The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1893-06-28

birds Is family song. Even those OF
the feathered throngs which have no
song at all, make what utterances they
do in sounds of their own family OF
birds. The hoot of the owl, the chat
ter of the magpie, the crow OF the
chanticleer, the drumming Of the
grouse, the laugh of the loon in the
AdirondaclSs, the cacl1le of the hen,
the scream Of the eagle, the croak OF
the raven, are sounds belonging to each
particular family; but when you come
to those which have real songs, how
suggestive that it is always family
song. All the skylarks, all the night
ingales, all the goldfnches, all the
, blackbirds, all the cuckoos, prefer the
song of their own family and never
sing anything else. So the most deep
ly impressive songs we ever sing are
family songs. They have come down
from generation to generation. You
were sung to sleep in your infancy and
childhood by songs that will sing in
your soul forever. Where was 1t, my
brother or sister, that you heard the
family song-on the banks of the Ohio,
or the Alabama, or the Androscoggin,
or the Connecticut, or the Tweed, or
the Thames, or the Raritan? The
song at eventide, when you were tired
out-indeed, too tired to sleep, and you
cried with leg ache, and you were
rocked and sung to sleep-you hear it
now, the soft voice from sweet lips,
she as tired, perhaps more tired than
you, but she rocked and you slumbered.
o, those family songs! The songs that
father sang, that mother sang, that
sisters and brothers sang. They roll
on us to-day with "reminiscences that
fills the throat, as well as the heart,
with emotion. In our house in
my childhood it was always a re-
ligious song. | do not think that
the old folks knew anything but re-
ligious songs; at any rate | never heard
them sing anything else. twas Jesus,
Lover of My Soul" or Rock of Ages"
or There is Fountain Filled With
Blood" or Mary to The Saviour s
Tomb" Mothers, be careful what you
sing your children to sleep with. Let
it be nothing frivolous or silly. Better
have in it something of Christ and
Heaven, something that will help that
boy thirty years from now to bear up
under the bombardment of temptation.
Better have in it something that will
help that daughter thirty years from
now when Upon her come the cares OF
motherhood and the agonies Of be-
reavement and brutal treatment of one
who swore before high Heaven that he
would cherish and protect. Do not
waste the best hour for making an Inn
preston upon your little one, the hour
of dusk, the beach between day and
night. Sing not a doleful song, but a
suggestive song, Christian song, a song
you will not be ashamed to meet when II
comes TO you in the eternal destiny OF
your son and daughter The oriole has
loud song, and the chewink long
song, and the bluebird a short song,
but it is always family song, and LEI
your cleaning song to your children
whether long or short, be Christian
song. These family songs are about
all we keep of the old homestead. The
house where you were born will &C
into the hands of strangers. The gar
ments that were carefully kept as
relics will become moth-eaten. The
family Bible can go into the possession
Of only one of the family. The lock OF
gray hair may be lost from the loclet
and in few years all signs and me
mentoes of the old homestead will be
gone forever. But the family songs
those that we heard at two years OF
age, at five years of age, at ten years
of age, will be indestructible, and al
forty or fifty or sixty or seventy year,
of age will give us mighty boost ovel
some rough place in the path of oui
pilgrimage. Many years ago grouI
of white children were captured and
carried off by the Indians.
Years after, a mother who had lost
two children in that capture, went
among the Indians, and there were
many white children in line, but SC
long a time had passed the mother
could not tell which were hers until
she began to sing the old nursery song
and her two children Immediately
rushed up, shouting, Mammal "Mam
maj Yes, there is an immortality in
nursery song. Hear II, all you
mothers, an immortality of power tc
rescue and save. What an occasion
that must have been in Washington
December II, 1850, when Jenny LIND
sang Home, Sweet Home" the author
of these words, John Howard Payne
seated behind her. She had rendered
her other favorite songs, "Casta Diva, y
and her "Flute Song" with fine effect
but when she struck fHome, Sweet
Home" John Howard Payne rose
under the power, and President Fill
more and Henry Clay and Daniel Web
ster and the whole audience rose with
him. Anything connected with home
ransaclSs our entire nature with holy
power, and songs that get well started
in the nursery or by the family hearth
roll on after the lips that sung them
are forever silent and the ears that
first heard them forever cease to
hear.
I preach this sermon just before
many Of you will go out to pass days
or weeks in the country. BE careful
how you treat the birds. Remember
they are Gods favorites, and II you
offend them, you offend Him. He is SC
fond 'of their voices that there are
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