Milford chronicle., 1891-07-24


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 voice that said, /
"Aly son, why 90 in theTeW And louder 1
than the boisterous encore of the place Of (
sinful amusement. a voice saying, My 4
son, what do you do here~ And when (
YOU went into the house Of abandonment, |
a voice saving, "What would ypur mother /
do IL she knew YOU were here2n And you 4
were provoked with yourself, and you
charged yourself with superstition and IA |
naticism and your head got hot with your 1
own thoughts, and you went home and |
you went to bed, and no sooner had you |
touched the bed than a voice said; What! 1
a prayerless pillow? Mani what is the /
matterg" This, You are too near your (
mothers rocking chair
''Oh, pshaw." You say. There's moth !
ing in that. I'm five hundred miles on I
from where I was born I'm three thou |
sand miles off from the church whose bell |
was the first music 1 ever heard" l can I
not help That. You are too near your
mothers rocking chair "Oh,n you say, !
there can't be anything in that That
chair has been vacant a great while"
cannot help that. 1t is all the mightier for |
that. It is omnipotent, that vacant moth !
er's chair. It whispers, it speaks, it weeps, it
carols, it mourns, it prays, it warns, It
thunders. A young man went OIL 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, what your life could not
do your death shall effectl 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 text were fulfilled, Thou
shalt be missed, because thy seat will be
! empty"
20 on a little further, and I come to the
invalid's chair. What How long have
Won been sickf "Ohl have been sick ten,
twenty, thirty years" Is it possibles
What story Of endurance. There are in
many Of the families of my congregation
these invalids' chairs. The occupants OF
them think they are doing no good in the
world, but that invalids chair is the mighty
pulpit from which they have been preach-
| ing, all these years, trust in God The first
time ! preached here at Lakeside, ONO,
amid the throngs present, there was MOTH
ing that SC much impressed me rs the spec
/ tacle of lust one face-the face of an in
valid who was wheeled in on her chair.
said to her afterward MADAM. how long
/ have you been prostrated?" for she was
living FIAT In the chair. "Ohp she replied,
1 81 have been this way fifteen years" said,
| "Do You suffer very muchT ooh, yes,
she said, II suffer very much; ] suffer all
the time; part of the time l was blind. !
always suffer" well" l said, ''can you
| keep your courage up?" "Oh, yes, I" she
said lam happy, very happy indeed" Her
/ face showed it, She looked the happiest OF
any one on the ground
/ Oh, what a means Of grace to the world,
these invalid chairs. On that field OF hui
man suffering the grace Of God gets us
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 all heaven is cOgnizant. The
most conspicuous thing on earth for Gods
] eve and the eye of angels to RESI- on, Is not
a throne of earthly power, but it is the in
valid's chair Oh, these men and women
who are always suffering but never com
pleining-these victims of spinal disease,
| and neuralgia torture, and rheumatic eX-
| cruciauion will answer to the roll call OF
the martyrs, and rise to the martyrs
/ throne and will wave the martyrs palm.
BuS when one of these invaiids chairs
becomes vacant how suggestive it isl 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 band
age and the cataplasm and the prescrlp-
ton. That invalid's chair may be folded
up or taken apart or set away, but 1t Will
never lose its queenly power; it will al
WAYS preach of trust in God and cheerful
submission Suffering all ended now.
| With respect 60 that invalid the words OF
my text have been fulfilled, "Nhou shalt
be missed, because thy seat will be empty.
THAT EMPTY HIGH CHAIR.
! pass on and ! find one more vacant
chair. It is high chair, It is the child,s
chair. If that chair be occupied / think II
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 David's chair at Saurs banquet. At
anv rate it makes more racket. That IS a
strange house that can be dull with a child
ia it. How that child breaks up the hard
worldliness OF the place and keeps you
young to sixty, seventy and eighty years OF
LACE. If you have no child of your own
adopt one; it will open heaven to your
soul 1t will pay its way. Its Growing IN
the morning will give the day cheerful
starting. and its glee at night VIII give the
day a cheerful close. You do not like chill
ldreng Then YOU had better stay out OF
heaven. for there are SO many there they
would fairly make you crazy. Only about
five hundred millions Of them. The old
lcrustv Pharisees told the mothers to keep
the children away from Christ. You
bother him" they said; 'you trouble the
Master" Trouble him He has filed
heaven with that kind of trouble
A pioneer in California says that for the
first wear or two after his residence In
Sierra Nevada county there was not q
single child in all the reach OF a hundred
miles. But the Fourth Of Jnly came anQ
the miners were gathered together ana
they were celebrating the Fourth Win ora
zion aud poem and IL boisterOus brass Danu,
and while the band was playing an infant
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
inconsistencies 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
lont the infantile interruption, when
swarthy miner, the tears rolling down his
free. got w and shook his fist and said,
"Stop that noisy baud, and give the baby
chance" Oh, there was pathos in It, as
well as good cheer in it. There is nothing
to arouse and iaelt and subdue the soul
like child's voice But when it goes away
from you the high chair becomes higher
chair and there is desolation all about you
In three-fourths Of the homes Of this con
gregation there is vacant 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 ehArg u Is
TO call you higher. What drawing uT-
ward it is to have children ia heaven! and
then it is such preventive against sin. II
a father is going away into sin he leaves
! his living children with their mother but
If father is going away into sin what is
. he going TO do with his dead children lloat-
- an D al ran aIH