The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-12-14

hand. The tiny hand ne was dNhWdioiy holding in great fear of letting 1t fall, lest it break into pieces. like cup of porce- lain. And while he held his tiny hand in his with happy look he would turn his loving eyes upon the smiling face of his wife, his baby's mother.
 Purifier of Love.
 After the dark clouds of a nativity have for some time hovered over a home and at last parted to let a little human sun beam drop Into the cradle, the word 'hus- and" and wife" ought to have for at least two human hearts q deeper, wider. holier meaning These words ought to have the same kind of a holy interpreta- ton as one of them had q few years ago for the warden of the Pittsburg jail. His wife liberated the two Riddle brothers, who were about to be executed for mur- der. and ran away with them, and re- mained with them until they were shot. When the reporters came to this warden and asked what he wanted to say in reference to his wife, the recollection of the relation she sustained to the family, deeply as she had dishonored 1t, seems to have surged over his soul and he said. q have nothing to say against my form CT wife. Furthermore, l will not allow anyone in my presence to speak disre- spectfu1 of her. Remember. gentlemen, she is the mother of my children"
 Now. ny sorrowing friends, if living child can have such restraining influ- ence upon the parental heart how much more should an empty cradle purify the love which the twain pledged each other at the marriage altar! We have often heard how old soldiers who had slept un- , der the same blanket and fought side by side through the civil war cling to each other all through life on account of their past sufferings If this be true. is not your marital love purer and sweeter and truer because you have washed and cleansed 1t tn the empty cradle, which has been filled to the highest edge with your mutual tears? After your little girl died you hunted up all her old playmates and took them to your heart because they loved Hattie or Nellie or Mabel. If that be true tell me, o broken-hearted pa rents, did you not love each other with a deeper, wider and holier affection after you together nursed the little sufferer through that last long painful sickness [ Do you not now love each other more after you together have arranged the lit- tie white flowers upon the little white casket? Do you not today love each oth- niv ersaries of your baby's death come CT the more because when those sad an- you never mention her name but give to each other a holy kiss, while your eyes and cheeks are wet with falling tears |? Yes, your little dead ehild's life had A. distinct mission. She lived long enough to make the twain one flesh. From her casket today she reaches out one arm and puts it around her fathers neck She reaches out the other arm and puts If about the mothers neck. And now her dead lips part as she gives you this holy benedictions Papa, Mamma, be true to each other and love each other for your dead baby's sake"
 A Heavenly Magnet.
 An empty cradle is a potent magnet for a true, conseerated spiritual parental life It makes great deal of difference now an average father and mother feel toward heaven, whether or no they have little one in the spirit land. "Where your treasure Is, there is your heart also' can be interpreted in more ways than one. You have boy who has started out to earn lis own living. He mas become the owner of a little shoe store In ono of the outlying districts. of some large city. When you visit him srd his young bride, does he take you the nrst day to see any of the great stores in the downtown districts? Docs he want you as soon as you arrive to visit the l n"ted art galleries or the libraries or the famous auditoriunl where the mightiest orators of the world fave spoken and the most b2autiful voices of Europe have sung? Oh, no. The first place the boy takes you to his own little store Why, his face beams with pride as he says: fMother, just look at these show wind cWs. Are they not splendid? Those windows cost me $So0 but they are worth It. Inen mother, l intend as soon as the Dusiness Increases enough to warrant 1t to build an addition cn the back of the store. Then, perhaps, I may be able to hire this corner store and knock out the intervening walls. Then 1 shall run a me or furnishing goods as we'll as a shoe stcre. Don't you think this Is a fine situation? And, mother, I made all this myself, practically out of nothing.-out of the mtle SOD you gave me when I left home' Why does your boy go on like that |? l'asy enough to understand. His treasure IS In that store. There his heart, is also
 what IS true In reference to the busi- ness life is true in reference to the home. You may travel all around the world fou may stand in Louvre or a Luxem- pourg. You may wander through a Windsor castle or Vatican You may even travel for time among the poetic beauties of India or Ceylon, but when the evening hour comes your thoughts will leap over continents and swim over seas. They will travel past palaces and cathedrals and London Towers filled with SAOhh JeWeiS uillll dI ldSJ they enter some humble home and smile and laugh and cry by some cozy freside. Why? Because your loved ones are in that home And where your treasure Is there is your heart also
 Now, by the same law of reasoning God wants to make heaven place. 0 practicality; no condition, but verita- ble actuality. How is the Divine Father to do this? By taking us to heaven our selves? Oh, mol God will not do this because our work is not yet done But God can make us feel that heaven is a home by coming into our homes and talk ing our best and dearest treasures there What does he take? Our money? Some times. But generally something dearer and more precious than that God, as a loving Father takes the dearest possess sion we have. He takes a little child out of the nursery He takes that for which mother would give the diamond rings off her fingers the silk dresses out of the wardrobe, the house over her head: for which she would give everything if she could only get back her child God in love. takes that little child out of the parental arms He takes 1t as a hostage as the great kings of old Used to demand the sons and daughters of their royal subjects, to be sent to the royal court as a guarantee that those subjects would thereafter behave themselves. God, when he comes into our nurseries and takes the little ones home with him to heaven, practically says to the bereft parents: Father and mother live purer and mo- bier and more consecrated lives. Live as Jesus would have you live. Then some day you will come to the heavenly land where you will be able to well with your