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T H E CHRISTIAN SUN. VOL. I. “ The Lord God Is a Sun and Shield/9 musBORfliiGn, n. c.'augustwST NO. 8/ INFANT SALTATION. The following extract of a recently pub lished sermon, by Rev. Staats Van Sant voord, will be responded to by the vibrat ing heart-strings of many a bereaved pa rent : There arc but few families of mankind who have not been called to commit to the cold mid silent dust, some of their in fant members.» Millions of our race die in infancy. They just open their eyes upon the light of this world, then are con vulsed, and in agony sink in the grave. And while you have fastened your eyes upon their little corpses, and have hung over their graves, this inquiry Has often , been made: Why did they dt£, since they .1 Were incapable of actual transgression, and consequently, could not knowingly have violated any of the laws of their Creator? How, then, could it be consistent vvith the justice of God, and the goodness of tne most wise and merciful, to inflict upon them the sufferings of disease, and then make them the victims of death? To this inquiry, neither unassisted Reason nor bold Infidelity can give any satisfactory answer. This can only be found in the volume of inspiration, and is announced by that voice which cries, “ The wages of sin is death. By one man sin entered in to the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all . have sinned.” It would, however, afford but little consolation to explain to mourn ing parents the cause of their bereave ments, if we could not at the same time answer the more interesting inquiry: What is now, and what will be forever, the con dition of our departed babes? Here again, infidelity is dumb, or can only give a wa vering hope. 4 The only light which can direct us on this all-important subject, beams from the word of God. Close the divine record, and what consolation is left? Extinguish the torch of revelation, and ' then look upon the mouldering bones of your children, and ask—“ Can these dry bones live?” Reason alone has never been able to answer the question, and show that this sleeping dust shall awake from the long slumber of the grave, at the voice of the Archangel and the trump of God. Reason can never prove that this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. That this tender plant, cut down and with ered, shall hereafter spring up, beautiful and immortal, in the Paradise of God. This is a doctrine only taught in the re velation of God, by him who holds the keys of death and the grave, and cries, “ I. am the resurrection and the life.” It is this precious gospel which assures bereav ed parents that their departed babes are now in the regions of glory; and this- as surance 'is obtained by the following ar guments, drawn from the word of God: 1. From the many tender declarations of God, with regard to children, we con clude that he cannot banish them to outer darkness when he withdraws them from this world. When God entered into covenant with Israel, in the land of Moab, their feeble babes were included in that covenant. He commanded his servant Moses to say un to them: “Ye stand this day, all of you, before the Lord your God; your captains of your tribes, your elders, and your offi cers, with air the men of Israel; your lit tle ones, yOur wives, and the stranger that is in thy camp,” Wheh the Jews were seduced by the idolatrous nations with whom they were surrounded, to immolate their offspring to Moloch, the Lord re proves them with the crime or sacrificing what was not their own. “ Thou hast sacrificed thy sons and daughters to be de voured, and hast slain my children, and
The Christian Sun (Elon College, N.C.)
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Aug. 1, 1844, edition 1
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