Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1902-03-13

NV hearers, if we secure the.present and
ever. lasting welfare of our children, most
other things belonging to us are OF but 1T
tie comparative Importance. Alexander
the Great allowed his soldiers to take
their families with them to war, and he
accounted for the bravery of his men by
the fact that many of them were born IN
camp and were used to wariike scenes from
the start. Would God that all the chill
dren of our day might be born into the
army of the Lord!
But we all need the protecting wing. II
you had known when you entered upon
manhood or w~omanhood what was ahead
cf YOU. would you nave dared to under
take life? How much you have been
through! With most life has been a dlsap'
pointment. They tell me SO. They have
not attained that which they expected to
attain. They have not had the physical
and mental visor they expected or they
nave met with rebuffs which they did
not anticipate. You are not at forty or
fifty or sixty or seventy or eighty, years OF
age where you thought you would be: l
do not know any one except myself to
whom life has been a happy surprise; l
never expected anything, and SO when
anything came in the shape OF m ia
vor Or comfortable position or widening
fed of work it was to me a surprise. l
was tod in the theological seminary by
some of my fellow students that l never
would Get anybody to hear me preach un-
less I changed my style, SO that when L
found that some people did come to near
me 1t was a happy surprise. But most
people. according to their own statement,
have found life a disappointment. In
deed. we all need shelter from it's TEN.
pests.
N, -. r -r 4ov% c,,rrocf warmth
and that is what most folks want. The
fact is that this is a cold world whether
YOU take it literally or figuratively. we
have a big fireplace called the sun, and it
has a very hot fire, and the stokers keep
the Goals well stirred up, but much of the
year we cannot get near enough to TINS
fireplace to get warmed. This worlds
extremities are cold all the time. Forget
not that it is colder at the South Pole
than at the North Pole, and that the
Arctic is not so destructive as the Antar-
tic. Once in awhile the Arctic will let
explorers come back, but the Antartic
hardly ever. When at the South Pole a
ship sails in, the door of ice is almost
sure to be shut against it's return: So LIE
to many millions of people at the south
and many millions of people at the north
is a prolonged SILVER. -
But when I say that this is a cold
world I chiefly mean fguratively. If you
| want to know what is the meaning Of the
| ordinary term Of receiving the "cold
shoulder" get out of money and try to
borrow. The conversation may have been
| almost tropical for Insurance of thought
and speech, but suggest your necessities
and see the thermometer drop to nifty de-
grees below zero, and in that which till q
moment before had been a warm room.
Take what is an unpopular position on
| oor,a -,,111,o 011oct1on opd coo Un1lr trends
fly as chaff before a windmill. AS far as
myself is concerned, 1 have no word of
complaint, but I look off day by day and
| see communities freezing out men and
women, of whom *the world is not worthy.
Now it takes after one and now after a
other. It becomes popular to depreciate
and defame and execrate and lie about
some people. This is the best world !
ever got into, but it is the meanest world
thing that ever happened to them was
their cradle, and the best thing that will
ever happen to them will be their grave.
Thus at shutdown, lovingly, safely, com.
pletely, the hen broods her young. So, il
we are the Lords, the evening of our life
will come. The heats of the day will have
passed. There will be shadows, and we
cannot see as far. The work of life will be
about ended. The hawks Of temptation
l GldU uOV0ISu Ill CuC ShN Will udFO SOLlO "
the woods and folded their wings. Sweet
s%ilences will come. The air will be redo
lent with the breath of whole arbors O.
promises sweeter than jasmine or even
ing primrose. The air may be a little chill
but Christ will call us, and we will know
the voice and heed the call, and we will
come under the wings for the night, the
strong wings, the soft wings, the warn
wings, and without fear and in full sens
l c -ofo4,, o~l 4noo VIZ will rocf frnro c11n
down to sunrise, cas- a hen gathereth he
chickens under her wing"
My text has it's strongest application
for people who were born in the country
wherever you may now live, and that i
the majority. of you. You cannot hea
my text without having all the rusti
scenes of the old farmhouse come back t
you. Good old days they were. Yo1
knew nothing much of the world, for yo
had not seen the world. By law Of assc
citation you cannot recall the broodin
the barn and the haymow and the WACO,
shed and the house and the room wher
YOU played aud the freside with the bi
backlog before (which you sat and tn
neighbors and the burial and the weddin
and the deep ~snowbanks. and hear the vi
1age bell that called you to worship an
seeing the horses which, after pulling yo
, to church., stood around the ola clapDOarC
ed meeting house, and those who sat a
either end of the church pew and, indeed
all the scenes of your first fourteen years
and you think of what you were then an
of what you are now and all these thought
are aroused by the sight of the old her
coop. Some of you had better go bac
:, and start again. In thought return t
. that place and hear the cluck and see tn
:. outspread feathers and come under tn
wing and make the Lord your porto
and shelter and warmth, preparing fo
! everything that may come, and so avoi
8 being c,assed among those described b
= the closing words of my text, cas- a he
gathereth her chickens under her wing.
e and We would not" All, that throws tn
e responsibility upon us. eye would not.
Alas, for the "won,d nots!!" If the wal
dering broods of the farm heed not thei
rother's call and risk the hawk and da1
e the freshet and expose themselves to tn
frost and storm. surely their ca'amitie
r are not the mothers. fault. eye wou1
not" God would, bit how many woul
not?
When a good man asked a young woma
who had abandoned her home and VIII
o was deplOrinc her wretchedness yuhv sh