The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1894-04-27

mastery of that immortal spirit. Tour
children are soon going out in the
world. The temptations of life will
rush upon them. The most rigid reso-
luton will bend in the blast of evil.
What will be the result? 1t will re-
quire all the restraints of the Gospel,
all the strength of a fathers prayer, |
all the influence of a 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 ancient passover? The |
rule was just as soon as they could |
take hold of the fathers hand and |
walk up Mount Moriah 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 1T
after the life of virtue or crime is past,
and the judgment is gone and eternity
is here.
A Christian minister said that in the
first year of his pastorate he tried 10
persuade young mechanic of the inn
portance of family worship. Some
time passed, and the mechanic came to
the pastors study and said: ''Do you
remember that girl? That was
my own child; she died this
morning very suddenly; she has
gone to God. / have no doubt,
but if so, she has told Him what | tell
you now: that child never heard
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 dutyl' It will be a
tremendous thing at the last day if
some one shall say of US: 81 never
heard my father pray; l never heard
my mother pray"
Again | remarLe we want religion in
all our home sorrows. There are ten
thousand questions 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.
Tyranny and arbitrary decision have
no place in the household. If the par
ents love God, there will be spirit of
self-sacrifice, and a spirit of for
| giveness, and a kindness which will
throw its charm over the en-
tire 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 a
| garden on a summer morning-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. Finan'
eial misfortune comes to house
where there is no religion. They kick
against Divine allotments; they curse
God for the incoming calamity, they
withdrawn from the world because
they can not hold as high 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 dis
tresses.
Go home this day and ask the bless
ing on your monday meal. Tonight
set up the family altar. Do not wait
until you become Christian yourself
, This day unite Christ to your household
for the Bible distinctly says that Goo
I will pour out His fury upon the families
that call not upon HIS name. Open the
Bible and read chapter; that viii
, make you strong. Kneel down and of
= fer the first PRAYER in your household
: 1t may be broken petition, it may bt
I only "God be merciful to me, sin
ner;;' but God will stoop, and spirits
. will listen, and angels will chant: "Be
: hold! he prays."
q Do not retire from this house thi
? morning until you have resolved upol
a this matter. You will be gone. vii
q be gone, many years will pass, AM
n perhaps your younger children ma.
forget almost everything about you
q but forty years from now, in som
I Sabbath twilight, your daughter vii
i, be sitting with the family Bible ol
her lap reading to her children, whel
she will stop, and peculiar solemn
: itv will come to her face, and
: tear will start, and the children vii
= saw: Mother, what makes you cry?
: and she will say: Nothing, only
= was thinking that this is the very Bibl
= out of which my father and mothe
used to read at morning and evenin
;. prayer"
All other things about you they ma
: forget: but train them up for God an
! Heaven: they will not forget that.
When a queen died her three son
= brought an Offering to the grave. On
% son brought gold, another brought 81
\ yer, but the third son came and stoo
% over the grave and opened one of h
- veins and let the blood drop upon h
;. mothers tomb, and all who saw
- said it was the greatest demon
= stration of affection. My frienC
- what is the grandest gift we ca
- bring to the sepulchers of a Chri
tian ancestry? It is a life all cons
- Grated to the God who made us an
! the Christ who redeemed us. / ca
- not but believe that there are hui
dreds of parents in this house wi
have resolved to do their whole dut.
) and at this moment they are passin
into a better life; and having seen tt
- grace of the Gospel in this place t
90 day, are now fully ready to return
n your own house and show what gre;
- things God has done unto you.
Though parents may in covenant be,
~ And have their Heaven in view;
AZ They are not happy till they ses
W Their children happy too