Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1896-05-30
Consecrased to God.


out of life with the departure of men
and women who in the drama of life |
take the part that God assigned them |
and then went away honored of men
and applauded of the Lord Almighty. |
1t is about 80 years ago that in a COM
paratively small apartment Of Che city
a newly married pair set up home. |
The first guest invited to that residence |
was the Lord Jesus Christ, and the BIZ |
BILE given the bride ON the day Of her |
espousal was the guide Of that house
hold. Days of sunshine were followed |
by days of shadow Did you ever know
home that for so years had no vicis- |
situde? The young woman who left her |
fathers house for her young husbands |
home started out with a parental bene-
diction and good advice she will never
forget Her mother said to her the day
before the marriage "Now, my child, |
you are going away from US OF course, |
as long as your father and l live you
will feel that you can come to us at any
time. But your home will be elsewhere. |
From long experience find it is best to |
serve God. 1t is very bright with you
now, my child, and you may think you
can get along without religion, but the
day will come when you will want
God, and my advice is, establish fam
lily altar, and, if need be, conduct the
worship yourself. The counsel was
taken, and that young wife consecrated
every room in the house to God
Years passed ON and there were in
that home hilarities, but they were good
and healthful, and sorrows, but they
were comforted. Marriages as bright as
orange blossoms could make them, and
burials in which all hearts were riven.
They have family lot in the cemetery, /
but all the place is illuminated with
stories of resurrection and reunion The
children of the household that lived
have grown up, and they are all Chris
tians, the father and mother haading the
way and the children following What
care the mother took of wardrobe and
education, character and mannersl How
hard she sometimes worked! When the
head of the household was unfortunate
in business, she sewed until her fingers
were numb and bleeding at the tips
And what close calculation Of economies
and what ingenuity in reitting the gar
ments of the elder children for the
younger, and only God kept account of
that mothers sideaches and headaches
and heartaches and the tremulous pray
ers by the side of the sick child's cradle
and by the couch Of this one fully
grown. The neighbors often noticed
how tired she looked, and old acquaint-
ances hardly knew her in the street But
without complaint she waited and toll
ed and endured and accomplished all
these years. The children are out in the
world-an honor to themselves and their
parents. After awhile the mothers last
sickness comes. Children and grandchil- !
dren, summoned from afar, come softly
into the room one by one, for she is too
weak to see more than one at time |
She runs her dying fingers lovingly
through their hair and tells them not to
cry, and that she is going now, but they
will meet again in a little while III
better world, and then kisses them
goodby and says to each, "God bless
and keep you, my dear child" The day
of the obsequies comes, and the officiat- |
ing clergyman tells the story of wifely
and motherly endurance, and many
hearts on earth and i'll heaven echo the |
sentiment. and as she is carried off the |
stage of this mortal life there are cries |
of Faithful unto death, - ''She hath |
done what she could, while overpow-
ering all the voices of earth and heaven |
is the plaudit of the God who watched 1
her from first to last, saying, "Well |
done, good and faithful servant; thou
hast been faithful over few things, / |
will make thee ruler over many things;
enter thou into the joy of thy Lordr'
The Choice.
But what became of the father of that |
household? He started as a young man |
in business and had a small income, and |
having got little ahead sickness in |
the family swept it all away. He went /
through all the business panics of 40 /
years, met many losses, and suffered |
many betrayals, but kept right on trust
ing i'll God, whether business was good |
or poor, setting his children good ex-
ample, and giving them the best of |
counsel, and never a prayer did he offer |
for all those years but they were men, /
toned in it. He is old now and realizes
it cannot be long before he must quit I
all these scenes. But he is going to /
leave his children an inheritance of |
prayer and Christian principles which /
all the defalcations of earth can never |
touch, and as he goes out of the world /
the church of God blesses him and the /
poor ring his doorbell to see if he is any
better, and his grave is surrounded by /
a multitude who went on foot and stood |
there before the procession of carriages |
came up, and some say, There will be |
no one to take his place, 4" and others |
say, Who will pity me now?" and 9TH
ers remark, 'He shall be held in ever
lasting remembrance. " And as the |
drama of his life closes, all the vocifer- |
alton and braves and encores that ever
shook the amphitheaters Of earthly spec
.acle were tame and feeble compared /
with the long, loud thunders of approval 1
hat shall break from the cloud of wit |
lesses in the piled up gallery of the
heavens. Choose ye between the life that I
shall close by being Kissed off the stage
and the life that shall close amid ac- /
CARNATIONS sapernal and archangelic.
Oh, men and women on the stage CT /
life, many of you in the first act CT the I
drama, and Others in the second, and I
some of you in the third, and few in +
the fourth, and here and there che in
the fifth, but all of You between en-
trance and exit, quote TO You as the /
peroration of this sermon the most sug-
gestive passage that Shakespeare ever
wrote, although you never heard it re- |
cited. The author has often been
claimed as infidel and atheistic, so the
quotation shall be not only religiously |
helpful to ourselves, but grandly vindi-
catory of the great dramatist quote |
from his last will and testament:
I'm the name of God, Amen ], Will |
liam Shakespeare of Stratford- upon
II. -