The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1896-09-03

Daniel, cOnSecrated to God, became
prime minister of all the realm, and
there are in hundreds of the schools
and families of this country to-day
children who love God and keep his
commandments, and who are to be
foremost among the Christians and
philanthropists and the reformers Of
the next century. The grace of God
never kills any one. A child will be
more apt to grow up without it.
Length of days is promised to the
righteous. The religion of Christ does
not cramp the chest or curve the spine
or weaken the nerves. There are no
malarias floating up from the river of
life. The religion of Christ throws
over the heart and life of a child a
supernal beauty. Her ways are ways
of pleasantnesS, and all her paths are
peace"
I pass on to consider the suscepti-
bility Of childhood. Men pride them
selves on their unchangeability They
will make an elaborate argument to
prove that they think now just as they,
did twenty years ago. 1t is charged to
frailty or fraud when a man changes
his sentiments in politics or in religion,
and it is this determination of soul that
so often drives back the Gospel from
mans heart. It is so hard to make
avarice charitable, and fraud honest,
and pride humble, and skepticism
Christian. The sword of Gods truth
seems to glance off from those mailed
warriors, and the helmet seems battle
proof against Gods battle-ax But
childhood; how susceptible to example
and to instruction! You are not sur
prised at the record: "Abraham begat
Isaac, and Isaac begat jacob for
when religion starts in a family, it is
apt to go all through. Jezebel a MUIR
deress, you are not surprised to find
her SOC Jehoram attempting ASA ssina-
ton. Oh, what responsibility upon
the parent and and the teacher! The
musician touches the keys, and the re-
spouse OF those keys is away off amid
the pipes and the chords, and you WOE
der at the distance between the key
and the chord. And so it is in life; if
you touch child, the results will come
back from manhood or old age, telling
just the tune played, whether the dirge
OF great sorrow or the anthem of 4
great joy. The word that the Sabbath
school teacher will this afternoon Whis-
per in the ear of the class will be
echoed back from everlasting ages of
light or darkness. The home and the
school decide the republic or the des-
potism; the barbarism or the civiliza-
ton; the upbuilding Of an empire; or
the overthrowing of it. Higher than
parliament or congress are the school
and the family, and the sound of a
child's foot may mean more than the
tramp of host. What, then, are you
doing for the purpose of bringing your
children into the kingdom Of God? If
they are so susceptible, and if this is
the very best time to act upon their
eternal interests, what are you doing
by way of right impulsion?
L pass on to consider. the power
which a child yields over the parental
heart. We often talk about the in
f1uence of parents upon children. I
never hear anything said abo,lt the in
tluence Of children upon their parents
You go to school to them. You no
more educate them than they educate
you. With their little hands they have
caught hold Of your entire nature and
you cannot wrench yourself away from
their grasp. You are different men and
women from what you We're before
they gave you the first lesson. They
have reVolutionized your soul. There
are fountains Of joy i'll your heart
which never would have been discov-
cred had they not discovered them.
Life is to you more stupendous thing
than it was before these little feet
started on the pathway to eternity.
Oh, how many hopes, how many joys,
how many solicitudes that little one
has created in your soul. You go to
school every day-a school of self-de-
NAL, a school of patience, in which you
are getting wiser day by day; and that
influence Of the child over you will in
crease and increase; and though your
children may die, from the very throne
of God they will reach down an infl,l-
ence to your soul, leading you on and
leading you up until you mingle with
their voices and sit beside their
thrones.
The grasp which the child has over
the parents heart is seen in what the
parent will do for the child. Storm
and darkness and heat and cold are
nothing to you if they stand between
you and your child's welfare.
There is not a large family, or hardly
a large family, that has not bent over
such a treasure lost. In the family
fold is there no dead lamb? I have
seen many such cases Of sorrow. There
is one pre-eminent in my memory as
| pastorTTScoville Haynes McCollum.
The story Of his death has brought
hundreds unto God. He belonged to
my parish in the West. A thorough
boy, nine or ten years of age. Nothing
morbid, nothing dull about him. His
voice loudest and his foot swiftest on
the playground. Often he has come
into my house and thrown himself
down on the floor in an exhaustion of
! boisterous mirth; and yet he was
Christian, consecrated to God, keeping
his commandments. That is the kind
of childish piety believe in. When
the days Of sickness came suddenly
and he was told that he could not get
| we'll, he said: "Jesus alone can save
me. Don't cry mamma. l shall go
right straight up to heaven" And then
they gave him a glass of water to cool
his hot lips and he said: Mamma. I
shall take a draught from the water of
life after while, of which if one drink
he shall never get thirsty again. lay
myself at Jesus feet and I want him
to do just what he thinks best to do
with me- In those days 'Rest for the
Weary was a new hymn, and he had
learned it: and in a Derfect ecStaSv If