Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1903-06-01

ElrlSt Is the great purifying, the great
moral and spiritual teacher and de-
veloper of every community in which 1t
exists. 1t Is the thrashing floor where
the grain which has been raised In the
nurseries of Christian homes is sepa-
rated from the chaff. 1t is the holy OF
holes at whose sacred affairs multi
tudes are convicted of sin and led to
humbly knesl and publicly confess
their faith in God. Many have been
brought up in Christian homes who
would never h,re given their hearts to
Jesus Christ except through the
church's influence. Where did l sur
render my heart to Jesus? During a
time of revival in the Brooklyn Tab
ernacle, in the church Where did you,
o nearer, surrender your heart to
Jesus? In the church. In nearly every
case your decision was made within
the four walls of a church.
If the church of Jesus Christ had
such an infinite influence upon the
| lives of your children ought you not,
| o wives and mothers, to cast your in
fluence there? Ought you not Sunday
| after Sunday to be seen within the four
walls of the sacred sanctuary? 1t is
useless for you to say that you have
no time to 60 to church. A mother can
always arrange her time to admit any
duty that she knows to be essential to
her children's welfare Who can tell
whether the destiny Of your children
may not be affected for all eternity by
your bringing them to church? Some
mothers find time every week to take
their children to dancing schools. Is
not the temple where the people learn
about Jesus Christ more important
than the floor where the heels are edu-
Gated instead of the heart?
Do not make the plea / have SO often
heard-that you have little children too
young to go to church and therefore
you must stay with them at home.
Take your babies along. The minister
of the Lord Jesus Christ who would be-
come irritated because a young mother
brings her baby to church is not spir-
itually fitted to stand in any pulpit
or to preach from any sacred desk.
The greatest honor today which a con-
gregation can have is to see the pews
filed up with the young mothers who
are f1anked by little children on both
sides. / once heard of a variety show
giving q performance in a mining
camp in the days of the California gold
excitement. The rude theater for the
most part was filed with rough men.
While the show was going on little
baby began to cry. That child's cry
nightly affected the miners. They
made the players stop SO that they
could hear the voice which recalled the
holy memories of their eastern homes.
If child's cry can soften the heart
In a theater 1t can teach a gospel les
son in q church service. Oh, mothers
with little children, when you come to
the church bring your babies. When
/ used to be taken to church as little
child the sweet influence of the gospel
penetrated my being. though often be-
fore the service closed, in childhood's
WEAKNESS, l went to sleep with my
head pillowed on my rA1ther's lap.
No mother can be a true example to
her children unless at the same time
she is Il true church member.
The Greatest of All Examples.
"But," some one may say, you have
not spoken yet Of the greatest of all
examples which a true mother ought
to set before her children. She should
and must be a Christian woman. She
cannot be true wife, daughter, mem
Der of society and of the church I'M
less in the first place she fully realizes
her responsibility to her Maker and
Redeemer and Saviour" Well, my
friend, perhaps l have done wrong in
not making this thought the first and
chief heading of my sermon. But, to tell
the truth, l have gone upon the sup
position that all the wives and moth
ers assembled in this congregation are
Christian women. l believe that deep
down in your hearts you feel your re-
sponsibility to Christ. l preach with
} another purpose than to bring you as
new converts to Christ. l have tried
to show the different directions In
which the river Of your spiritual love
should flow. l have tried to show you
this because ! want to prove that
: your daughters spiritual love will flow
in the same direction as yours finds ar
outlet.
Do you know what impresses me
most about little boy? The fact that
he wants to be like his father. The
little fellow wants to wear the same
kind of suspenders, and the same kline
of vest, and white shirt and collar
the same kind Of laced shoes. Ht
wants to initiate his fathers good
habits as we'll as his bad. Do yoI
know what impresses me most about {
little girl? She wants to be like he
l mother. "As is the mother, SO Is he
daughter" When my sisters wer'
: young. the first act l remember abou
: them was this: They used to rum
. mage In mothers closets and get GU
her long dresses and pin them arount
;. their waists and play they were grow