The Forrest City times., 1891-07-24
field of human suffering the gra.. o,

field of human suffering the grace ot God gets it's victory. Edward P4Jsoh the invalid, and Richard Baxter the invalid, and Robert Hall the invalid, and the ten thousand O: whom the world has never heard, b,,1 of whom all heaven is cognizant. TLs most conspicuous thing on earth fe.. Gods eye and the eye of angels tes res. on, is not throne of earthly pove: but it is the invalid's chair.
 pass on, and find one more vacant chair, It is a high chair. 1t is the child's chair. If that chair be o,cc.I- pied, think it is the most potent chair in all the household. All the chairs wait on it. It means more than David \ chair at Sauls banquet At auy rate, it makes more racket. That is a strange house that can be dull with 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 age. If you have no child of your own, adopt one; it will open heaven to your soul. It will pay it's way. Its cro wing in the morning will give the day cheerful starting, and it's glee at night will give the day a cheerful close. You do not like children?
 A 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 hun dred miles. But the Fourth of July came, and the miners were gathered together, and they were celebrating the Fourth with oration, and poem, and q 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 East ern coast, and of their wives and children far away, and their hearts were thrilled with home-sick- ness as they heard the babe cry. But the music went on, and the child cried louder and louder, and the brass band played louder and louder, trying to drown out the infantile Interruption, when swarthy miner, the tears roll ing 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 we'll as good cheer in it. There is nothing to aroese, and melt, and subdue the soul like a chlld's voice. But when it goes away from you, the high chair becomes higher char, and there is desolation all about you.
 My hearers, have gathered up the voices of your departed friends and tried to intone them into one invitation upward. set in array all the vacant chairs of your homes and of your social circle, and l bid them cry out this morning; "Time is short. Eternity is near. Take my Savior. Be at peace with my God. Come up where l am. We lived together on earth, come let us live together in heaven" We answer that in- vitation. We come. Keep seat for us, as Saul kept seat for David, but that seat shall not be empty. And oh, when we are all through with h world and we have shaken hands all around for the last time, and all our chairs in the home circle and in the outside world shall be vacant, may we be worshipping God in that place from which we shall go out no more forever l thank God there will be no vacant chairs in heaven. There we shall meet again and talk over our earthly heart breaks How much you have been through since you aw them last! On the shining shore you will take it all over. The heartaches. The loneli- ness The sleepless nights. The weeping until your had no more power to weep, because the heart was wither- ed and dried up. Story of empty era dle, and little shoe only half worn out never to be worn again, just the shape of the foot that once pressed it.
 Oh, how they bound in these spirits before the throne! Some show with gladness. Some break forth into un- controllable weeping for joy. Some stand speeches. in their shock of de- light They sing. They quiver with excessive gladness. They gaze on the temples, on the palaces, on the>waters on each other. They weave their joy into garlands. they spring it into triumphal arches, they strike in on t.mbrels and then all the loved ones gather in a great circle around the throne of God - fathers, mothers. brothers. sisters, sons and daughters. lovers and friends, hand to hand 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 beloved, and be like a TO or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether."