The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1896-10-10

the pipes and the chords, and you wonder
at the distance between the key and the
chord. And 30 1t is in iife-if you touch
child the result will come back from man.
hood or old age, telling just the tune play
ed, whether the dirge Of great sorrow or
the anthem of q great JOY. The word that
the Sabbath school teacher will this after
noon whisper 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 despotism,
the barbarism or the civilization, the up
building of an empire or the overthrowing
of 1t. Higher than parliament OR congress
are the school and the family, and the
sound Of a childs 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 80 susceptible, and If this is the very
best time to ret upon their eternal inter
ests, what are you doing by way Of right
impulsion?
There were some haryesters In the fields
of Scotland one hot day, and Hannah Le-
mond was helping them gather the hay.
She laid her babe under tree. While she
was busy in tho field there was fiutter of
wings in the air, and golden eagle
clutched the swaddling band of the babe
and flew away with it to the mountain
eyrie. All the harvesters and Hannah L.
mond started for the cliffs. 1t was two
miles before they came to the foot Of the
cliffs. Getting there, who dared to mount
the cliff No human foot had ever trod it.
There were sailors there who had gone up
the mast in the day of terrible tempest.
r;C1r n
mond sat there for awhile and looked up
and saw the eaglo in the eyrie, and then
she lsaped to her feet, and she started up
where no human foot had ever trod, crag
above crag, catching hold of this root or
that root until she reached the cyrie and
caught<her babe, the eagle swooping in
fierceness all around about her. Fasten-
ing the child to her back, she started for
her friends and for homo. Oh, what a dizzy
descent, sliding from this crag to that
crag, catching by that vine and by that
root, coming down farther ard farther
to the most dangerous pass, where she
found a goat and some kids. She said:
"Now III follow the goat. The goat will
know just which is the safest way down"
And she was led by the animal down TO the
plain. When she got there. all the people
cried, "Thank God, thank GodP' her
strength not giving way until the rescue
was effected. And they cried: "Stand
back, now. Give her airP' Oh, il q woman
will do that for the physical life Of her
child, what will you do for the eternal life
of your boy and your girl? Let it not be
told in the great day of eternity that Han
nah Lemond put forth more exertion for
the saving of the physical life of her child
than you, o parent, have ever put forth
for the eternal life Of your little one God
help you!
pass on to consider the power which
child yields over the parental heart. We
often talk about the influence Of parents
upon children. never hear anything said
about the influence 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 were before they gave you
the first lesson. They have revolutionized
your soul. There are fountains Of Joy In
your heart which never would have been
discovered had they not discovered them.
Life Is to you mere stupendous thing
than it was before those little feet started
On the pathway to eternity. Oh, how many
hopes, how many joys, how many solicit
tudes that little one has created in your
soul! You go to school every day, .
school of self denial, a school Of patience,
in which you are getting wiser day by day,
and that infoence of the child over you
will increase and increase, and, though
your children may die, from the very
throne Of God they will reach down an in
fluence 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 II
they stand between you and your child's
welfare A great lawyer, when yet un-
known, one day stood in the courtroom
and made an eloquent plea before some
men Of great legal attainments, and gen.
tleman said to him afterward, "How could
you be so calm standing in that august
presence" "Oh." said Erskine, II felt
my children pulling at my skirts crying
for bread" What stream will you not
swim, what. cavern will you not enter,
what battle will you not fight, what
hunger will you not endure for your chill
dreni Your children must have bread
though you starve. Your children must be
well clothed though you go in rags. You
say, my children shall be educated, though
I never had ayv chance"
What to you are weary limbs and aching
head and hands hardened and callous II
only the welfare of your children can DO
wrought out by its Their sorrow is your
sorrow, their joy your Joy, their advance
ment your victory. And, oh, when the
last sickness comes, how you fight back
the march Of disease, and 1t is only after a
tremendous struggle that you surrender.
And then when the spirit has fed the great
deep is broken up, and Rachel win not be
comforted because her children are not,
and David goes up the palace stairs, cry
ing, 80 Absalom, my son, my son, would
to God had died for thee; o Absalom, my
son, my sonp'
There is not large family, or hardly
large family, that has not bent over such a
treasure and lost it. In the family fold is
there no dead lamb? l have seen many
such cases of sorrow. There is one pre-
eminent In my memory as pastor-Scoville
Haynes McCollum The story of his death
has brought hundreds unto God. He be-
longed to my parish in the west A thor
ough boy, or 10 years Of age. Nothing
morbid, nothing dull about him. His voice
loudest and his foot swiftest on the play
ground. Often he has come into my house
and thrown himself down on the floor in
an exhaustion Of boisterous mirth, and yet
he was Q Christian, consecrated to God,
keeping his commandments That II the