The Bossier banner., 1891-09-24

and put it on your fathers brow, or on
the vacant chair, or on the memory of
the one departed? Speak out! old arm
chair. With reference to your father,
the words of my text have been full
filed: "Thou shalt be missed, because
thy seat viii be empty"
| go a little further on in your house,
and | find the mothers chair. 1t is
very apt to be rocking chair. She had
so many cares and troubles to soothe
that it must have rockers. | remem-
ber it well. 1t was an old chair, and
the rockers were almost worn out, for
was the youngest, and the chair had
rocked the whole family. 1t made
creaking noise as it moved, but there
was music in the sound. 1t was just
high enough to allow lis children to
put our heads into her lap That was
the bank where we deposited all our
hurts and worries. All, what a chair
that was! 1t was different from the
fathers chair; it was entirely different.
You ask me how? l can not tell;
but we all felt it was differ
ent. Perhaps there was about this chair
more gentleness, more tenderness,
more grief when we had done wrong.
When we were wayward father scolded,
but mother cried. 1t was very wake
full 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 wordie: S 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 garret, but
it holds a queenly power yet.
When at midnight you went into
that grog-shop to get the Intoxicating
draught, didyou not hear voice that
said: 'NIy son, why go in there?" And
louder than the boisterous encore of
the place of sinful amusement, a voice
saying: "My son, what do you do
here?" And when you went into the
house of abandonment, voice saying:
"What would your mother do if she
knew you were here?" And you:were
provoked with yourself, and you
charged yourself with superstition and
fanaticism 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 matter?" This: You are
near your mothers rocking-chair.
"Oh, pshaw!" you say. There's
nothing in that; I'm five hundred miles
off from where l was born; I'm three
thousand miles off from the church
whose bell was the first music I ever
heard" / can not help that; you are
too near your mothers rocl1ing-chair.
''Oh," you say, there can't be anything
in that: that chair has been vacant a
great while" l can not help that; it is
all the mightier for that it is omnip-
otent, that vacant mothers chair.
1t whispers; it speaks; it wecps;
it carols; it mourns; it prays; it
warns; it 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, moth
er! mother! what your life could not dc
your death shall effect. This moment
| give my heart to God" And he kept
his promise. Another victory for the
vacant chair. With reference to youl
mother, the words of my text were full
filed: Thou shalt be missed, because
thy seat will be empty"
go on a little further, and come tc
the invalid's chair. What! How Ions
have you been sick? ooh, | have beer
sick ten, twenty, thirty years" Is i
possible? What story of endurance
There are in many of the families o
my congregation these invalids' chairs
The occupants of them think they az,
doing no good in the world; but that in
valid's chair is the pulpit from whicl
they have been preaching all thes
years, trust in God. The first time
preached here at Lakes side o amid tn
throngs present there was nothing tha
so much impressed me as the spectacle
of Just one face-the face of an invalit
who was wheeled in on her chair. | sal.
to her afterward: Madam, how lon!
have. you been prostrated?' for she wa
lying fiat in the chair. "Or' she re
piled: Il have been this way fiftee1
years. said: ''.Do you suffer yer,
much?" "oh, yes, she said, II suffe
very much; | suffer all the time; part O
the time l was blind. l always suffer.
"Well, said: ''can you keep your cour
age up?" ''Oh,. yes she said: 81 an
happy, very happy indeed" Her fac
showed it. She looked the happiest o
anyone on the ground.
OF what means of grace to tn,
world, these invalid chairs On tina
field of human suffering the grace o
God gets its victory. Edward Paysol
the invalid, and Richard Baxter tn
invalid, and Robert Hall the invalid
and the ten thousand of whom tn
world has never heard, but of whom al
Heaven is cognizant. The most con
spicuous thing on earth for Gods eye ant
the eye of angels to rest on is not
throne of earthly power, but it is the in
valids chair. O!these men and womel
who are always suffering but neve