Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-07-20

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 impressed me as
! the spectacle of just one face-the face Of an
invalid who was wheeled IN on her chair.
The Courage of the Invalid.
| 1 said TO her afterwards: Madam, how
long have you been prostrated?" for she was
lying fat on the chair. "o?" she replied, 81
have been this way 10 years" said: "Do
you suffer muchP" 20, yes" she said, "I
suffer all the time; part of the time 1 was
blind. / always suffer" WELL" 1 said,
"can you keep your courage up?" 30, yes"
she said, 81 am happy, very happy indeed. :"
| Her face showed it. She looked the happtest
of anyone on the ground
| o, what a means of grace to the world
| these invalid chairs.
l pass on, and l find one more vacant
chair. 1t is a high chair. 1t is tho child's
chair II that chair be occupied, think it
| is the most potent chair in all the house
hold. All the chairs wait on It: all the chairs
are turned toward it. 1t means more than
| Davids chair at Saul's banquet. At any
rate, it makes more racket; That is a
strange house that can be dull with child
! in il. How that child breaks up the hard
| woridliness of the place, and keeps you
| young to SO, 70 and 80 years of age! II you
| have no child of your own, adopt one; it
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 Children.
Then YOU had better stay out of heaven,
for there are so many there they would fair-
ly make YOU cT1Zyi Only about 1--WE hun
dred millions of them! The old crusty Phari-
sees told the mothers to keep the children
away from Christ "You bother lin" they
Him. he has filled heaven with that kind of
trouble.
A pionecr in California says that for the
first year or two after his residence in Sierra
Nevada county, there was not single child
in all the reach of q hundred miles. But the
Fourth of July came, and the miners were
gathered together, and they were celebrat-
ing the Fourth with ora tion, and poem, and
a 6oisterous brass band; and while the band
was playing, an infants voice was heard
CRYING and all the miners were startled, and
the swarthy man began to think of their
homes ON the Eastern coast, and of their
wives and children far away; and thcir
hearts were thrilled with inconsistencies as
they heard the baby cry. But the music
louder, and the brass band played louder and
louder, trying to down out the infantile in
terruDtion, when swarthy miner, the tears
rolling down his face got up and shook his
fist and said: Stop that noisy band and
give the baby chance" Oh! there was
pathos in it, as well as good cheer in II:
There is nothing to arouse, and melt and
subdue the soul like child's voice. But
when il goes away from you the high chair
becomes a higher chair, and there is desc
lation all about you. In three-fourths of the
homes of this congregation there is vacant
high chair.
The Potent High Chair.
Somehow you never get over it. There is
no one to put to bed at night: no one to ask
strange questions about God and heaven.
Oh, what is the use OF that high chair? 1t is
to call you higher. What drawing upward
it is to have children in heaven! And then
il is such preventive against sin. Ii
father is going away into sin ne leaves ms
father is going away into sin, what is he 60
ing to do with his dead children floating
about him and lowering over his every way
ward step? Oh, speak out, vacant high chair,
and say: Father, come back from sin;
mother come back from worldliness: l am
Watching you. l am waiting for you" With
resp 1T to your child the words OF my text
have been fulfilled: Thou shalt be missed,
because thy seat will be empty
My hearers, have gathered up the voices
of your departed friends and tried to lntonc
them into one invitation upward. set in
array all the vacant chairs of your homes
and of your social circle, and bid them cry
out this morning: Thine is short. Eternity
is near. Take my Savior. Be at peace with
INV God. Come up where / am. We lived
together on earth, come let US live together
in heaven" Weanswer that invitation. We
come. Keep seat for u.s. as Saul kept seat
for David, but that seat shall not be empty.
world and we have shaken hands all around
for the last time, and all our chairs in the
home circle and in the outside worid shall
be vacant may we be worsbiping God in
that place from which we shall go out no
more forever.
The Joyful Ending.
oh, how they bound in these spirits before
the throne! Some shout with gladness
Some break forth into uncomfortable weep
ing for Joy. Some stand speechless in their
shock of delight. They sing. They quiver
with excessive gladness. Fhey gaze on the
temples, on the palaces, on the waters, on
each other. They weave their Joy into gar
lands they spring it into trtumphal arches,
they strike in on timbrels, and then all the
loved ones gather in great circle around
the throne of God-fathers, mothers, broth
ers sisters, sons and daughters, lovers and
friends, hand to band around about the
throne of God-the circle ever widening
hand to hand, JOY to joy, Jubilee to jubilee,
victory to victory, until the day break and
the shadows flee away. Turn thou, my be-
loved and be like a roe or young hart upon
q Mountains Of Rether"