Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1905-07-06
FOR HIGHER LIVING
OUR REGULAR SUNDAY SERMON.
A Powerful Appeal For the Higher ana
Better Life We All Should Lead.

BROOKLYN, N. Y.-The Rev. Robert
Collyer. the Oldest Unitarian pastor
in Greater New York, preached in the
Second Unitarian Church, Clinton and
Congress streets, Sunday morning. HIS
last appearance in hat 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 Ior
his text: Genesis xxXiii:13-14, "The
children are tender; I will lead on SOFT
~" and said:
It was one Of the secrets of my craft,
in the old days when I wanted 10 weld
iron or work steel to a fine purpose,
to begin gently. II l began as all
learners do, 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.
It was the first condition of a good
job to begin gently, later I could strike
with a firmer hand, and in the end pour
out all my might in a storm of sturdy
blows; but if I began so it ended. as a
rule, with a wreck. The perfection OF
the Nasmyth hammer lies in the blend
ing of it's gentleness and it's ponderous
might, so that it can come down as
gently as a June shower or smite like a
tornado, according to the need of the
moment. So the skillful mechanic
starts new machinery, a locomotive,
q steam engine or even a sewing ma
chine, gently. It is the first condition
of keeping 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 a horse, al
lures him, courts him and makes him
his friend. We do not speak of "break-
ing" q horse, so much now; we "train''
him.
So I love to note such things as these
as I watch the perpetual advent of
little children into this life of ours, and
wonder how we shall deal with them in
the one 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 nature. There must be
n right way, and I think this father
found it when he said: 1.-The children
are tender; I will lead them 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 a 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 bust
ness about my place while my children
are tender. l al no more be hard
on them than Jesus could. If I hurt
them in this evil way 1 hurt those
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 dc
not wonder that the old grandsire is sc
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. My good mother was some
thing of a Spartan, a very gentle
Spartan. with her children, but it was
wonderfully beautiful to see her in
her old age spreading her wide, grand
motherly wings over the children OF
the new day. She could no more b.
hard upon them, no matter wha1
pranks they played, than your May
sun can be hard upon your Nav bios
som. It was the return of the hear
to the soft answer, the sweet submits
sion to the better plan, the vision O,
the infinite worth of gentle ways will
tender folk, the endeavor, unknown t.
herself, to ease her dear old heart O.
what little pain there was from tn,
old days, the feeling that perhaps sh.
might have gone more softly once.
These children are not things at al
that we can turn out to pattern, bu
human beings. each one living to him
self or to herself, holding a Sc
cret we cannot fathom, possessin,
powers perhaps we cannot ever
guess at-our children after th
flesh; Gods children after the spirit
but intrusted to our hands and home
that, coming out of Heaven with hint
of the angels in them, they may z
back when their time comes as scale
saints. The boy may be the image o
the father, yet totally different within
We vainly try in our children, some
times, to see our image, we detect
faculty or temper We never had. Th
Holy Spirit, which watches forevel
selects and saves, by a law we do nc
half understand, and we do not III
derstand these tender natures until W
know what these powers are which al
waking out of their sleep. My DO
may have a faculty which in thirt
years may be a benediction to th
human family, but to-day it may loo
like a vice to me, and may grow to
a vice if I did not say, ''The child
tender, I will lead on SOFTLY" He ma
be born with an overplus of imagin;
ton and things that have no existent
may seem realities to him; 1 imagi1
he is lying right and left, and the
instead of a gentle guidance, throue
which he can find the line betwee
things and thoughts, I give first a ste1
warning and then a sound whippin
Here is a case where a father ar
son are alike. but with a differenc
The father q minisfnr hos hoon dro r