The Red Cloud chief., 1891-07-31

there was about this chair more gentle.
ness, more tenderness more grief
when we had done wrong. When we
were hayward 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 wordless
songs which mothers sing TO their sick
children-songs in which all pity and
compassion and sympathetic influences
are combined.
That old chair has stopped rocking
for a good many years. 1t may be set
up in the loft or the garnet, but it holds
a queenly power yet When at mid
night you went into that grog shop to
get the intoxicating draught, did you
hear a voice that said: MY son,
why go in there?' And louder than the
boisterous encore Of the place Of sinful
amusement, a voice saying: what
would your mother do il she knew you
were here?' And when you went into
the house of abandonment, a voice say
ing: What would your mother do il
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 W 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?
Man! what is the natter" This: You
are too near your mothers rocking
chair.
80, pshaw!" you say. There's moth
ing i'm that; I'm 800 miles off from where
! was born; I'm 5000 miles of from the
church whose bell was the first music /
ever heard" / cannot help that; you
are too near your mothers rocking
chair. co." you say, there can't be
anything in that; that chair has been
vacant a great while" j cannot help
that, il is all the mightier for that; il is
omnipotent, that vacant mothers chair.
1t whispers, it speaks, it weeps, 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 tele-
graph brought the son and he came in
to the room where she lay and looked
upon her face, and ne cried out: 80.
mother. mother! what your life could
not do 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 your mother, the words Of my text
were fulfilled: Thou shalt be missed,
because thy seat will be empty"
go on a little further and l come to
the invalid's chair. What! How long
have you been sick? 20. l have been
sick ten, twenty, thirty years" Is it
possible? What n 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
invalid's chair In the mighty pulpit
from which they have been preaching
all these years, trust in God. The first
time l preached here at Lakeside, o.,
amid the throngs present, there was
nothing that so much impressed me as
the spectacle Of just one face-the face
of an invalid who was wheeled in on
her chair. ] said to her afterwards:
Madam, how long have you been
prostrated?" for she was lying fat in
the chair. go" she replied, 81 have
been this way fifteen years" / said:
en- ra, srH.r .r, ,,,lDs tsn va1 ~
she said, IL suffer very much; !
suffer all the time; part Of the time
was blind. always suffer" "Well,"
| said, can you keep you courage up?"
80 yes" she said, Il am happy, very
happy indeed" Her face showed it.
She looked the happiest Of any n on
the ground. o! what a means of grnce
10 the world these invalid chairs. On
that field of human suffering the grace
of God gets its victory. Edward Pay
son the invalid, and Richard Baxter
the invalid, and Robert Hall the in
valid, 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 for the eye of angels tn rest on
is not a throne of earthly power. but il
is the invalid's chair.
But when one Of these invalids' chairs
become vacant how suggestive it is.
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 bandage, and the cataplasm,
and the prescription. That invalid's
chair may be folded up. or taken apart,
or set away. but il will never lose its
qucenly power: it will always preach
of trust in God and cheerful submission.
Suffering all ended now. With respect
to that invalid the words of my text
nave been fulfilled: ''Thou shalt be
missed. because thy sea will be
empty"
pass on and | find one more vacant
chair. 1t is a high chair. is the
child's chair. If that chair could be oc-
cupicd. l think it is the most potent
chair in all the household. All the
chairs wait on il; all the chairs are
turned toward it 1t means more than |
David's chair at Saul's banquet At
any rate, il makes more racket That
is a strange house that a be dull with
a child in it How that child breaks up
the hard worldliness of the place, and
keeps You young 10 60, 20 and so years
of age, 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 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 ont of Heaven, for there
are SO many there they would fairly
/