The Yale expositor., 1895-08-09

father had a God. In the old religious
books lying around the house. there
are passages marked with lead pencil
Gpassages which make you thing your
father was not a 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 blasphem-
er and you never think Of him now
without a shudder He worshiped the
world or his own appetites. Do not
then, I beg of you, call upon your faith
ers God, but call on your mothers
God. I think she was good. You re-
member when your father came home
drunk late on a cold night, how patient
your mother was. You often heard her
pray. She used TO sit by the hour med
itating, as though she were thinking Oh
some good. warm place. where II never
gets cold, and where the bread does not
fail, and staggering steps never come
You remember her now, as she sat, III
cap and spectacles. reading her Blnle
Sunday afternoons. What good adVlce
she used TO give you! How black ana
terrible the hole in the ground looked
TO you when, with two ropes, they let
her down to rest in the graveyard! AM
l think from your looks that am OH
the right track. Awake, o sleeper. ana
call upon thy mothers God.
| But perhaps both your father ana
mother were depraved. Perhaps your
cradle was rocked by sin and shame'
and 1t is a wonder that from such a
/ starting you have come TO respectaoli-
ity. Then don't call upon the God or
either Of your parents, beg or you.
But you have children. You know
| God kindled those bright eyes, and
rounded those healthy limbs, and SET
beating within their breast an immor-
tality. Perhaps in the belief that some
! how IL would be for the best, you nave
taught them to say an evening prayer
and when they kneel beside you, ana
fold their little hands, and look up
their faces all innocence and love, you
know that there is a God somewhere
about in the room.
think l am on the right track at
last. Awake, o sleeper, and call upon
the God of thy children. May he SET
these little ones to pulling at thy heart
until they charm thee to the same God
to whom tonight they will say their
little prayers!
But. alas! alas! some Of these men
and women are unmoved by the fact
that their father had a God, that their
mother had a God, but they have no
God. All pious example to them foI
nothing. All the divine goodness foI
nothing. All warning for nothing
They are sound asleep in the side OF
the ship, though the sea and SKY are IL
mad wrestle.
Many years ago, a man, leaving III:
family in Massachusetts, sailed IRON
Boston TO China, to trade there. OI
the coast of China, in the midst OF
night OF storm, was shlpWrecke'
The adventurer was washed up on th'
beach senseless-all his money gone
He had to beg in the streets OF Cantor
TO keep from starving. For TWO years
there was no communication betweeI
himself and family. They supposed
him dead. He knew not but that MI
family was dead. He had gone out a.
a captain. He was too proud 10 CONT
hack as a private sailor. But after
while he choked down his pride ant
sailed for Boston. Arriving there, n
took an evening train for the cente
of the state. where he had left his fam
, ilv Taking the stage from the depot
and riding a score of miles, he go
J home. He says that. going up in from
p of the cottage in the bright moonlight
the place looked 10 him like heaven
He raped on the window and the af
/ frighted servant let him in. He wen
. TO the room where his wife and chill
were sleeping. He did not dare I
) wake them for fear OF the shoke. Bend
5 ing over to kiss his ohild's cheek,
tear fell upon the wifes face, and sh
wakened, and he said, Mary! and sh
knew his voice, and there was an inde
scribable scene Of welcome, and JOY
, and thanksgiving TO God.
{ To-day 1 know that many of you Gr
= sea-tossed, and driven by sin in
l worse storm than that which cam
down on the coast Of China, and yet
! pray God that you may, like the sailoi
live to go home. In the house Of man
$ mansions your friends are waiting {
. meet you. They are wondering VIII
Y you do not come. Escaped from IN
0 shipwrecks Of earth, may you at las
go in! 1t will be bright night-a yer
G bright night as you put your thumb o
+ the latch of that door. Once in, yo
} will find the old family faces sweete
y than when you last saw them, an
e there 1t will be found that he who wa
:. your fathers God, and your mother
g God, and your children's God, is yoJ
d own most blessed Redeemer, to whol
Il be glory and dominion throughout a
L ages, world without end. Amen.