A TALK ON EMPTY CHAIRS
A POWERFUL ARGUMENT FROM
TALMAGE IN OHIO.
DR.
tm Greater Influences Are In the Family
Clrala Than the Mute Appeals of Ue
parted Ones Vacant Plaeea at the Fire
side. IjAKEsioe, O., July 1S. For mnuy years
.people have gathered in multitudes at this
n of the year for a great outdoor as-
ibly. The grounds are a short sail
from Sandusky; the place beautiful be
yond description. Dr. Talinage preached
this morning in this delightful place to a
" vast multitude. . His subject was the "Va
cant Chair." and bis text, I Samuel xx, 18,
"Thou sbalt be missed, because thy seat
will be empty." .
Set on the table the cutlery aud the
chased silverware of the palace, for King
Saul will give a state dinner today. A dis
tinguished place is kept at the table for his
son-in-law, a celebrated warrior, David by
name. The guest, jewelud and plumed,
come in aud take their places. When peo
ple are invited to a king's banquet they
are very apt to go. But before the covers
are lifted from the feast Saul looks around
and finds a vacant seat at the table. He
aays within himself, perhaps audibly:
"What does this mean? Where is my son-in-law
P Where is David, the great war
riorr I invited him. I expected him. What!
a vacant chair at the king's bauquet!"
The fact was that David, - tbe warrior,
had been seated for the last time at his
father-in-law's table. The day before Jon
athan had coaxed David to go and occupy
that place at the table, saying to .David in
the words of my text, "Thou' 8 halt be
missed, because thy seat will be empty."
The prediction was fulfilled. David was
jnlssed. His seat was empty. That one
vacant chair spoke louder than all the oc-
. cupied chairs at the banquet.
In almost every house the articles of fur
niture take a living personality. That
' picture a stranger would not see anything
remarkable either in its design or execu
tion, but it is more to yon than all tbe
pictures of tbe Louvre and the Luxem
bourg. You remember who bought it, and
who admired it. And that hymn book
yon remember who sang out of it. And
Chat cradle you remember who rocked it.
-And that Bible you remember who read
oat of it. And that bed you remember
who slept in it. And that room you re
member who died in it. But there is
nothing in all your house so eloquent and
ao mighty voiced as the vacant chair. I
oppose that before Saul and his guests got
up from this banquet there was a great
clatter of wine pitchers, but all that racket
was drowned out by the voice that came up
from the vacant chair at the table.
Millions have gazed and wept at John
Quincy Adams' vacant chair in the house
of representatives, and at Henry Wilson's
"vacant chair in the vice presidency, and at
Henry Clay's vacant chair in tbe American
4snate, and at Prince Albert's vacant chair
in Windsor castle, and at Thiers' vacant
chair in the councils of the French nation.
Bab all these chairs are unimportant to
jrou as compared with the vacant chairs in
your own household. Have these chairs
any lesson for us to learn? Are we any
better men and - women than when they
first addressed usf
FATHER'S CHAIR.
First 1 point out to you the father's va
cant chair. Old men always like to sit
in the same place and in the same chair.
They somehow feel more at home, and
sometimes when you are in their place and
Ifoey come into the room you jump up sud-
tenly and say, "Here, father, here's your
chair." The probability is it is an arm
chair, for he is not so strong as he once
was, and he needs a little upholding. His
hair is a little frosty, his gums a little de
pressed, for in his early days there was not
much dentistry. Perhaps a cane chair
and old fashioned apparel, for though you
may have suggested some improvement,
Xather does nut want any of your nonsense.
Grandfather never had much admiration
tar new fangled notions.
I sat at the table of one of my pariah
ioners in a former congregation; an aged
nan was at the table, and the son was pre
siding, and tbe father somewhat abruptly
addressed the son and said, "My son, don't
now try to show off because the minister
is here!" Your father never liked any new
customs or m.-inners; he preferred the old
way of doi ng thi ogs, and be never looked
ao happy as when, with his eyes closed, he
aat in the armchair in the corner. From
the wrinkled brow to the tip of the slippers,
what placidity! The wave of the past years
of his life broke at tbe foot of that cUair.
Perhaps sometimes he was a little impa
tient, and sometimes told the same story
twice; but over that old' chair how many
blessed memories hover! I hope yon did
not crowd that old chair, and that it did
- not get very much in the way.
