Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1893-03-02

Oear mel How many souls the LOru natr
thus broodedl
Mothers, after watching over sick cradle.
and then watching afterward over way.
ward sons and daughters, at last them
selves taken care Of by Il motherly God
Business men, after a lifetime struggling
with the uncertainties OF money markets
and the change OF tariffs, and the under
selling Of mon who becauss Of their dis.
honesties can afford Ia undersell, and years
OF disappointment and struggle. ut last
under wings where nothing can perturb
them any more than bird Of prey which
is 10 miles off disturls chick at midnight
brooding in a barnyarl.
My text has its strongest application for
people who were horn in the country,
wherever you may now live, and that Is the
majority Of you You cannot hear my
text without having all the rustic scenes Of
the old farmhouse come back to you. Good
old days they were. You knew nothing
much of the world, for you had not seen
the world.
BY law Of association youoannot recall the
brooding hen and her chickens without see
ing also the barn, and the haymow, and
the wagon shed, and the house, and the
room where you played, and the fireside
with the big backlog before which you sat,
and the ncighbors, and the burial, and the
wedding, and the deep snowbanks, and
hear the village bell that called you to wor-
ship, and seeing the horses which, after
pulling you tochurch, stood around the old
clapboarded meeting house, and those who
sat at either end of the church pew, and in-
deed all the scenes of your first Il years,
and you think OF what you were then and
of what you are now, and all these thoughts
are aroused by the sight of the old hencoop
Some of you had better go back and start
again.
In thought return to that place and hear
the cluck and sac the outspread feathers
and come under the wing and make the
Lord your portion and shelter and warmth,
preparing for everything that may come,
and SO avoid being classed among those
described by the closing words of my text,
"as hen gathereth her chickens under her
wings, and ye would Rot," All, that throws
the responsibility upon usl ''Ye would
not" Alas, for the would nots!" If the
wandering broods OF the farm heed not
their mothers call and risk the hawk and
dare the freshet and expose themselves to
the first frost and storm, surely their ca
lamities are not the mothers fault. "Ye
would not!" God would, but how many
would not?
When a good man asked a young woman
who had abandoned her home and who was
deploring her wretchedness why she did not
return, the replywas II dare not go home
My father is 50 provoked he would not re
ceive me home" Then" said the Chris
tian man, II will test this, and so he wrote
to the father, and the reply came back and
in letter marked outside Immediate"
and inside saying, LET her come at once
all is forgiven" So Gods invitation for
you is marked Immediate" on the outside,
and inside it is written, HE will abun.
dantly pardon"
oh, ye wanderers from God and happi-
ness and home and heaven, come under the
sheltering wing! Under this call see you
turning from your old way to the new way,
the living way, the gospel way. A vessel
in the Bristol channel was nearing the
rocks called the 'Steep Holmes" Under
the tempest the vessel was unmanageable,
and the only hope was that the tide would
change before she struck the rocks and
went down, and SO the captain stood on the
deck, watch in hand Captain and crew
and passengers were pallid with terror.
Taking another look at his watch and an
other look at the sea, he shouted: THANK
God, we are saved! The tide has turned
One minute more and we would have struck
the rocks"
Some of you have been u long while drift
ing in the tempest of sin and sorrow and
have been making, for the breakers. Thank
God, the tide has turnedl Do you not feel
the lift of the billow? The grace Of God
that bringeth salvation has appeared to
your soul, and. in the words of Boaz to
Ruth, commend you to 1.-THE Lord God Of
Israel, under whose wings thou hast come
to trust"