The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-07-20

grief when we had done wrong. When we
were hayward father scolded. but mother
cried. It 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 garrett, but it holds
a queenlv power yeb When at midnight you
went into that grog-shop to get the intoxicat-
ing draught, did you not hear voice that
said: My son, why go in thereP And
louder than the boisterous encore of the
place of sinful amusement, a voice saying,
any son, " bat do you do here" And when
you went into the house of abandonment, a
voice saving, What would your mother do
il she knew you were herem And you were
provoked with yourself, and you charged
yourself with superstition and fauatlcism,
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 a voice said: What! prayeress
pillow! Man, what is the matter" This:
You are too near to your mothers rocking
chair
90, pshaw!' you say. There's nothing
In that; I'm five hundred miles of from
where was born; I'm three thousand niles
off from the church whose bell was the hrst
music | ever heard" l cannot help that;
you are too near your mothers rocking
chair 30 " you say, there can't be any
thing in that: that chair has been vacant a
great while cannot help that; 1t Is all
the mightier for that 1t is omnlpotent, that
vacant mothers chair IL whispers, 1t
speaks: it weeps; it carols it mourns; it
F1sy
man went off and broke his
mothers heart, and while be
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: 80 mother
mother what your life could not do your
death shall effect. This moment | give my
heart to God" And be 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 | come to the
invalid's chair. What How long have
you been sicka 20! l have been sick ten.
twenty, thirty years" Isit possibe' What
a story of endurance. There are in many
of the families of my congregation these in
valds' chairs. The occupants of them
think they are doing no good in the world ;
but that tnvalid's chair Is the mighty pull
pit from which they have been preach
ing, all these years, trust in God. the
first time 1 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 afterward: Madam, how
long have you been prostrated7' for she was
living fiat in the chair. "OW she replied ,
II have been this way fifteen years" l
Eald: do YOU suffer very much" 80,
YES she said 81 suffer very much | suffer
all the time; part of the time | was blind
always suffer 4" well" l said. can you
keep your courage up:' 80, yes" she said;
u am happy, very happy indeed" Her
face showed it. She looked the happiest of
Gly one on the ground.
O. what means of grace to the world,
these invalid chairs On that field of hui
man suffering the grace Of God gets its
VIC ory. Edward Payson. the invalid, and
Richard Baxter, the invalid, and Robert
Hail. the invalid, 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 the eye OF angels to rest on is not a
throne of earthly power, but it is the in
valid's chair OF these men and women
who are always suffering, but never COM
plaining-these victims of spinal dI ease,
and neuralgia torture, and rheumatic ex-
cruciation will answer to the roll call of
the martys, and rise to the martyrs
throne, and will wave the martyrs palm.
But when one OF these invalids' chairs be-
comes 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 prescrip-
non. That lnvalld's chair may be folded
up, or taken apart, or set away, but it will
never lose its queenly power; it will al
ways preach of trust in God, and cheerful
submission. Suffering ell ended now.
With respect to that invalid the words of
my text have been fulfilled: Thou shalt
be missed, because thy seat will be
empty
| pass on, and | find one more vacant
chair. 1t is high chair. 1t is the chid's
chair. If that chair be occupied / think it
is the most potent chair in all the household.
All the chairs wait on 1t; all the chairs are
turned toward it. 1t means more than
David's chair at Saul's banquet At any
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 worldli-
ness 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. 1t will pay its way.
Its Growing in the morning will give the
day a cheerful starting, aud its glee at
night will give the day cheerful close.
You do not like children? 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 crusty Pharisees told
the mothers 70 keep the children away
from Christ. You bother him." they
said you trouble the MASTER Trouble
tim! He has filed heaven with that kind
Of trouble.
A pioneer in California says that for the
6rst year or two after his residence in Sierra
Nevada county there was not single child
in all the reach of a hundred miles. But
the Fourth Of July came, and the miners
were gathered together, and they were cele-
brating the Fourth with grafton. and poem,
and 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
eastern coast, and of their wives
and children far away. and theil
hearts were thrilled with home-sickuess a.
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 infant
lie interruption, when a swarthy miner
the tears rolling down his cheeks, got VI
and shook his fist and said: stop thai
noisy band and give the baby a chancen
OF there was pathos in it as well as gooC
cheer in il. There is nothing to arouse,
voice. But when it goes away from
ha hail q