palm
But when one of these invalids' chairt
becomes vacant, how suggestive it is
No more bolstering up of the weary