The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1895-09-07

only get those times back again, how
] would improve them!" My brother,
you will never get them back. They
are gone, gone. You may be very sor-
ny about it, and God may forgive you,
but you will never get over some of
the mishaps that have come to
your soul as result of your neglect
of early duty. You may try to undo
it; you can not undo 1t. When you
had a boys arms, and boys eyes,
and boys heart, you ought to have
attended to these things. A man says,
at fifty years of age: II do wish l
could get over these habits of indo-
lence." When did you get them? At
twenty or twenty-five years. You can
not shake them off. They will hang
to you to the very day of your death.
If a young man, through long course
of evil conduct, underinines his physi-
cal health. and then repents of it in
after-life, the Lord may pardon him;
but that does not bring back good
physical condition. said to minis
ter of the Gospel one Sabbath at the
ClOSc VI Ills ocTuOus w ucTc dTc YOU
preaching now?" oh" he says, 81
am not preaching. ! am suffering
from the physical effects of early sin.
i can't preach now; ! am sick" A
consecrated man he now is, and he
mourns bitterly over early sin; but
that does not arrest their bodily eff
fects.
In this same category of irrevoca bic
mistakes / put all parental neglect.
We begin the education of our chill
dren too late. BY the time they get
to be ten or fifteen we wake up to our
mistakes, and try to eradicate this bad
habit, and change that; but it is too
late. That parent who omits, in the
first ten years of the child's life, to
make an eternal impression for Christ,
never makes it. The child will prob
ably 60 on with all the disadvantages
which might have been avoided by
parental faithfulness. Now you see
what a mistake that father or mother
makes who puts off too late life adj
herence to Christ. Here is man
who at fifty years of age says to you:
II must be Christian;" and he yields
his heart to God, and sits in the place
of prayer to-day Christian. None of
us can doubt it. He goes home, and
he says: Here at fifty years of age l
have given my heart to the Saviour.
Now I must esta blish family altar. !"
What? Where are your children now?
One in Boston; another in Cincinnati,
another in New Orleans; and you, my
brother, at your fiftieth year going to
establish your family altar? Very we'll;
better late than never; but alas, alas
that you did not do it twenty-five years
agol
When l was in Chamouni, Switzer
land, | saw in the windows of one of
the shops picture that impressed my
mind very much. 1t was picture of
an accident that occurred on one of
the Swiss mountains. A company of
travellers, with guides, went up some
very steep places-places which but
few travellers attempted to go up. They
were, as all travellers are there, fas-
tened together with cords at the waist,
so that if one slipped, the rope would
hold him-the rope fastened to the
others. Passing along the most dan
gerous point. one of the guides slipped,
and they all started down the preci-
pice; but after awhile one. muscular
than the rest, stuck his heels into the
ice and stopped; but the rope broke,
and down, hundreds and thousands of
feet, the rest went. And so / see whole
families bound together by the ties of
affection, and in many cases walking
on slippery places of worldliness and
sin. The father knows it, and the
mother knows it, and they are all
bound together. After awhile they
begin to slide down sleeper and steep
err, and the father becomes alarmed,
and he stops, planting his feet on the
Rock of Ages" He stops, bnt the
rope breaks, and those who were once
tied fast to him by moral and spiritual
influences, go over the precipice. Oh.
there is such thing as coming to
Christ soon enough to save ourselves,
but not soon enough to save others
How many parents wake up in the
latter part of his life to find out the
mistakeI The parent says: II have
been too lenient," or 81 have been too
severe in the discipline of my children.
If / had the little ones around me
again, how different l would dor
You will never have them around
again The work is done, the bent to
| the character is given, the etern-
ity is decided. 1 say this to
young parents-those who are
| twenty-five or thirty years of
age-have the family altar tonight.
How do you suppose that father felt
! as he leaned over the couch of his dy-
ing child, and the expiring son said to
him: Father, you have been very good
to me. You have given me fine edu-
cation, and you have placed me in fine
social position; you have done every
thing for me in worldly sense; but,
father, you never told me how to die.
Now am dying, and I am afraid"
| In this category of irrevocable mis-
takes place, also, the unkindnesses
done the departed. When l was a
| bow, my mother used to say to me
some times: DE Witt, you will be
1 sorry for that when / am gone" And
| I remember just how she looked, sitting
there, with cap and spectacles, and
the old Bible in her lap, and she never
said truer thing than that, for
have often been sorry since. While
we have our friends with us, we say
unguarded things that wound the
feelings of those to whom we ought tc
give nothing but kindness. Perhaps
| the parent, without inquiring into the
matter, boxes the child's ears The