The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1902-03-13


the Great allowed his soldiers to take
their families with them to war, and ne
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 all need the protecting wing. If
you had known when you entered upon
manhood or womanhood what was ahead
Of you. would you have dared to under
take life? How much you have been
through! With most life has been dIsap-
pointment. They tell me so. 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 rebuffs which they did
not antcipate. 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 10
| whom life has been happy surprise, l
| never expected anything, and so Wheh
anything came in the shape of human ia
vor or comfortable position or widening
field of work it was to me surprise.
was told in the theological seminary by
some of my fellow students that | never
would get anybody to hear me preach un-
less ] changed my style, so that when l
found that some people did come to hear
me 1t was happy surprise. But most
| people. according to their own statement,
have found life a disappointment. In
deed. we all need shelter from its tenn
pests
The wings of my text suggest warmth,
and chat is what most folks want, The
| fact is that this is a cold world whether
you take it literally or figuratively We
have d big fireplace called the sun, and 1T
has 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
| 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-
| tie. 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 its return. SO lie
to many millions Of people at the south
and many millions Of people at the north
! is prolonged SILVER
But when [ say that this is cold
world l chiefly mean hguratively 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 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 a
| moment before had been a warm room.
| Take what is an unpopular position on
! some public question and see your TRENDS
| fly as chatf before a windmill. As far as
myself is concerned. | have no word Of
complaint, but | 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 defsme and eXecrate and lie about
some people This is the best world !
| ever got into bat it is the meanest world
that some people ever got into. The worst
| thing that ever happened to them was
thei: 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, 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
the woods and folded their wings. Sweet
| silences will come. The air will be redo
| lent with the breath of whole arbors oil
| promises sweeter than jasmine or even
| ing primrose. The air may be a little chill,
| but Christ viii 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, las hen gathereth hel
| chickens under her wing"
| NY text has its 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 fireside with the big
backlog before which you sat and the
neighbors and the burial and the wedding
| and the deep snowbanks. 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 Won were then and
| of what yor are now and all these thoughts
! are aroused by the sight of the old hen
|
| and start again. In thought return to
that place and hear the cluck and see the
outspread feathers and come under the
wing and make the Lord your portion
and shelter and warmth preparing for
| everything that may come, and so avoid
being classed among those described by
the closing words of my text, "as hen
gathereth her chickens under her wings,
and We would not" All, that throws the
responsibility upon us. "Ye would not"
Alas, for the would nots!" Ii the wan
dering broods OF the farm heed not their
mothers call aud risk the hawk and dave
the freshet and expose themselves to the
frost and storm. surely their calamities
are not the mothers fault. aye would
mott" God would, but how many would
not?
When a good man asked young woman
who had abandoned her home and who
was deploring her wretehedness why she
did not return. the reply was: Il dare
not 90 home My father is so provoked
he would not receive me home" Then
said the Christian man, 81 will test this"
And so he wrote to the father, and the re-
DIV came back, and in a letter marked out