Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1893-03-02

wherever you may nov live. and chat Is tho
majority of ynu I,u curot hear mr.
text without hn> gail the rustic scenes of
the old farmhouse come back to you. Good
old days they were. Nou knew nothing
much OF the world, for you had not seen
the world.
by law Of association you cannot recall the
brooding hen and her chickens without sec
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 neighhors, 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 to church, 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 IA 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 see the outsprcad 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,
las hen gathereth her chickens under her
wings, and ye would not" All, that throws
the responsibility upon us! "Te would
not" Alas, for the would notsN 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 Cd
lamities are not the mothers fault. ''Ye
would not" God would, but how many
would not?
When a good man asked young woman
who had abandoned her home and who was
deploring her wretchedness why she did not
return, the rcplywas: Il dare not go home.
My father is SO 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
Won is marked Immediate" on the outside,
and inside it is written, He will abun-
dainty pardon
Oh, yo wanderers from God and happi-
ness and homo and heaven, COMO under the
shelterng wingl 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 We're pallId with terror
Taking ano.h Der look at his warch 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 long while drift
ing in the tempest of sin and sorrow and
have been making for the breakers, Thank
God, the tide has turned Do you not feel
the lift of the billow? The grace of God
that bringeth salvation ias appeared to
your soul, and, in the words of Boaz to
Ruth commend you to the Lord God Of
Israel, under whose wings thou hast come
( to trust