The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1891-07-31

was the youngest, and the chair had
rocked the whole family. It made n
creaking noise as IL moved, but there
was music in the sound IL was just
high enough 20 allow us children to
put our heads into her lap That was
the bank where we deposited all our
hurts and worries An, what a chair
hat wasl It was different from the
fathers chair; IL was entirely different.
You ask me how? / can not tell;
but we all felt IL was differ
ent. Perhaps there was about this chair
more gentleness, more tenderness,
more grief when we had done wrong.
When we were hayward father scolded,
but mother cried. It was a very wake
full 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
luIlabies and all those wordless songs
which mothers sing to their sick chill
~drcn-songs in which all pity and com
passion md sympathetic influences are
combined That old chair has stopped
rocking for a good many years. 1t may
he set up In the loft or the garnet, but
it holds "a queenly power yet
When at midnight you went into
that grog-shop to get the Intoxicating
draught, did you not near a voice that
said: my son, why go In there?" And
louder han 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 here?" And you were
provoked with yourself, and you
charged yourself with superstition 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:
"Whatl a prayerless pillow? Man!
what is the matter?' This: You are
near your mothers rocking-chair.
'sOh, pshawf'' you say. There's
nothing i'm that; I'm 1--WE hundred miles
off from where / was born; I'm three
thousand 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.
'tOh." you say, there can't b anything
in that; that chair has been vacant a
great while" / can not help that; it is
all the mightier for that; it is omnip-
otent, that vacant mothers 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 anne into the
room where she lay and looked upon
her face, and he cried out: 'Oh, moth
erl motherl what your life could not do
your death shall effect. 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 ext were full
filed: Thou shalt be missed. because
thy seat will be empty"
/ go on a little further, and I come to
the invalid's chair. What 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
nv congregation these invalids' chairs.
The occupants of them think they are
doing no good in the world; but that in
valid's chair is the pulpit from which
they have been preaching, all these
years, trust in God. The first time /
preached here at Lakeside, O., amid the
throngs present there was nothing that
SO much impressed me as the spectacle
of Just one face-the face of an invalid
who was wheeled in on her chair. / said
TO her afterward: MADAM, low long
have you been prostrated?" for she was
lying fat in the chair. "OP' h re-
piled: Il have been this way fifteen
years." / said: do you suffer very
much?" 'tOh, yes" she said, Il suffer
very much; / suffer all the time; part of
the time / was blind. always suffer"
"Well, / said: ''can you keep your cour
age up?' ''Oh, yes she said: 81 am
happy, very happy indeed" Her face
showed it. She looked the happiest of
anyone on the ground.
O! what a 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
invalid, 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-
spicuous thing on earth for Gods eye and
the eye of angels to rest on is not a
throne of earthly power, but it is the in
valid's chair. o. these men and women
who are always suffering but never
complainlng-these victims of spinal
disease, of neuralgia torture, and rheu-
matte excruciation-will answer to the
roll-call of the martyrs, and rise to the
martyrs throne, and will wave the
martyrs palm But when one of these in
valids' chairs becomes vacant, how sug-
gestive it is! No more bolstering up of
the weary head. No more changing from
side to side to get an easy position. No
more use of the bandage, and the cata-
plasm, and tie prescription. That in
valid's chair may be folded up, or taken
apart, or set away, but it will never
lose its queenly power; it will always
preach of trust in God, and cheerful
submission. Suffering all ended now.
With respect to that invalid the words
of my text have been fulfilled: Thou
shalt be missed, because thy seat will
be empty"
i pass on, and / find one more vacant
chair. 1t is a high char. 1t is the
child's chair. If that chair be occupied,
l think it is the most potent chair in all
the household. All the chairs wait on
it; all the chairs are turned toward it.
1t means more than David's chair at
Saul's BANQUET. AT any rate, it makes