Sometimes the old man's chair gets very
much in the way, especially if he has been
ao unwise as to make over all his property
to his children, with tbe understanding
that they are to take care of hiin. I have
seen in such cases children crowd the old
man's chair to tbe door, and then crowd it
clear into the street, and then crowd it
into the poorhouse, and keep on crowding
1t until the old man fell out of it into his
grave.
' But your father's chair was a sacred
place. The children nsed to, climb up on
the rungs of it for a good night kiss, and
. the longer he stayed the better you liked it.
But that chair has been vacant now for
eome time. The furniture dealer would
not give you fifty cents for it, but it is a
throne of influence in your domestic circle.
I saw in the French palace, and in the
throne room, the chair that Napoleon used
to occupy. It was a beautiful chair, but
the most significant part of it was the letter
'N" embroidered into the backof the
chair in purple and gold. And your fath
er's old chair sits in the throne room of
"your heart, and your affections have em
broidered into the back of that old chair in
purple and gold the letter "F." Have all
the prayers of that old chair been answer
ed? Have all the counsels of that old chaif
been practiced t Speak out! old armchair.
History 'tells us of an. old man whose
three sons were victors in the Olympic
.-Sames, and when they came back these
three sons, with their garlands, put them
on the father's brow, and the old man was
ao rejoiced at the victories of bis three
children that he fell dead in their arms.
And are yon, oh, man, going to bring a
wreath of joy and Christian usefulness
and put id on your father's brow, or on the
"vacant chair, or on the memory of the one
-departed f Speak out, old armchair! With
reference to your father, the words of my
text have been fulfilled, "Thou shalt be
- missed, because thy seat will be empty."
mother's chair.
I go a little further on in your house and
I find the mother's chair. It is very apt to
be a rocking chair.. She had so many
cares and troubles to soothe that it must
have rockers. I remember it well; it was
an old chair, and the rockers were almost
airorn out, for I was the youngest, and the
cnair bad rocked the whole family. It
niade a creaking noise as it moved; tiut
there wag mimic in the sound. It was i iat
I high enough to' allow us children to put
our beads into her lap. That was the bank
where we deposited all our hurts and wor
ries. Ah! what a chair that was. : It was
different from the father's chair; it was en
tirely different. Vou ask me bowf I can
not tell; but . we all felt it was differ
ent. Perhaps there was about this ck.-iir
more gentleness, more teuderness, more !
grief when we had done wrong. When we
were wayward father scolded, hut mother
cried. It was : a very wakeful chair.. In
the sick days of children other chairs
could not keep awake; that chair always
kept awake kept easily awake. The cLiur
knew all the old lullabies and all those
wordless sougs which mothers sing to their
sick children songs in which all pity and
compassion and sympathetic influences are
combined. - ...
That old chair has stopped rocking for a
good many years. It may be set np in the
loft or the garret, but it holds a queenly
power yet. When at midnight yon weut
into that grog shop to get the intoxicating
draught, did you not hear a voice that said.
My son, why tto in there?" And louder
than the boisterous encore of the place of
sinful' amusement, a voice saying, "My
son, what do you do here?" : And when
you went into the house of abandonment.
a voice saying, "What would your mother
do if she knew you were here?" And you
were provoked with yourself, and you
chnrged yourself with superstition and fa- I
naticism and yonr head got hot with yonr
own thoughts, and you went home and
you weut to. bed, aud no sooner had you
touched the bed than a voice said: "What!
a prayerless pillow? Man! what is the
matter?". This, You are too near your
mother's rocking chair.
Oh, pshaw!" you say. "There's noth
ing in that. I'm nve hundred miles on
from where I was born. I'm three thou
sand miles off from the church whose bell
was the first music I ever heard." I can
not help that. You are too near your
mother's rocking chair. "Oh." you say.
there can't be anything in that. That
chair has been vacant a great while." I
cannot help that. It is all the mightier for
that. It is omnipotent, that vacant moth
er's chair.- It whispers, it speaks, it weeps, it
carols, it mourns, it prays, it warns, it
thunders. A young man went off and
broke his mother's heart, and while he was
away from home his mother died, and t he
telegraph brought the son, and he came
into the room where she lay and looked
npon her ' face, and he cried out: "Oh,
mother, mother, what your life could not
do your death shall effect! This moment I
give my heart to God." And he kept his
promise. Another victory for the vacant
chair. With reference to your mother the
words of -my text were fulfilled, "Thou
shalt be missed, because thy seat will be
empty."
THE INVALID'S CHAIR.
I go on a little further, and I come to the
invalid's chair. What! How long have
you been sick? "Oh! I have been sick ten,
twenty, thirty years." Is it possible?
