Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1894-04-21
your neglect now is deciding that des-

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tiny.
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 o o going 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 tho re-
straints 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 carly children were taken to
the ancient passover? The rule was just
as SOON as they could take hold Of the
fathers hand and waikiki Mount Mort
alb 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 d~isembodied spirit rises, and
| you see it after the life of virtue OF
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, / have no
doubt, but if so she has told him what /
tell you now-that child never heard q
prayer in her fathers house, never
heard q prayer from her fathers lips.
Oh, if l only had her back again one
day to do my dutyi'' 1t will be a trench
dous thing at the last day if some one
shall say Of us: II never heard my IA
Their pray. | never heard my mother
pray"
Again, l remark, we want religion in
all our home sorrows. There are 10, 000
questions that come up i'll the best regu-
lated household that must be settled.
Perhaps the father has one f~avorite in
the family, the mother another f~avorite
in the family, and there are many ques-
/ lions that need delicate treatment.
Tyranny and arbitrary decision have
no place in a household. Ii 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 a garden Oh a sum
mer morning-the grass plot, and the
flowers, and the vines, and the arch of
h~oneysuckle 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 a house where there is
he religion. They kick against divine
allotments 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 ome 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 clotbe me. If he takes care of the
raven, and the hawk, and the v%ulture,
most certainly he will take care of me,
his child.
Sorer troubles come-sickness and
death. Loved ones sleep the last sleep.
Achild is buried out OF sight. You say:
Alas. for this bitter dayl God has
dealt very severely with me. lean never
look up. o God, | cannot bear it.
Christ in, and he y Hush, o
troubled soul! 1t is well with the child.
| will strengthen thee i'll all thy trou-
bles. My grace is sufficient. When thou
passeth through the waters, | will be
with thee"
When through the deep waters ] call thee
to go,
The rivers of sorrow shall not overflow,
For / will be with thee thy troubles to bless,
And ~sanctify TO thee thy deepest distress.
But there are hundreds of families
represented here this morning where re
ligion has been a great comfort. There
are III your homes the pictures of your
departed and things that have no won
derful value of themselves. but you keep
them previously and carefully because
hands now still once touched them. A
father has gone out of this household, a
mother has gone out of this, a daughter
just after her graduation day, a sen Just
as he was entering OH the duties of life.
The Family Altar.
And to other homes trouble will come.
| say it 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 me-. There will be partings in all our
households. We must say farewell. We
must die. And yet there are triumphant
strains that drown these tremulous ac-
cents, there are anthems that whelm the
dirge. Hesven is full of the shout Of de-
livered captives, and to the great wide
field of human sorrow there come now
the reaper angels with keen sickles to
harvest the shcayes Of heaven.
Saints will to the end endure;
Safely will the Shepherd keep
Those he purchased for his sheep.
Go home this day and ask the blessing
On your MONDAY meal. Tonight set up
the family altar. Do not wait until You
become . Christian yourself. This day