Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1895-07-24
NO. 32K

have been too severe in the discipline of nv
children. II had the little ones around me-
again, how different would dor You will
never have them around again. The work is
lone: the bent to the character is given; the
bternity is decided. I say this to young par
fnts. those who are twenty-five and thirty
| DR. thirty-five years OF aSe-have the family
altar tonight. How do you suppose that
father felt rs he leaned over the couch of his
dying child, and the expiring son said to
hint "Father, you have been very good to
| ne. You have given me fine education
| md you have placed me in fine social po-
Iition: you have done everything for me in
| l worldly sense: but, father, you never told
ne how to die. Now am dying, and l am
| afraid"
In this category Of irrevocable mistakes 7
| place also the unkindnesses done the de-
parted. When I was a poy. my mother used
| 20 say TO me sometimes. "De Witt. you will
| De sorry for that when 1 am gone" And I
| remember just how she looked, sitting there
| With cap and spectacles and the old Bible in
aer lap, and she never said truer thing than
| hat, for I have often been sorry since.
| While we have our friends with us we say
| unguarded things that wound the feelings OF
| hose to whom we ought to give nothing but
| kindness. Perhaps the parent. without in
Iuiring into the matter. boxes the child's
ears. The little one. who has fallen in the
! street. comes in covered with dust and IA
though the first disaster were not enough she
whips it. After while the child Is taken,
Or the parent is taken, or the companion is
:aken, and those who are left say: ''Oh.
II we could only get back those unkind
words, those unkind deeds! If could
only recall themr' But YOU cannot get
hem back. You might bow down over
he grave of that loved one and cry and
.ry and cry. The white lips would make no
inswer. The stars shall be- pluckei out o.;
heir sockets, but these influences shall not
,e torn away. The world shall die, but
here are some wrongs immortal. Tho
moral OF which is, take care of your friends
while you have them. Spare tho scolding.
Be economical of the satire. Shut up in n
lark cave from which they shall never swarm
'orth all the words that have sting in them.
fou will wish you had some day-very soon
Tou will. perhaps tomorrow. Oh, yes
While with firm hand you administer par
| Entail discipline also administer 1t very
gently. lest some day there be n little slab
IL the cemetery and on it chiselcd. 'Our
WILLIE" or "Our Charlie" and though you
bow down prone in the grave and seek a
place of repentance and geek it carefully
With tears, YOU cannot find it.
Theirs is another sin that L place in the
.lass of irrevocable mistakes, and that Ia
ost opportunities of getting good. l never
.ometo Saturday night but l can see dur
ng that week that / have missed opportun-
ties of getting good. 1 never come to my
birthday but 1 can see that have wasted
many chances of getting better. never go
lone on Sabbath from the discussion ofa
eligious theme without feeling that L might
lave done it in n more successful way. How
s it with you? If you take certain number
If bushels of wheat and scatter them overa
,ertain number of acres of land. you expect
/ harvest in proportion to the amount OF
eed scattered. And L ask You now, Have
he sheaves of moral aud spiritual harvest
.orresponded with the advantages given?
How has it been with you? You may mako
resolutions for the future. but past opportun-
ties are gone In the long procession of future
fears all those past moments will march. but
The archangel's trumpet that wakes the dead
will not wake up for you one OF those privi-
eyes. Esau has sold his birthright, and there
$ not wealth enough in the treasure houses
)f heaven to buy it back again. What does
hat mean? Ii means that If you are going to
get any advantage out of this Sabbath day
fou will have to get it before the hand wheels
lround on the clock to ~ tonight. 1t means
hat every moment of our life has two wings,
md that it does not fly like hawk in cir
lies, but in a straight line from eternity to
.ternity. 1t means that, though other
.hariots may break down or drag heavily.
his one never drops the brake and never
leases to run. 1t means that while at other
easts the cup may be passed to us and we
nay reject it, and yet after awhile take it,
he cupbearers to this feast never give US but
)ne chance at the chalice, and rejecting that
We shall "find no place for repentance,
hough we seek it carefully with tears"
There is one more class of sins that put
n this category of irrevocable sins and that
8 lost opportunities of usefulness. Your
business partner is Il proud man. In Ordi-
aary circumstances say to him, Believe in
Christ" and he will say. You mind your
business and I'll mind mine" But there has
seen affliction in the household. His heart
tender. He is looking around for sym-
pathy and solace. Now is your time. Speak,
peak, or forever hold your peace. There IL
time in farm life when You plant the corn
md when you SOW the seed. Let that 20 by,
md the farmer will wiring his hands while
>ther husbandmen are gathering in the
lheaves. You are in religious meeting,
md there is an opportunity for you to speak
lwori for Christ. You say, "I must do it."
four cheek fiushes with embarrassment.
lou rise half way, but you COVER before men
whose breath is in their nostrils and you
Rg back, and the opportunity is gone,
md all eternity will feel the effec,
hat opportunity! You cannot find it.
You might as well try to find the fleece thai
Gideon watched, or take in your hand the
lew that came down on the locks of ths
Bethlehem shepherds, or to find the plume OF
the first robin that went across paradise. II
Is gone-it is gone forever. When an oppor-
unity for personal repentance or of doing
good passes away, you may hunt for it; you
cannot find it. You may fish for it; it will
not take the hook. You may dig for it; you
are wrongs and sins that can never be COR
rected: that our privileges fly not in circles.
but in straight line; that the lightning5
have not swift feet our privileges when
they are gone, and let an opportunity of sal
yation go by US an inch--the One-hundreth
part of an inch, the thOusandth part of An
inch, the millonth part Of an inch-and no
man can overtakeit. Fire winged seraphim
cannot come up with it. The eternal Cos
Himself cannot catch ii.
l stand before those who have n glOrOui
birthright. Esau's was not so rich rs yours.
Sell 1t once. and you sell it forever. re-
member the story of the lad on the Arctic
some years ago--the lad Stewart Holland.
A vessel crashed into the Arctic in the timc
of a fog, and it was found that the ship
must go down. Some of the passengers
got off in the life5oats, some got on ou
RATS, but 800 went to the bottom. During
all those hours of calamity Stewart Hol-
land stood at the signal gun and it sounded
across the sea-boom. boom! The helms
man forsook his place; tho engineer WAS
gone, and some tainted, and some prayed,
and some blasphemed. and tho powder was
gone, and they could no more set off the sig
nal gun. The lad broke in the magazine and
brought out more powder, and again the gun
doomed over the sea. Oh, my friends, tossed
or the rough seas of life, some have taken
the warming have gone off in the lifeboat,
and they are safe, but others are not making
any attempt to escape. SO stand at this sig
nal gun of tho gospel, sounding the alarm,
Now is the day of salvation" Hear it thar
your soul may live.