Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1894-04-27
rents, however worldly, want their children

to prison the mother cried out ~ God,
let not this babe go into the Jail Is there
not some mother here who will take this
child? It is good enough for heaven. 1t Is
pure. I an bad. l am wicked. Is there
not some one who will take this child? l
cannot have it tainted with the prison. 4"
Then a brazen creature rushed up and said,
yes, I'll take the child" ''No, no." said
the mother, "not you, not you. Is there not
some good mother here who will take this
chfIdY' And then when the officer OF the
law in mercy and pity took the child to carry
ii away to find home for it the mother
kissed it lovingly goodby and said: "Good-
by, my darling. 1t is better you should
never see me again.
However worldly and sinful people are,
they want their children good. How are you
going to have them good? Buy them few
good books2 Teach them a few excellent
catechisms? Bring them to church? That Is
all very we'll, but of little lnal result unless
you do ii with thu grace of God in your
heart. Do you not realize that your children
are started for eternity? Are they on the
right road? Those little forms that are now
so bright and beautiful-when they have
scattered in the dust, there will be an i'm
mortal spirit living on in mighty theatre OF
action, and your faithfulness or your neglect
now is deciding that destiny.
There is contention already among minis
tering spirits of salvation and fallen angels
as to who shall have the mastery OF that I'M
mortal spirit Your children are soon 60
ing out In the world. The temptations OF
life will rush upon them. The most rigid
resolution will bend in the blast of evil.
What will be the result? 1t will require all
the restraints of the gospel, all the strength
of 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 early children were taken to the
10 jT,oS
as they could take hold of the fathers hand
and walk up Mount Morlah 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, andt judgment is gone, and
eternity is here
Christian minister said that in the first
year of his pastorate he tried to persuade
young mechanic of the importance of family
worship. Some time passed, and the me-
chanic came to the pastors study and said:
"Do you remember that girl? That was my
own child. She died this morning very sud-
denly. She has gone to God, l have no
doubt, but if 80 she has told Him what tell
you now-that child never heard prayer in
her fathers house, never heard Il prayer
from her fathers lips. Oh, If only had her
back again one day to do my duty! 1t will
be tremendous thing at the last day if some
shall say of us: ~ never heard my father
pray. never heard my mother prayer.
Again, remark, we want religion in all
our home SORROWS. There are 10000 ques
tons that come up in the best regulated
household that must be settled. Perhaps the
father has one favOrite in the family, the
mother another favorite in the family, and
there are many questions that need delicate
treatment.
hoy
place in a household. If the parents love
God, there will be spirit of self sacrifice and
a spirit of forgiveness, and a kindness which
will throw its charm over the entire house
hold. 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 fam
lily will be like garden on a summer morn
ing-the grass plot and the flowers, and the
vines, and the arch of hOneysuckle standing
in the sunlight glittering with dew.
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 misfortune comes to
a house where there is no religion. They
kick against divine allotments, they curse
God for the incoming calamity, they with
draw from the world because they cannot
hold as high a position in society as they
once did, and they fret, and they scow, and
they sorrow, and they die. During the past
few years there have been tens OF thousands
Of men destroyed by their financial dis
tresSes.
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 NE through the furnace of tribu-
lation. Beside that, why should l fret any
how? He who owneth the cattle on thou
sand hills and out of whose hands all the
fowls of heaven peck their food is my
Father. He clotheth the lilies of the field.
He will clothe me. If He takes care of the
raven, and the hawk, and the vulture, most
certainly He will take care of me, His
child"
Sorer troubles come-sickness and death.
buried out of sight. You say: "Alas, for
this bitter day! God has dealt very severely
with me. I can never look up. o God, 1
cannot bear it." Christ comes in, AMI He
says "Hush, o troubled soul! 1t is we'll
with the child. will strengthen thee in all
thy troubles. My grace is sufficient. When
thou passeth through the waters, will be
with thee"
Whe through the deep waters call thee to go
The rivers of sorrow snal not overflow,
And sancttfy to thee thy deepest distress.
But there are hundreds of families repre-
sented here this morning where religion has
been a great comfort. There are in your
homes the pictures Of your departed AM
things that have no on1erful value them
selves, but you keep them previously an
carefully because hands now still Onca
touched them. A father has gone out of this
household a mother has gone out of this, a
daughter just after her graduation day,
son just as he was entering on the duties Of
life.
And to other homes trouble will come. I
sayft not that you may be foreboding, not
that you may do the unwise thing of taking
trouble by the forelock but that you may be
ready. We must go one by one. There will
be partings in all our households. We must
say farewell. We must die And vet there
are triumphant strains that drown these
tremulous accents. there are anthems that
whelm the dirge. Heaven is full of the shout
of delivered captives, and to the great wide
field OF human sorrow there come now the
reaper angels with keen sickles to harvest
the sheaves of heaven.
Saints will to the end endure;
Safely will the Shepherd sep
Those He purchased fer His sheep.
Go home this day and ask the blessing on
your MONDAY meal. Tonight set ND the
family altar. Do not wait until you become
a Christian yourself. This day unite Christ
TO your household, for the Bible distinctly
says that God will pour out His fury upon
the families that call not upon His name
Open the Bible and read a chapter that will
make you strong. Kneel down and offer
the first prayer in your household. 1t NAV
be broken petition; it may be only God
be merciful to me, sinner" But God will
stoop, and spirits will listen, and angels will
chant, "Behold he prays!''
Do not retire from this house this morning
until you have resolved upon the matter
You will be gone 1 will be gone. MANY
years will pass, and perhaps your younger
children may forget almost everything about
you, but forty years from now in some Sab
bath twilight your daughter will be sitting
with the family Bible on her lap reading to
her children when she will stop, and peculiar
Sotemnity will come to her face and a tear
will start, and the children will saw.
Mother, what makes you cry?" And she