What a story of endurance. There are in
many of the families of my congregation
these invalids' chairs. The occupants oi
them thiuk they are doing no good in the
world, but that invalid's chair is the mighty
pulpit from which they have been preach
ing, all these years, trust in God. The first
time I preached here at Lakeside, Ohio,
amid tbe throngs present, there was noth
ing that so much impressed me as the spec
tacle of just one face the face of an in
valid who was wheeled in on her chair. I
said to her afterward. "Madam, how long
have you been prostrated?" for she was
lying flat in tbe chair. "Oh!" she replied,
"I have been this way fifteen years." I said,
"Do you suffer very much?" "Oh, yes,"
she said, "I suffer very much; I suffer all
the time; part of the time I was blind.
always suffer." "Well," I said, "can you
keep yonr courage up?" "Oh, yes," she
said, "lam happy, very happy indeed." Her
face showed it. She looked the happiest of
any oue on the ground.
Oh, what a means of grace to tbe world,
these invalid chairs. On that field of hu
man suffering the grace of God gets its
victory. Ldward Payson, the .invalid
and Richard Baxter, tbe invalid, and
Robert Hall, the invalid, and the ten thou
saDd of whom tbe world has never heard
but of whom all heaven is cognizant.- The
most conspicuous thing on earth for God's
eye and the eye of angels to rest on, is not
a throne of earthly power, but it is the in
valid's chair. Oh, these men and women
who are always suffering but never com
plaining these victims of spinal disease,
and neuralgic torture, and rheumatic ex-
cruciation will answer to the roll call of
the martyrs, and rise to the martyr si
tnroue, ana wui wave tne martyr s palm.
But when one of these invalids' chairs
becomes vacant how suggestive it is! No
more bolstering np of the weary head. No
more changing from Bide to side to get an
easy position.- No more use of tbe band
age and tbe cataplasm and the prescrip
tion. That invalid's chair may be folded
np or taken apart or set away, but it will
never lose its queenly power; it will al
ways preach of trust in God and cheerful
submission. Suffering all ended now.
With respect to that invalid tbe words of
my text have been fulfilled. "Thou shalt
be missed.-because thy seat will be empty.
THAT EMPTY HIGH CHAIR.
I pass on and 1 find one more vacant
chair. It is a high chair. It is the child's
chair. If that chair be occupied I think it
is tbe most potent cbair in all the house-
bold. All the chairs wait on it; all the
chairs are turned toward it. It means more
than David's chair at Saul's banquet.--At
any rate it makes more racket. That is a
strange bouse that can be dull with a child
in it. How that child breaks up the hard
worldliness of the place and keeps you
young to sixty, seventy and eighty years of
age. If you have no child of your own
adopt one; It will open heaven to your
soul. It will pay its way. Its crowing in
the morning will give the day a cheerful j
starting, and its glee at night will give the
day a cheerful close. You do not like chil
dren 1 - Then you had better stay out of
heaven, for there are so many there they
would fairly make yon crazy. Only about
five hundred .millions of theiu. The old
crusty Pharisees told the mothers to keep
the children away from Christ. "You
bother him," they said; "yon trouble the
Master." - Trouble himl He has filled
heaven with that kind of trouble.
A pioneer in California says that for the
first year or two after hUt residence in
Sierra Nevada county there was not a
ingle child in all the reach of a hundred
miles. But the Fourth of July came, and
the miners were gathered together and
they were celebrating the Fourth with ora
tion and poem and a boisterous brass band,
and while the band was playing an infant's
voice was heard crying, and all the miners
were startled, and the swarthy men began
to think of their homes on the eastern
coast, and of their wives and chi Idren far
away, and their hearts were thrilled with
homesickness as they heard the babe cry.
But themusic went on, and the child cried
louder and louder, and the brass band
played loader and louder, trying to drown
ont the infantile interruption, when a
i swarthy nrrner, the tears rolling down hi
! face, got up and shook his fist and said.
'I
"Stop that noisy band, and give the baby a
I chance." Oh, there was pathos in it, as -I
well as good cheer in it. There is nothing i
i to arou.-te and melt and subdue the soul.
like a child's voice. Bnr when it goes away
1 from you the high chair becomes a higher j
chair and there is desolation all about you.
; In three-fourths of the homes of this con-,
i gregation there is a vacant high chair.
Somehow you never get over it There is
no one to put to bed at night; no one to ask
strange questions about God and heaven.
