Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1891-07-31

sick chlIdrsn-Songs In which all pity ana
compassion and sympathetic influence are
combined.
That old chair has stopped rocking for
good many years. It may be set up In the
loft or the garnet, but il holds a queeniy
power yet. When at midnight you went
into that grog shop to get the Intoxicating
draught, did you not hear voice that said,
My son, why go in there?' And louder
than the boisterous encore of the place Of
sinful amusement, voice saying, My
son. what do you do here2' And when
YOU went into the house OF abandonment,
a voice SAYING Nv hat would your mother
do IL she knew you were here?' And you
were provoked with yourself, and you
charged yourself with superstition and IA
natlc1sm 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!
a prayerless pillow? Man. what is the
matterg' This. You are too rear your
mothers rocking-chair.
;'Oh, pshawn' you say. There's nothing
in that. I'm five hundred miles off from
where | was born. I'm three hundred miles
off from Tie church whose bell was the
first music | ever heard" l cannot 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" l
cannot help that. 1t is all the mlghtler for
that It is omnipotent, that vacant mother
er's chair 1t whispers, it speaks, it weepS 1T
carols, it mOurns it prays it warns, 1t
thunderS. A young man went Oh and
broke his mothers heart, and while he was
away from home his mother died, AMI 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 give
my heart to God" And he kept his prom
ise. Another victory for the vacant chair.
With reference to your mother the words OF
nv text were fulfilled, Thou shalt be
missed, because thy seat will be empty.
L go on little further and come to the
invaiid's chair. What! How long have you
been sick? 'Oh! have been sick ten. twenty,
thirty years." Is it possible? What story
of endurance. There are i'll many OF the
families of my congregation these lnVauds
chairs. The occupants OF them thlnK Uney
are doing no good in the world, but that IN
valid's chair is the mighty pulpit
from which they have been preach
inc all these wears, trust in God. The first
time preached here at Lakeside, Ohio, amid
the throngs present. there was nothing tnat
SO much Impressed me as the spectacle OF
lust one face-the face of an invalid VINO
was wheeled in on her chair Sa a 70 1 ne,
afterwards: Madam, how long nave you
been Frustrated" for she was lying naO IN
the chair. 'Ohw she replied. Il have
been this way fifteen years s.o salH,,
''Do you suffer very much" Oh, yes
she said, II suffer very much; l suffer all
the time: part of the time l was blind. l
always suffer" WELL" I said, ''can you
keep your courage up@' sob, yes" she said,
81 am happy, very happy indeed. der lace
showed it. She looked the happles6 OF any
one on the ground ,,
Oh. what means of grace to the world,
man suffering the grace of God gets it's
victory. Edward Payson, the invalid
and Richard Baxter, the invalid, and
Robert Hall, the invalid, and the ten thou
sand of whom the world has never heard,
but of whom ali heaven Is cognizant. The
most conspicuous thing on earth for Gods
eye and the eye of angels to rest on, is not
throne of earthly power, but it is the in
valid's chair. Oh these men and women
who are always suffering, but never COM
plaining-these victims Of spinal disease,
and neuralgia torture, and rheumatic ex-
cruciation 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 invalids chairs be-
comes vacant how suggestive 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 cataplasm and the prescription.
That invalid 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 submis-
sion. Suffering all endel now. With re-
spect to that invalid the words of my text
have been fulfilled, "Thou shalt be missed,
because thy seat will be empty
l pass on and find one more vacant chair.
1t is high chair. 1t is the child's chair.
If that chair be occupied | think it is the
most potent chair in all the household. All
the chairs wait on it; all the chairs are
turned toward it. Il means more than
David's chair at SauPs banquet. At any
"A Ia M IA r. of iC q Str
house that can be dull with a child
in it. How that child breaks up the hard
worldliness of the place and keeps you
young to sixty, seventy and eighty years of
adopt one; it will open heaven to your
soul 1t will pay its way. Its growing in
the morning will give the day a cheerful
starting, and its glee at night will give the
day a cheerful close. You do not like chill
dren? Then you had better stay out of
heaven, for there are many there they
would fairly make you crazy. Only about
five hundred millions of them. The old
crusty Pharisees told the mothers to keep the
children away from Christ You bother
Him" they said: ''yCu trouble the Master
Trouble Him He has filed heaven with
that kind of trouble.
y pioneer in California says that for the
first year or two after his residence in
Sierra Nevada county there was not a
single child in all the reach of hundred
miles But the Fourth of July came and
the miners were gathered together and
they We're celebrating the Fourth with ora
ton and poem and 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 home
sic mess as they heard the babe cry. But
the music went on, and the child cried
louder and louder, and the brass band