The Natchitoches enterprise., 1899-02-16
Lenten Pastoral of Rev'd. Charles
ThOrp.
QUINQCAGEsIMA SUNDAY,

QUINQCAGEsIMA SUNDAY, 1899
Dear Brethren The season OF Lent
commences next wednesday. This
season comes with very solemn call 10
. US all. Lent is season that pleads
with the children of the Church (ano
remember, we who are baptized arc
those children), and asks them to retire
a. far as possible during Its forty days,
from the world its cares, its business,
its worries. and certainly from all its
pleasures.
1t calls upon MS to use this session. BY
giving ourselves up to determination,
to meditation and 10 earnest prayer, In
order that our spiritual lives may be
deepened and our Christian characters
developed and enlarged.
Believe me, no one can afford to lose
the training. the lessons, and the spirit
ual help that this season of fast to the
body and feast TO the soul brings. L
ask YOU. one and all, to join with me in
making this solemn season a marked
epoch in our own lives, and in the life
of the Church ia this town.
As / view the Mission. after a nine
months work in your midst, | realize
that, one and all, we have each a most
important work to DO, and this work
is first in ourselves.
Let Us try to make our religion more
real. Believe me, Of all shams in this
world Of shanS, n sham religion is the
worst. To be REAL, We must be In earn
est, true to ourselves and true to God
and TO Gods Church. The WAYS and
means thereto Is TO seek earnestly for
that repentance not to be Iepented of.
10 seek for forgiveness, and to be
more and more fully resolved to live
life of obedience Ia the future Ssek
until you find that love Of GOD which
fills you with love to your fellowman,
fOi without this charity ali efforts are
vain. Shake off all indifference. This
sin Is the curse Of our aye, and 1t Is the
most fatal OF sins. Let u fresh love for
holy things kindle IN your cold hearts
an ever deepening love for Christ and
His Church. Resolve that your closet,
your meditatiUns, = our homes, and your
church shall no longer be a name 10 live
by, but that II shall be Il real lite to live.
Particularly at this solemn season.
and IN this my firE: pastoral, do urge
upon you to see to the training of those
young souls To I God has given TO your
keeping. Remember, no sin Of OmiS-
sion can be greater than to far here.
The great crying need of the day Is
MORE PRONOUNCED PARENTAL AUTH
GRITTY. Ii this is not exhibited in the
beginning of the dawuing faculties of
the child, IL very soon comes to be de-
fled by the child. and the consequence
Is that children become Interchangeable
even at very tender aye.
Ii IL because children are never taught
the most elementary lessons of obedience
and seIf-cOntrOl, that they never learn
~ discipline their wills in regularity. in
such simple things as saying their pray
eys, attending Sunday school, or in
even performing the simple chIld-lIke
duties Of hume. The consequence of
this excessive sOfIness and hIabbiness is,
that parents grOan over the results, and
when these children grow uD they are
found to be without self-cOntrol and
with no will power worth speaking OF.
This Is the real cause of the Indifference
to religion among the masses IN our
day.
Realize this, the moral training Of
children from the beginning is the
mothers work. No one else can do
this for her. The Church acis as Sec
ond mother, II only we will permit her
to do so. Look at your Sunla, school,
anu read there In the attendance prac-
tical lesson of the Indifference of the
n.Others In our church. Look at the
men Of our day, and many of the woMen,
and YOU see 10 practical life the fearful
results Ut this indifference of mothers
and lack of mOtheTly duty. Letthis
Lent mark determination 0f the moth
ers in THE church to remedy this evil.
Let YOUR home be home sanctified BY
family PRAYER; let the Sunday school be
as rehl and necessary IN your estimation
for your child as the day school, and
more SO, as 1t Is SO much the more im-
pOrtant; let your church be to you and
your children real place where par
ents ard children can worship side by
side.
have dWelt on this child life in our
midst In this years pastoral and have
gwen It the chief place. do this pur-
pCseiy; II ~ a CRYING need. The future
Of Jour children, nay, may say the
salvation of all. depends upon our full
tilling these duties. / beg of the parents,
guardians, and all IN authority 10 lay
these words of mine to heart, that they
may bring forth fIGit in due season, and
finally brethren. let us one and all hum
bic ourselves and cry NIGHTLY to God.
THAT de will renew In Us whatever is
amIsS In our lives, and TO cast out that
which 10 an offense in His sight, so
that when our life IL ended and our war
ware over. we may be found acceptable |
In His sight.
Faithfully yours,
CHARLES THORP