Oh, what is tbe use of that high chair? It is
to call you higher. . What a drawing up
ward it is to have children in heaven! And
then it ia such a preventive against sin. If
a father is going away into sin he leaves
his living children with their mother; but
if a father is going away into sin what is
he going to do with his dead children float
ing about him and hovering over his every
wayward- step. Oh, speak out, vacant
high chair, and say: "Father, come back
from sin; mother, come back from world
liness. I am watching you. . I am waiting
for you." With respect to your child the
words of my text have been fulfilled,
"Thou shalt be missed, because thy seat
will be empty."
AN INVITATION UPWARD. .. -
. My hearers, I have gathered up the
voices of your departed friends and tried
to intone them into one invitation upward.
I set in array all the vacant chairs of your
homes and of your social circle, and I bid
them cry out this morning: "Time in short.
Kitermcy is near- . iaae my oaviour. jae at
peace witn my uou. uome np wnere i-am.
We lived together on earth; come let us
live together in heaven." We answer that
invitation. We come. Keep a seat for us,
as Saul kept a seat for David, bnt that seat
shall not be empty. And oh! when we are
all through with this world, anil we have
shaken hands all around for the last time,
and all our chairs in the home circle and in
the outside world shall lie vacant, may we
be worshiping God in that placa from
which we shall go out no more forever.
I thank God there will be no vacant
chairs in heaven. There we shall meet
again and talk over our earthly, heart
breaks. How much you have been through
since you saw them last? On the shining
shore you will talk it all over." The heart
aches. : The loneliness. Tbe sleepless
nights. The weeping until . "u had no
more power to weep, because the heart was
withered and dried up. story of empty
cradle and little shoe only half worn out
never to be worn again, just the shape ot
the foot that once pressed it. And dreams
when yon thought the departed had come
back again, and the room seemed bright
with their faces, and you started up to
greet them and in the effort the dream
broke and yon found yourself standing
amid room in the midnight alone.
Talking it all over, and then, hand in
hand, walking up and down in the light.
No sorrow, no tears, no death. Oh, heaven!
beautiful heaven! Heaveu where our
friends are. Heaven where we expect to
be. In the east they take a cage of birds
and bring it to the tomb of the dead, and
then they open the door of the cage, and
the birds, flying out, sing. And I would
today bring a cage of Christian consola
tions to the grave of your loved ones, and
I would open the door and let them fill all
the air with the mnsic of their voices.
Oh, how they bound in these spirits be
fore the throne! Some shout with glad
ness. Some break forth into uncontrolla
ble weeping for joy. Some stand speech
less in their shock of delight. They sing.
They quiver with excessive gladness. They
gaze on the temples, on the palaces, on the
waters, on each other. They weave their
joy into garlands, they spring it into tri
umphal arches, they strike in on timbrels,
and then all the loved ones gather in a
great circle around the throne of God fa
thers, mothers, brothers, sisters, sons and
daughters, lovers and friends, band to
hand around about the throne of God the
circle ever widening hand to hand, joy to
joy, jubilee to jubilee, victory to victory,
"until the day break and tbe shadows flee
away. Turn thou, my beloved, and be
like a roe or a young hart upon the moun
tains of Betber."
To Keep the House CooL .
Much of the heat of our houses is sup
plied by the kitchen range, which Bridget
keens red hot even in the doe davs. P re-
I vent this by using a gas stove or oil stove
as far as possible. Then shut np tight all
rooms not in use. xvot only snouia tne
shutters and windows be closed, but the
blinds must be lowered to exclude every
ray of light, and the doors locked to pre
vent the running in and ont of the chiV
i dren, who thus admit waves of heated air.
Perhaps it would be neither wise nor prac
ticable to hermetically seal all the rooms
of a house, but one room, at least, can be
so treated the parlor, and also the dining
room between meals; the room selected
should be closed early in the morning
while the air has some freshness, and be
fore the sun strikes the wi ndows; then it
should not be opened until late in the after
noon. . -
Every house should have an accessible
trap door in its roof, and when this is left
open a current of heated air must rise
through it and make a general draught
over all the house. Awnings should be
light in color, and should be at all windows
and doors except those to the north. They
are great helps in keeping out glare, but
they should be chosen of a kind which is
readily
raised and lowered. After sun
plentiful watering of your street
down.
and pavement, and of all the garden yon
possess, will cool the air wonaertaiiy.
Ladies' Home Journal. - - .- -
Women and Men.
