Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1895-08-22

thing, but it is too late" Invisible
hands take him up. He struggles to
get loose. In vain. They bring his
soul to the verge. They let it down
over the side. The winds howl The
sea opens its frpthing jaws to swal-
low. He has gone forever. And
while the canvass cracked and
the yards ratified, and the ropes
thumped, the sea took up the funeral
dirge, playing with open diapson Of
midnight storm, Bee use have called,
and We refused; l have stretched out
my hand and no man regarded; but We
have set at naught all my counsel, and
would none of my reproof; also will
laugh at your calamity; will mock
when your fear cometh."
Now, lest any of you should make
this mistake, l address you in the
words of the Mediterranean sea cap
ain: what meanest thou, o sleeper?r
Arise, call upon thy God, II so be that
God will think upon US, that we perish
not" If you have : God, you had
better call upon him. Do you say, II
have no God?" Then you had better
call upon your fathers God. When
your father was in trouble, who did he
fly to? You heard him, in his old days,
tell about some terrible exposure in
q snow storm, or at sea, or in battle, or
among midnight garroters, and how he
escaped. Perhaps twenty years before
You were born, your father made sweet
acquaintance with God. There is some
thing in the worn pages Of the Bible
he used to read which makes you
think your father had God. In the
old religious books lying around the
house there are passages marked with
lead pencil-passages that make you
think your father was not goddess
man, but that, on that dark day
when he lay in the back room dying,
he was ready-all ready. But perhaps
your father was bad man-prayerless,
and blasphemer, and you never think
of him now without q shudder. He
worshiped the world or his own appe-
titles. Do not then, l beg of you, call
upon your fathers God, but call on
your mothers God. / think she was
good. You remember when your father
came home drunk late on cold night,
how patient your mother was. You
often heard her pray. She used to sit
by the hour meditating, as though she
were thinking of some good, warm
place, where it never gets cold, and
where the bread does not fail, and
steps never come. You re-
member her now, as she sat, in cap
and spectacles, reading the Bible sun
day afternoons. What good advice She
used to give you! How black and ter
rible the hole in the ground looked to
you when, with two ropes, they let her
down to rest in the graveyard! All!
think from your looks that am on the
right track. Awake, Q sleeper, and
call upon thy mothers God.
But perhaps both your father and
mother were depraved. Perhaps your
cradle was rocked by sin and shame,
and it is wonder that from such a
starting you have come to respectable
ty. Then don't call upon the God OF
either of your parents, | beg OF you.
But you have children. You know God
kindled those bright eyes, and rounded
those healthy limbs, and set beating
within their breasts an immortality.
Perhaps in the belief that somehow 1t
would be for best, you have taught
them to say an evening prayer, and
when they kneel beside you, and fold
their little hands and look up, their
faces all innocence and love, you know |
that there is God somewhere about |
in the room.
But. alas! alas! some of these men
and women are unmoved by the fact
that their father had God, that
their mother had a God, and their chill
iren have God, but they have no God.
All pious example to them for nothing.
ALI the divine goodness for nothing.
All warning for nothing. They are
,ound asleep in the side of the ship, |
though the sea and sky are in MAD
wrestle.
Many years ago man, leaving nis
family III Massachusetts,, sailed from
Roston to China, to trade there. On
The coast of China, in the midst OF
,;cht Of storm, he made shipwreck. The
,dventurer was washed up on the
beach senseless-all his money gone
He had to beg in the streets OF canton
q keep from starving. For two years
here was no communication between
himself and family. They supposed
,im dead. He knew not but that ms
,amilv were dead. He had gone out
e cantain. He was too proud to come
back as private sailor. But after
vbile he choked down his pride and
,ailed for Boston. Arriving there, he
;ook an evening train for the center OF
he state where he had left his family.
raking the stage from the depot and
.;dinp a score of miles, he got home.
4e saws that, going up in front OF the
cottage in the bright moonlight, the
,lace looked to him like Heaven. He
.anped on the window, and the al
frightened servant let him in. He went
Z The room where his wife and child
we're sleeping. He did not dare towake
hem for fear of the shock. Bending
,var to kiss his child's cheek, tear fell
non the wife's face, and she wakened'
nd he said, "Mary!" and she knew his
Nd