The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-07-28
LOVE FOR LOVE;
OR THE DEBTS OF CHILDREN TO PARENTS


Filial love may be shown by patience and
fOrbearance with parents, when they are de-
scending the vale of years. 1t is one of the
beautiful orders of Divine Providence, that we
may pass through successive stages of growth
and decline, before we are suffered to complete
the pilgrimage of life, and thus the parents who
tended US in infancy become dependent on US
for the same tenderness when they are feeble by
sickness or old age. Sometimes God calls pa
rents out of the world while their children are
yet in youth. But he does bless and honor that
house in which he spares the aged sire and the
venerable mother, to be the glory of their chill
dren; to counsel them, to pray with and for
them, and to receive their gentle ministries of
flial love.
1t is privilege for which we should be I'M
speakably thankful, to be permitted to smooth
the passage to the grave of those who led us by
the hand along the path Of life in the morning
of our days. To shield them from the storms
of pitiless world, by giving them pleasant
resting place by our own fire side in the midst
of our children, in whom they may live over
again the scenes of their former DAYS, when we
were sporting on their kneesi We owe them
this retreat-we owe them more than this, and
more than all we can ever give. To make them
a return in kind or in degree, is beyond our
power. If we make it a matter of debt and
credit with our parents, we shall be bankrupt
always. You may load them with riches, the
fruit of your own life's long toll; you may car
ry them in your arms to their nightly couch,
and watch them till the morn returns you may
whisper words of kindness in their ears, and
smile lovingly ON them as their eyes grow dim
with age; you may hold their dying head upon
your breast, and wipe the death sweat from
their brows, and kiss away their expiring
breath, and lay them softly in the grave-all
this is what parent most desires, when he
knows that he is about to die but all this, and
a thousand fold more, will never repay the debt
of gratitude you owe for parental love and care
when you were an unconscious infant, wailng
in mothers arms.
While you were in the cradle, you had fit
of sickness. You knew not that one whose
heart was almost breaking with anxious fear
was hanging over you, watching with intense
solicitude your breathing through the long,
long night, kissing you to sleep when in fever,
ish dreams you started from your slumbers and
screamed in fright; singing through her tears,
and soothing you with such tender pressures as
only mothers arms can give, when folding a
sick babe to her own sick heart. Had you
died in her arms, she would have been paid
when she found you again an angel among the
angels.
"Oh! when mother meets on high
The babe she lost in lnfancy,
Hath mol then, for pains and frf r.,
The day Il woe, the watchful night
For all her sOrrows, all her tea =
An over pay ment Of delight ~
But you lived and now the debt is upon
you, increased by years of such days and
nights, through WHICH your parents have fol
lowed you with anxious hearts and watchful
eyes, to keep you from falling, to help you in
trouble. TO lead yop in the ways of usefulness,
and point you ia the gates OF etfrnal life.
The strength OF q parents hove has been test
ed in thousand cases, and it has never failed.
The story of Jacob and Joseph is on the great
chart of Old Testament history, to be studied,
age after age, as one of the most touching and
beautiful passages in the annals Of human love-
Yet every parent whose heart has not baas
hardened by vice, is a ,losa. IN affection for the
children that God has given him.
The tie is tender but strong, and often it
seems to fasten itself on objects that have no
loneliness save in the eyes of parental regard
How frequently do we observe with delich,
that the least favored child p the group IS Che
ffyoEte IN fs ssrsna heart Perhaps it is
tellect yet its very infrmities that make it less
attractive to others, secure for it suca o place
TX toohH tatthef Hf HiotnttS ioEe, tnat us toss
IF beauty, NF of limbs, OF Of intellect, is gain
Of love to the child. When death has con,e
into the family circle, and taken away this
child, the neighbors and friends have said that
it was mercy to have it removed, for they
thought it no comfort to its parents; but those
parents have grieved more over its death ;ha,n
they would over any he&le of saeir little flock.
Its helEissapesa' ~oR NGpsn their sympathies.
because others cared less for it, they cared
more for it. And have heard such parents say
that their little blind daughter was more cera.
fort to them than all the rest e ,teis children,
This is no stFapae tRlna, that tho parents
skeall SO cling TO their children. The wonder
is that in all the world there can be found one
son or daughter so ungrateful and cruel as to
make parent feel - !"
"Hoy sharper than a serpents tooth His
T3'hats a'thahkffss CHILD"
n. y. Observer.