Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1894-04-16
your neglect now is deciding that des

There is contention already among
ministering spirits of salvation and
fallen angels as to who shall have the
mastery of that immortal spirit Your
children are soon going out in the world.
The temptations Of life will rush upon
them. The most rigid resolution will
bend il the blast Of evil. What will be
the result? It will require all the re-
straints Of the gospel, all the strength
OF q fathers prayer, all the influence of
q Christian mothers example to keep
them.
You say it is too early to bring them.
Too early to bring them to God? Do you
know how carly children were taken to
the ancient passover? The rule was just
as soon as they could take hold of the
fathers hand and walk up Mount Mort
all they should be taken to the passover.
Your children are not too young to come
to God. While you sit here and think
Of them perhaps their forms now so
bright and beautiful vanish from you,
and their disembodied spirit rises, and
you see it after the life Of virtue or
crime is past, and the Judgment is gone,
and eternity is here.
Prayer In the Home.
A Christian minister said that in the
first year Of his pastorate he tried to per-
suade a young mechanic OF the impOr-
lance Of family worship. Some time
passed, and the mechanic came to the
pastors study and said: ''Do you re-
member that girl? That was my own
child. She died this morning very sud
denly. She has gone to God, I have no
doubt, but if SO she has told him what [
tell you now-that child never heard a
prayer in her fathers house, never
heard a prayer from her fathers lips
Oh, if [ only had her back again one
day to do my duty!'' It will be a tremen-
dous thing at the last day if some one
shall say Of US: 81 never heard my IA
Their pray. l never heard my mother
pray
Again, remark, we want religion in
all our home SORROWS. There are 10, 900
questions that come up in the best regu-
lated household that must be settled.
Perhaps the father has one favorite in
the family, the mother another fayorite
in the family, and there are many ques-
tions that need delicate treatment.
Tyranny and arbitrary decision have
no place in household IF the parents
love God, there Will be a spirit of self
sacrifice, and a spirit of forgiveness, and
a kindness which will throw its charm
over the entire household. Christ will
come into that household and will say:
Husbands, love your wives and be not
bitter against them. Wives, see that you
reverence your husbands. Children, obey
your parents in the Lord. Servants, be
Obedient to your masters. !" And the
family will be like garden on a sum-
mer morning-the grass plot, and the
flowers, and the vines, and the arch of
honeysuckle standing in the sunlight
glittering with dew.
Religion In Misfortune.
But then there will be SORROWS that
Will come to the household. There are
but few families that escape the stroke
of financial misfortune. Financial mis-
fortune comes to q house where there is
no religion. They kick against divine
they curse God for the in
coming calamity, they withdraw from
the world because they cannot hold as
high a position in society as they once
did, and they fret, and they scowl, and
they sorrow, and they die. During the
past few years there have been tens Of
thousands of men destroyed by their
financial distresses.
But misfortune comes to the Christian
household. If religion has full sway in
that home, they stoop gracefully They
say, This is right. - The father says:
Perhaps money was getting to be my
idol. Perhaps God is going to make me
a better Christian by putting me through |
the furnace of tribulation. Besides that,
why should l fret anyhow? He who
owneth the cattle On a thousand hills
and out of whose hand all the fowls Of
heaven peck their food is my Father.
He clotheth the lilies Of the field. He
will clothe me- lie he takes care of the
raven, and the hawk, and the yulture,
most certainly he will take care of me,
his child. !"
Sorer troubles cone-siclzness and /
leath. Loved ones sleep the last sleep.
A child is buried out Of sight You say:
Alas, for this bitter day! God has /
lealt very severely with me. [ can never I
COX up. O God, I cannot bear it. -
Christ comes in, and he says: Hush, O I
roubled soul! 1t is well with the child
will strengthen thee in all thy trou-
oles. My grace is sufficient When thou
3asseth through the waters, I will be /
With thee -
When through the deep waters l call thee
to go,
The rivers Of sorrow shall not overflow,
Tor viii be with thee thy troubles to bless,
And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress.
But there are hundreds Of families
here this morning where re-
igion has been q great comfort There
ire in your homes the pictures Of your
departed and things that have no won
lerful value Of themselves, but you keep
hem previously aud carefully because