Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1891-07-20

was music In the sound. 1t was JUS
high enough to allow as children to pu
our heads into her lap. That was thu
bank where we deposited all our hurts
and worries. All! what chair tina
was. 1t was different from thu
fathers chair; it was entirely differ
ent. You ask me how? l canno
tell; but we all felt 1t was different
Perhaps there was about this chan
more gentleness, more tenderness, more
grief when we had done wrong. WheI
we were Maynard, 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. That chair knew all the old
lullabies and all those wordeless songs
which mothers sing to their sick chill
dren-songs in which all pity, and COM
passion, and sympathetic influences are
combined. That old chair has stopped
rocking for good many years. 1t may
be set up in the loft or 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 there?" And louder than
the boisterous encore OF the
place of sinful amusement, voice say
ing, my son, what do you do here"-
And when you went into the house OF
abandonment, voice saying, What
would your mother do II she knew you
were here?" And you were provoked
with yourself, and you charged your
self with superstition and fanatlcism
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:"
What a prayerless pillow? Mani what
is the matter?" This: You are too near
your mothers rocking-chair.
"Oh pshaw!" you say. There's moth
ing in that; I'm FIVE hundred miles off
from where was born; I'm three thou
sand miles off from the 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 great wbile." l
cannot help that; 1t is all the mightier
for that; 1t Is omnipotent, that vacant
mothers chair. 1t whispers; 1t speaks;
1t weeps; 1t carols; it mourns; 1t prays;
1t warns; 1t 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
70 n
shall effect. This moment l 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 my text were fulfilled:
"Thou shalt be missed, because thy seat
will be empty"
THE INVALID CHAIR.
1 go on little further, and come to
the invalid's chair. What How long
have you been sick? 'Ol 1 have been
sick ten, twenty, thirty years" Is it
possible? What story of endurance.
There are in many families of my con-
gregation these invalid'S 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
D peeeeassshe eTdp6s erea 81 a. oa IsRGS GJf
the throngs present, there was nothing
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.
I said to her afterwards: Madam,
how long have you been prostrated?"
for she was lying fat in the chair. "O!'
she replied: 81 have been this way
fifteen years." l said: "Do you
suffer very much?" go, yes"
she said: ST suffer very much;
/ suffer all the time; part of the
time was blind, 1 always suffer-"
''Well," said, lean you keep your
courage up?" 30 yes" she said, lam
happy, very happy indeed" Her face
showed it. She looked the happlest OF
anyone on the ground.
OF 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 inva-
lid, 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 conspicuous thing
on earth for Gods eye and the eye OF
angels to rest on, is not throne OF
earthly power, but 1t is the invalid's
chair. o! these men and women who
are always suffering but never COM
plaining-these victims OF spinal dis
ease, and neuralgia torture, and rheu-
matte excruclation will answer to the
roll-call of the martyrs, andfrise to the
martyrs throne, and will wave the
martyrs palm. But when one OF these
invalids' chairs becomes vacant, how
suggestive 1t Isl No more bolstering up
of the weary head. No more changing
from side to side to get an easy position.
No moro use of the bandage, and the
cataplasm, and the prescription. That
invalid's chair may be folded up, or
taken apart, or set away, but 1t will
never lose its queenly power; 1t will al
ways preach Of trust in God, and cheer
full 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"
ALL CHAIRS WAIT OMIT.
I pass on, and find one more vacant
chair. 1t is high chair. tits the child's
chair. II that chair be occupied, I
think 1t is the most potent chair in all
the household. All the chairs wait on
It; all the chairs are turned toward 1t.
1t means more than David's chair at
SauPs banquet. At any rate 1t makes
more racket. That is strange house
that can be dull with child In 1t. How
that child breaks up the hard worldli-
ness of the place, and keeps you young
to sixty. seventy, and eighty years OF
agel II you have no child OF your own,