Ceredo advance. [volume] (Ceredo, W. Va.) 1885-1939, 1896-09-02
DEATHS SICKLE
1arners the Bearded Grain Nor
Spares the Flowers
That Grow Between-He Lays His Icy
Touch on Childhood and Many Homes
Are Darkened-Sermon by Rev. Dr.
I. Dewitt Talmage, DID


Kings. iv., Is, 10, 90: And when the
child was grown. it fell on day that
he went out to his father to the reap
ers And he said unto his father, my
head. my head. And he said to a lad,
carry him to his mother. And when
he had taken him. and brought him TO
his mother, he sat on her knees till
noon, and then died.
There is at least one happy home in
Shunem. To the luxuriance and SPLEEN
dor OF great house had been given the
advent of n child. Even when the
Angel of Life brings n new soul to the
poor mans hut, star of Joy shines
over the manager. Infancy, with its
helplessness and innocence, had passed
away. Days of boyhood had come
days of laughter and frolic, days of
sunshine and promise, days of strange
questions and curiosity and qnicll de
veiopment / suppose among all the
treasures of that house the brightest
was the boy. One day there is the
shout of the reapers heard afield. A
boys heart always bounds at the
sound of sickle or scythe No sooner
have the harvestcrs cut a swath across
the field than the lad joins them. and
the swarthy reapers feel young again
as they look down at that lad as bright
and beautiful as was Ruth in the har-
vest fields of Bethlehem cleaning after
the reapers. But the sun was too hot
Tor him. Congestion of the brain
seized on him. / see the swarthy labor
ers drop their sicllles, and they rush
out to see what is the matter, and they
ian him and they try to cool his brow.
but all Is of no avail. In the instant of
consciousness he puts his hands to his
temples and cries out: MY headi my
head" And the father said: Garry
him to his mother" just as any
father would have sail; for our hand is
TOO rough, and our voice is too harsh
and our foot Is too loud to doc tor to a
sick child. If there be in our home n
gentler voice. and a 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 richer harvest He
reaped only one sheaf. but o. what
a golden sheaf was that! l do not
want to know any more about that
heart-breaking scene than what | see
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 us. Indeed, childhood
has charm always and everywhere.
l shall now speak to you of childhood,
Its beauty, its susceptibility to impress
sion, its powers over the parental
heart, and its blissful transition from
earth to Heaven.
The child's beauty does not depend
upon form or feature or complexion or
apparel. That destitute one that YOU
saw on the street, bruised with unkind-
ness and in rags, has a charm about
her, even under her restitution. You
have forgotten great many persons
whom you met, of finely cut features
and with erect posture and with fault
less complexion, while you will ALWAYS
remember the poor girl who. on n
cold, moonlight night, as you were
passing late home. in her thin shawl
and barefoot on the pavement,
put out her hand and said: please
TO give me a penny" All, how
often we have walked on and said:
20, that is nothing but street vaga-
bondism;" 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 a mite into that
suffering hand, as though il were not a
matter of second thought, so shamed
were we of our hard-heartedness With
what admiration we all looked upon a
group of children on the playground
or in the school, and we clap our hands
almost involuntary and say: How
beautiful All the stiffness and dig
nifty are gone, and your shout is heard
with theirs and you trundlc their hoop.
and fly their kite, and strike their
ball. and all your WEAKNESS and
anxiety are gone as when a
child you bounded over the play
ground yourself That father who
stands rigid and unsympathe tic 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, throwing its sill
yer on the lake and its gold 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 a child's eve.
no color like that which blooms on a
child's cheek. no music like the sound
OF a childs voice It's face in the
poorest picture redeems any imperfec-
ton in art When we are weary with
toll, their little hands pull the burdens
off our back. o. what dull. stale.
mean world this would he without
the sportfulness OF children. When
find people that do not like children.
Immediately doubt their mo-a,
and Christian character. But when
the grace Of God comes upon a child.
how unspeakably attractive. When
samuel begins TO pray, and Timothy
begins % read the Scriptures. and
Joseph shovel himself invulnerable 90
temptation how beautiful the scenei
l know that parents sometimes get
~pervous when their children become
pNgs, because they have the idea that
goONchildren always die. The strange
questPus about God and eternity and
the dekd, excite apprehension in the
parentaASHiud rather than congratula-
ton. Indee there arc some people
that seem marked for Heaven.
This world is too pure garden
To- fhorn 70 bloom Ira TIo 49,.