Society; is composed,. . principally, " of
women and ladies. They call upon eacn
j other and bore each other fearfully, yet
j each would feel mortally injured if the
other did not call.
Tbe natural prey of man is woman, and
of woman, man; but man bas less leisure
to pursue his natural instincts.
-The appreciation by which a woman Is
held by the male sex gives a good index, on
the inverse ratio method, of the estimation
in which she is held by her own.
Nor; though husband and wife are one
and indivisible, does it follow that the
admirers of the one will beequally attached
to the other? Politically speaking, Eng
land and Ireland stand to each other in a
very similar relationship. -
Intellect in woman is appreciated by man
only in so far as it qualifies her to appreci
ate it in him. Murray's Magazine.
Suits Against New York.
Chief Bonner said the other day that
claims aggregating at least $3,000,000 were
pending against this city for alleged viola
tions by the fire' department of patent
rights. "Syndicates have been formed to
push these claims," said the chief, "and
there are two big suits in the courts now.
One is for 'an alleged infringement of a
patent on the heater stove used on our fire
engines and the other suit relates to the
Nibbs relief valve. The city authorities
have been legally advised that none of
these claims can hold against the city."
New York Times.
SJIIPES & RUflSLT,
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PAINT
Now is the time to paint your house
and if you wish to get the beet quality
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"For those wishing to see the quality
and color of the above paint we call their
attention to the residence of S. L, Brooks,
Judge Bennett, Smith French and others
painted by Paul Kreft. J
Snipes' & Kinersly are agents for the
above paint for The Dalles. Or.
Health is Wealth !
Dr. E. C. West's Nebvi ahb Bbain Tkbat
mknt, a guaranteed specific for Hysteria, Dizzi
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sanity aud leading to misery, decay and death
i-remature jia Age, .Barrenness, ioss ot rower
in either sex. Involuntary Losses and Spermat
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abuse or over indulgence. Each box contains
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To cure any case. With each order received by
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send the purchaser our written guarantee to re
fund the money if the treatment does not effect
a cure. Guarantees issued only by
-' BLAKELET HOUGHTON,
1'rescrlption Druggists,
175 Second St. The Dalles, Or.
I. U f JklLEH,
-DEALER IN
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SCHOOL BOOKS,
STA TIONER Y, '
ORG A ATS,
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WATCHES,
JEWELRY.
Cor. Third and Washington Sta.
t E. BJD flO.,
Real Estate,
' -Insurance,
and Loan
AGENCY.
Opera House Bloek,3d St.
Cleveland, Wash.,
June 19th, J.891.J
S. IS Medicine Co.,'
Gentlemen Your kind favor received,
and iu reply would say thatI am more
than pleased with the terms offered me
on the last shipment of yonr medicines.
There is nothing like them ever intro
duced in this conntry, especially for La-
grippe and kindred complaints. -1 have
had no complaints so far; and everyone
is ready with a word of praise for their
virtues. Yours, etc., ' ' r
M. Y. IIacklky.
Chas. Stubling, :
'. . paoraiKTos or ths ' '
New Vogt Block, Second St
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Liquor v Dealer,
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B
If Dalies CIlORlCle
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T
HE DALLES.
The Gate City of the Inland Empire is situated at
the head of navigation on the Middle Columbia, and
is a thriving, prosperous city.
V ITS TERRITORY.
It is the supply city for an extensive and rich agri
cultural an :i grazing country, its trade reaching as
far south as Summer Lake, a distance of over t"wc
hundred' miles.
THE LARGEST WOOL MARKET.
The rich grazing country along the eastern slope
of the the Cascades furnishes pasture for thousands
of sheep, the wool from which finds market here.
xne jjaxj.es is -ne largest original wooi smppuig.
- A- i A i a c rrr rr ii-n r.
shipped last year. , ,
ITS PRODUCTS.
The salmon fisheries are the finest on the Columbia,
yielding this year a revenue of $1,500,000 -which can
and will "be more than doubled in the near future.
The products of the beautiful Klickital valley find
market here, and the country south and east has thisK
year filled the warehouses, and all available storage
places to overflowing with their products.
ITS WEALTH
It is the richest city of its size on the coast, and its
money is scattered over and is being used to develop,
more farming country than is tributary to any other
city in Eastern Oregon.
' Its situation is unsurpassed! Its climate delight
ful! - Its possibilities incalculable! Its resources un
limited! And on these corner stones she stands.
Eastern Oregon.
matters, as in its
that your criticism