The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1896-10-10
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
fHE NOTED DIvINE's SUNDAY
DISCOURSE.

mother And when he had taken him and
brought him to his mother he sat on her
knees till noon and then died"
There IL at least one happy home in
Shunem. To the luxuriance and eplendor
Of great house had been given the adj
vent Of a child Even when the angel Of
life brings new soul to the poor mans
hut star of joy shines over the manager.
Infancy, with its helplessness and inno-
cence, had passed away. Days OF boyhood
had come, days Of laughter and frolic,
days Of sunshine ard promise, days of
strange questions and curiosity and quick
Development I suppose among all the
treasures of that house the brightest was
the boy. One day there is the shout OF
rearers heard afleld. A boys heart always
bounds at the sound of sickle or ecythe
No sooner have tho harvesters cut swath
across the field than the lad joins them,
and the swerthy reapers feel young again
as they look down at that lad, as bright
and beautiful as was Ruth in the harvest
fields of Bethlehem cleaning after the reap
ers. But the sun was too hot for him.
Congestion Of the brain seized on him.
see the swarthy laborsrs drop their Sic
kles, and they rush out to see what Is the
matter, and they fan him, and they try to
cool his brow, but all is of no avail In
the instant of consciousness he puts his
hands against his temples and cries out,
My head, my headp And the father
said, Garry him to his mother" just as
any father would have said, for our hand
Is too rough, and our voice Is too harsh,
AID our foot is too loud to doctor a sick
child If there be in our home a gentler
voice, and gentler hand, and stiller
footstep. But all Of no avail. While the
reapers Of Shunem were busy in the field
there came a stronger reaper that way,
with keener scythe and for a richer har-
vest. He reaped only one sheaf, but oh,
what a golden sheaf was that! do not
want to know any more about that heart
breaking scene than what I see In just
this one pathetic sentence, "He sat on her
knees till noon and then died" Though
hundreds of years have passed away since
that boy skipped to the harvest field, and
then was brought home and died on his
mothers lap, the story still Thrills ua In
deed childhood has charm always and
everywhere. shall now speak to you of
childhood-its beauty, its susceptibility to
impression, its power over the parental
heart, and its blissful transition from earth
to heaven,
l. c CullO Dctuty QOcS uOt Qep6ilu upon
form or feature or complexion or apparel.
That destitute one that you saw on the
street, bruised with unkindness and in
rags, has a charm about her even under
her destltution. You have forgotten a
great many persons whom you met, of
finely cut features and with erect posture
and with faultless complexion, while you
will always remember the poor girl who,
IL s.l.k TIL
passing late home, in her thin shawl and
barefoot on the pavement, put out her
hand and said, "Please to give me a PEN
N.Y." All, how often we have walked on
and said, "Oh, that is nothing but street
vagabondismP but after we got block
or two on we stopped and said, "Ah. that
Is not right" and we passed up that same
way and dropped q mite into that suffer-
ing hand as though it were not matter
Of second thought, so ashamed were we of
our hard heartedness.
With what admiration we oil look upon
a group of children on the playground or
in the school, and we clap our hands al
most involuntarily and say, "How beau
tifulr' All stiffness and dignity are gone,
and your shout is heard with theirs, and
you trundle their hoop, and fly their kite,
and anxiety are gone as when a child you
bounded over the playground yourself.
That father who stands rigid and unsym-
pathetic amid the sportfulness Of children
ought never to have been tempted out of a
crusty and unredeemable solitariness. The
waters leap down the rocks, but they have
not the graceful step Of childhood. The
morning comes out of the gates of the east,
%Lrax &c. I01- TIC
on the towers and its fire ON the cloud, but
il is not SO bright and beautiful as the
morning of life. There is no light like
that which is kindled in child's eye, no
color like that which blooms on child's
cheek, no music like the sound of a child's
voice. Its face In the poorest picture re-
deems any imperfection in art. When we
are weary with toll, their little hands pull
the burdens off our back. Oh, what q
dull, stale, mean world this would be with
ont the sportfulness Of childreni When ]
find people that do not like children, i'm
mediately doubt their moral and Christian
character. But when the grace Of God
comes upon child how unspeakably at
tractivel When Samuel begins to pray,
and Timothy begins to read the Scriptures,
and Joseph shows himself invulEerable to
know that parents sometimes get nervous
when their children become pious, because
they have the idea that good children al
ways die. The strange questions about
God and eternity and the dead excite ap-
prehension in the parental mind rather
than copgratulation. Indeed, there are
some people that seem marked for heaven.
This world is too poor garden for them to
bloom In. The hues of heaven are In the
petals
There IL something about their fore
head that makes you think that the hand
of Christ has been on it, saying, LET this
one come to me, and let it come to me
soon." While that one tarried in the house
you felt there was an angel in the room,
and you thought that every sickness would
be the last, and when finally the winds of
death did scatter the leaves you were no
more surprised than to see star come out
above the cloud on o dark night, for you
had often said to your companion, my
dear, we shall never raise that child" But
I scout the idea that good children always
die. Samuel the pious boy became Samuel
the great prophet. Christian Timothy be-
came minister at Ephesus. Young Dam
lei, consecrated to Ged, became prime min.
lister of all the realm, and there are In
hundreds of the schools and families Of
this country today children who love God
and keep his commandments, and who are
to be foremost among the Christians, and
the philanthropists, and the reformers OF
the next century. The grace OF God never
kills any one. A child viii be more apt to