The southern argus., 1891-07-23

OdFIu , CHAIR al OduI DduQu0L AT
any rate, it makes more racket That
is a strange house that can be dull with
a child in it. How that child breaks up
the hard worldliness of the place, and
keeps you young to go, 20 and so years
of age! If you have no child of your
own, adopt one; it will open heaven to
your soul. II will pay its way. It's
growing in the morning will give the
day cheerful starting, and 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!
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 one
hundred miles. But the Fourth of July
came, and the miners were gathered
together, and they were celebrating the
Fourth with Grafton, and poem, and a
boistrous 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 chill
dren far away, and their
hearts were thrilled with inconsistencies
as they heard the babe cry. But the
music went on and the child cried loud
err 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 arouse and
melt and subdue the soul like child's
voice But when it goes away from
you the high chair becomes a higher
chair and there is desolation all about
you.
In three-fourths of the homes of this
congregation there is a 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 chair? 1t is to call you
higher. What a drawing upward it is
to have children in Heaven? And
then it is such preventive against sin.
If a father is going away into sin he
leaves his living children with t...eir
mott her, but if father is going away
into sin what is he going to do with his
dead children floating about him and
lowering over his every hayward step.
o, speak out, vacant high chair, and
say: Father, come back from sin;
mother come back from wordliness. l
am watching you. l am waiting for
you" With respect to your child, the
words of my text have been fulfilled:
Thou shalt be missed because thy seat
will be empty.
My hearers, | have gathered up the
voice of your departed friends and tried
to induce them into one invitation up
ward. | set in array all the vacant
chairs of your homes and of your social
circle, and | bid them cry out this |
morning: Time is short. Eternity is |
near. Take my Saviour. 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 invitation. We come. Keep a |
seat for us, as Saul kept seat for |
David, but that seat shall not be empty. |
And oh! when we are all through with |
this world and we have shaken hands |
all around for the last time, and all our |
chairs in the home circle and in the out |
side world shall be vacant, may we be |
worshipping God in that place from
which we shall go out no more forever. |
| thank God there will be no vacant |
chairs in Heaven. There we shall meet |
again and talk over our earthly heart |
breaks. How much have you been
through since YOU saw them last! On |
the shining shore you will talk it all |
over The heartaches. The loneliness. |
The sleepless nights. The weeping |
until you had no more power to weep, |
because the heart was withered and |
dried up Talking it over, and then,
hand in hand, walking up and down in
the light No sorrow, no tears, no
death.
In the east they take cage of birds
and bring it to the tomb of the dead,
and then they open the door of the
cage and the birds, flying out sing.
anu WOulu IO-udy UIILlB d cage Oh l
Christian consultations to the grave of |
your loved ones, and would open up
the door and let them fill all the air
with the music of their voices.
Oh. how they bound in these spirits
before the throne! Some shout with
gladness Some break into uncon-
trolable weeping for joy. Some stand
speechless in their shock of delight
They sing They culver with excess
sive gladness. They gaze on the tenn
Piles, 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
timbrels. 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
until the day break and the
shadows flee away. Turn thou, my be-
a,-a1 aud IN lika q roa ar n vpuuy hart |