The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1902-04-11

sweep al their scholars into the kingdom
Whom they have now under charge h un.
certain. Concerning that scrawny, puny
child that lay ia the cradle many years
ago, the father dead. many remarked.
What a mercy If the Lord would take
.he childt' And the mother really thought
20 too. But what a good thing that God
spared that child for Il became world re.
nowned in Christian literature and one Of
Gods most illustrious seryants-John
Todd
Ny hearers, IL we secure the present and
everlasting welfare Of our children, most
other things belonging 10 MS are Of but lit
tie comparative importance Alexander
the Great allowed his solCiers 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 warlike 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 al need the protecting wing. II
you had known when you entered upon
manhood or womanhOod what was ahead
CT you. would you have dared to under
take life? How much you have been
through With most life has been a disap-
pontment. They tell me 80. They have
not attained that which they expected TO
attain. They have not had the physical
and mental vigor they expected or they
have met with rebufTs 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
never expected anything, and so when
anything came in the Ghape of human ia
vor or comfortable position or widening
field of work it was to me O surprise. /
was told in the theological seminary by
some Of my fellow students that l never
would get anybody to hear me preach un-
less / changed my style, so that when /
found that some people did come to hear
me 1t was a happy surprise. But most
people, according to their own statement,
have found life disappointment In
deed, we all need shelter from its tenn.
pests.
The wings Of my text suggest warmth,
and that Is what most folks want. The
fact is that this is a cold world whether
you take it literally or fguratively. We
have a big fireplace called the sum- 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 this
fireplace to get warmed. This worlds
tALEtUllLlGS are GOl0 ull LllE llulLs 4bAkCb
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 Antartc
hardly ever When at the South Pole a
shin sails in. the door of ice is almost
sure to be Shut against Its return. 30 lie
to many millions of people at the south
and many millions of people at the north
is a prolonged SILVER.
But when | say that this is a cold
world | chiefly mean hguratively II 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 luxuriance Of thought
and speech, but suggest your necessities
and see the thermometer drop to fifty de-
grees below zero, and in that which till
moment before had been a warm room.
Take what is an unpopular position on
some public question and see your friends
fly as chaff before a windmill. AS far as
myself is concerned, / 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 an
other 1t becomes popular to depreciate
and define and execrate and lie about
some people. This is the best world |
ever got into, but it is the meanest world
that some people ever got into. The worst
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 sundown, lovingly, safely, COM
| pletely, the hen broods her young So. If
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
that lowered in the sky will have gone to
1 the woods aad folded their wings. Sweet
/ silences will come. The air will be redo
/ lent with the breath of whole arbors Of
promises sweeter than jasmine or even
! ing primrose The air may be a little chill,
! but Christ win 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 warm
wings, and without fear and in full sense
of safety, and then we will rest from sun
/ down to sunrise, "as hen gathereth her
chickens under her wing"
Ny text has It's strongest application
for people who were born IN the country,
wherever YOU may now live, and that IS
/ the majority of you. You cannot hear
my text without having all the rustic
scenes of the old farmhouse come back to
YOU. Good old days they were. You
knew nothing much Of the world, for you
had not seen the world. By law of asso-
citation you cannot recall the brooding
hen and her chickens without seeing also
the barn and the haymow and the wagon
shed and the house and the room where
you played and the freside with the big
backlog before which you sat and the
neighbors and the burial and the wedding
and the deep snowbanl1s, and hear the vii
lage bell that called you to worship and
seeing the horses which, after pulling you
to church, stood around the old clapboard-
ed meeting house, and those who sat at
either end Of the church pew and, indeed,
all the scenes of your first fourteen years,
and you think Of what You were then and
of what you are now aud all these thoughts
are aroused by the sight Of the old hen
coop. Some of you had better so back
/ and storE AGAIN In thought return to