The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1896-07-04

will never forget. Hef mother said
to her the day before the marriages:
"Now, my child, you are going away
from us. Of course, as long as your
father and live you will feel that you
can come to us at any time. But your
home will be elsewhere. From long
experience / find 1t Is best to serve
God. It 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 tHas
taken, and that young wife conse-
Grated every room in the house to God.
Years passed on and there were Id
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 a family lot
in the cemetery, but all the place IL
| illuminated With stories of resurrec-
ti0n and reunion. The children of
the household that lived have grown
up, and they are all Christians,
way and the children following. What
care the mother took CT wardrobe and
| education, character and manners!
hard she sometimes workedl 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 econo-
mics and what ingenuity Id refittine
the garments of the elder children
| for the younger, and only God kept
account of that mothers sideaches
and heada ches and heartaches and the
tremulous prayers 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 acquaintances hardly knew her in
the street But without complaint
she waited and toiled 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
grandchildren, 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 dy-
ing fingers lovingly through their
hair and tells them not to cry, and
that she is going now, but they will
meet again in little while in better
world, ahd then kisses them good-by
and saws 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
in Heaven echo the sentiment, and as
she is carried off the stage of this tnors
tai life there are cries of Faithful un-
to DEATH" "She hath done what she
J could" while overpowering all the
voices of earth and Heaven Is the plau-
dit of the God who watched 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 Lord!'
But what became of the father Of
that household? He started as young
man in business and had a small in
come, and having got little ahead,
sickness in the family swept 1t all
away. He went through all the bust
ness rpanics of 40 years, met many
losses, and suffered many betrayals,
but kept right on trusting in 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
mentioned in it. He is old now, and
realizes 1t can not be long before he
must quit all these scenes. But he Is
| going to leave his children an inner.
itance of prayer and Christian princi-
pies 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 door-bell
to see II he is any better, and his grave
is surrounded by 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." and others say,
"Who will pity me now?" and others
remark: ''He shall be held in everlast-
ing remembrance" And as the drama
of his life closes, all the vociferation
and.bravos and encores that ever shook
the amphitheaters of earthly spectacle
were tame and feeble compared with
the long, loud thunders of approval
that shall break from the cloud Of wit
nesses in the piled-up gallery of the
heavens Choose We between the life
that shall close by being Kissed off the
stage land the life that shall close
amid acclamations supernal and arch.
angelic.
Oh, men and women on the stage OF
life, many of you in the first act of the
drama, and others in the second, and
some of you in the third, and few in
the fourth, and here and there one In
the fifth, but all of you between en-
trance and exit, quote to you as
the peroration of this sermon the
most suggestive passage that Shaks-
peare ever wrote, although you never
heard it recited. The author has often
been claimed as inf1del and atheistc, so
the quotation shall be not only re-
ligiously helpful to ourselves, but
grandly vindicatory of the greatest
dramatist. 1 quote from his last will
and testament.
I'm the name of God. Amen. I.