The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1905-06-29
THE PULPIT.
AN ELOQUENT SUNDAY SERMON BY
THE REV. ROBERT COLLYER.
Subject: Leading Children Softly.

Brooklyn, n. Y.-The Rev. Robert
Collyer, the Oldest Unitarian pastor
in Greater New York, preached i'll the
Second Unitarian Church, Clinton ana
Congress streets, Sunday morning. HIS
last appearance in that church was last
fall, when he delivered an address on
the late Rev. DR.. John White Chad-
wick, the former pastor, who had just
died. The eloquent preacher took for
his text: Genesis XXEiii:13-14, The
children are tender; I will lead on soft
ly," and said:
It twas one of the secrets of my craft,
in the old days when 1 wanted to weld
iron or work steel to fine purpose,
to begin gently. If I began as all
learners Go, to strike my heaviest blows
at the start, the iron would crumble
instead Of Welding, or the steel would
suffer under my hammer, so that,
when it came to be tempered it would
ETY." as we used to say, and rob the
thing I had made Of its finest quality.
1t was the first condition of q good
job to begin gently, later could strike
with a tirmer hand, and in the end pour
out all my might in a storm of sturdy
blows; but if began so it ended, as q
rule, with a wreck. The perfection OF
the Nasmyth hammer lies in the blend
ing of it's gentieness and its ponderous
might, so that it can come down as
gently as June shower or srlite like a
tornado, according to the need of the
moment. So the skillful mechanic
starts new machinery, locomotive,
a steam engine or even sewing ma
chine, gently. 1t is the first condition
Of l.eeping the balance true that the
machine shall not tear away at first
at high pressure. I noticed the same
in the building up Of a grand organ.
The builder began gently in bringing
out it's harmonies, with some fine
chords, made those. true and went
on to the others, and so wrought
ON to the end. Again an animal trainer
while he smites the tiger with an iron
bar, if he is wise talks to q horse, al
lures him, courts him and makes him
his friend. We do not speak of ''break-
ing" a horse, so much Eow;; We train
him.
So love to note such things as these
as ] watch the perpetual advent OF
little children into this life of ours, and
wonder how we shall deal with them in
the ione wise way which will weld
them, shall I say, to whatsoever things
are true and lovely and of good report,
start them to the SureSt purpose and
train them so as to bring out the
whole power for good which God has
hidden in their mature. There must be
one right way, and think this father
found it when he said: The children
are tender; will lead item on softly"
They may seem crude, mere machines
or little brutes; there are some men
who seem by their actions to have
such notions Of q child's nature, to
their eternal shame. Here is the prin-
ciple: They are tender; we must lead
them on softly. Solomon may slip in
with his cruel maxim OF "Spare the rod
and spoil the child" He has no busi-
ness about my place while my children
are tender. I can no more be hard
on them than Jesus could. If hurt
them in this evil way I hurt thos;:
who are of the Kingdom of Heaven.
My white hairs have brought me this
wisdom: That the objectionable sin
is to be hard on a tender child. I do
not wonder that the old grandsire is so
gentle with the second generation. He
will not tell you, or himself, perhaps,
why he is, but he would fain recall
some passages of his fatherhood, but
that cannot be done, so he chokes back
the inextinguishable regret and humbly
tries to get even through the over
measure. Ny good mother was some
thing of Spartan. q very gentle
Spartan. with her children. but it was
wonderfully beautiful to see her in
her old age spreading her wide, grand.
mofherly wings over the children of
the new day. She could no more be
hard upon them. NO matter what
pranks they played, than your May
sun can be hard upon your May bios
som. 1t was the return of the heart
to the soft answer, the sweet submis-
sion to the better PLAN the vision Of
the infinite worth of gentle ways with
tender folk, the endeavor, unknown to
herself, to ease her dear old heart Of
what little pain there was from the
old days, the feeling that perhaps she
might have gone more softly once.
These children are not things Mt all
that we can turn out to pattern, but
human beings. each one living to him
self or to herself, holding q Sc
cret We cannot fathom, possessing
powers perhaps we cannot even
guess at-our children after the
flesh: Gods children after the spirit
but intrusted to our hands and homes
that, coming out of Heaven with hints
of the angels in them, they may go
back when their time comes as sealed
saints. The boy may be the image OF
the father, yet totally different within.
We vainly try in our children, some
times, to see our image, we detect a
faculty or temper we never had. The
holy Spirit, which watches forever,
selects and saves, by law we do not
half understand, and we do not un-
derstand these tender natures until we
know what these powers are which are
waking out Of their sleep. My boy
may have faculty which in thirty
years may be benediction to the
human family, but to-day it may look
like vice to me, and may grow to be
q vice if I did not saw. "The child is