The southern argus., 1891-07-23

in their arms. And are you, o man,
going to bring a wreath of JOY and
Christian usefulness and put it on your
fathers brow, or on the vacant chair,
or on the memory of the one departed?
Speak out, old armchair. With refer
ence to your father the words of my
text have been fulfilled: ''Thou shalt
be missed, because thy seat will be
empty"
| go little further on in your house
and | find the mothers chair. 1t is
very apt to be a rocking-chair. She
had SO many cares and troubles to
soothe that it must have rockers. re-
member it we'll 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
a creaking noise as it moved; but there
was music in the sound. 1t was just
high enough to allow us 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 why? l cannot tell, but
we all felt it was different Perhaps
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 good many years. It may be set
up in the loft or the garnet. but it holds
queenly power yet When at mid
night you went into that grog shop to
get the Intoxicating draught, did you
not hear 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 if she knew you
We're here?" And when you went into
the house of abandonment, a voice say
ing: 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 too near your mothers rocking
chair.
10, pshawr' you say. There's moth
ing in that; I'm 500 miles off from where
I was born; I'm 1000 miles off from the
church whose bell was the first music
ever heard" | cannot help that; you
are too near your mothers rocking
chair. TO-" you say, there can't be
anything in that; that chair has been
vacant great while" l cannot help
that it is all the mightier for that; it is
that vacant mothers chair.
It 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 he cried out: 30,
mother! mother! what your life could
not do your death shall effect. This
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"
60 on little further and 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 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 is the mighty pulpit
from which they have been preaching
all these years, trust in God. The first
time 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
for she was lying fiat in
the chair. "Or' she replied. II have
been this way fifteen years" said:
DO you suffer very much?" so yes"
she said II suffer very much;
suffer all the time; part of the time
was blind | always suffer" WELL"
said, can you keep your courage up?"
10 yes,r she said, II am happy, very
happy indeed" Her face showed it.
She looked the happiest of any one on
he ground. O! what means of grace |
% the world these invalid chairs On |
hat field Of human suffering the grace
If God gets its victory. Edward Pay |
on the invalid, and Richard Baxter |
he invalid, and Robert Hall the in |
-alid, and the ten thousand of whom |
he world has never heard, but of whom /
Ill Heaven Is cognizant The most
Al l.