The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1896-09-16

There were some harvesters In the fields OIL
Scotland one hot day: and Hannah Lemond
was helping them gather the hay. She laid
her babe under tree. While she was busy
in the field, there was hutter Of wings in
the air, and golden eagle cluch. theswad.
ding band of the babe, and flew away with
it to the mountain eyrie. All the harvesters
and Hannah Lemond started for the cliffs.
It was two miles before they came to the
foot OF the cliffs. Getting there. who dared
TO mount the cliffs? No human foot had
ever trod it. There were sailors there who
had gone up the mast in the day Of terrible
tempest they did not dare risk it. Hannah
Lemond sat there for a while and looked up
and saw the eagle in the eyrie, and then
she leaped to her feet. aud 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
eyrie and caught her babe, the eagle swoop.
ing In flerceness all around about her.
Fastening the chill 10 her back. she started
for her friends and for home. Oh. what
dizzy descent! sliding from this crag to that
crag, catching by that vine and by that root.
coming down further and further, to tne
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: "Ihank
God! thank God!' her strength not giving
way until the rescue was effected. And they
cried: "Stand back, now. Give her air!
Oh, If woman will do that for the physical
| life Of her child what will you do Tor the
eternal life OF your boy and your girl2 Let
it not be told in the great day of eternity
| that Hannah Lemond put forth more eXer-
tion 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!
I pass on to consider the power which
child wields over the parental heart. We
often talk about the influence OF parents up
on children. I never heard anything said
about the influence of children upon their
parents. You so 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 yon 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 more
stupendous thing than it was before those
little feet started on the pathway to eternity.
Oh, how many hopes, how many Joys, how
many solitudes that little one has created in
your soul! You go to school every day-a
school of self-denal. 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 chill
dren may die. from the very throne Of God
thew will reach down an influence to your
soul, leading you on and leading yon up un-
til you mingle with their voices and sit be-
side 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 ard cold are nothing to you if they
stand between you and your child's welfare.
great lawyer, when yet unknown, one day
stood in the court room and made an elo-
quent plea before some men Of great legal
attainments and a gent eman said to him
afterward: "How could YOU be so calm
standing in that august presence?" "Oh,"
said Erskine, ~ 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
dren? Your children' Your children must
have bread though you starve. Your chill
dren must DE we'll clothed though you go In
rags. You say: "AIy children shall be edu-
Gated though I never had any chance"
What to you are weary limbs, and aching
head, and hands hardened and callous, IL
only the welfare of your children can be
wrought out by il? 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 it is only after tre-
mendous struggle that you surrender. And
then when the spirit has ned. the great deep
is broken up, and Rachel will not be COM
iorted because her children are not, and
David goes up the palace stairs, crying:
sob. Absalom, my son, my son. would God
I had died for thee, oh, Absalom, my son,
my son."
There is not large family, or hardly q
large family that has not bent over such
treasure and lost it. In the family fold is
there no dead lamb? have seen many such
cases of sorrow. There is one eminent
in nv memory as pastor-scovile 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 mrth; and yet he was Il Chris
tian, consecrated to God, keeping His com.
mandments. That is the kind of childish
piety believe in. When the days Of sick
ness came suddenly and he was told that he
could not get we'll. he said: "Jesus alone
can save me. Jesus will save me. He has
saved me. Don't cry, mamma. shall so
right straight up to heaven" And then
they gave him glass of water to cool his
hot lips and he said: Mamma, l shall take
awhile, OF which II one drink, he shall never
get thirty again. lay myself at Jesus's feet
and want Him to do Just what He thinks
best to do with me-" In those days crest
for the Weary was a new hymn, and he had
| learned It; and in perfect ecstacy OF soul,
| in his last hour, he cried out:
In the Christians home in glory
There remains land of rest;
There my Saviour's gone before me
To fulfil my souls request;
There Is rest for the weary,
There is rest for you.
Sing, OBJ, sing, ye heirs Of glory,
Shout your triumphs as you go;
lions gates are open for you,
You shall find an entrance through.
There is rest for the weary.
"There is rest for you, papa; there is rest
for you, mamma" And then putting his
hands over his heart, he said: eyes, there is
rest for me-" And then he asked them to
read "The Lord Is my Shepherd, shall not
want He makcth me to lie down in green
pastures, and leadeth me beside still waters"
and he cried out; 20 Death, where is thy
sting? O Grave. where is thy victory"
Only ten years old! And then he said.
''Now wish you would just turn this bed so
can look once more on the foliage and see
the sun SET" And they turned the bed; and
he said. II do 80 wish that Jesus would
hurry and come and take me-" They said
to him, "Why, are you not willing to await
the Lords timer" ''Yes," he said, II am;
but would rather Jesus would come and
hurry and take me-" And 50, with peace