Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1870-12-01
Temperance.

DO on Always Fray for your Father.
1t was cold November night School
had closed, and miles brisk walk had
brought me home. Father had not re.
turned from work and mother was em.
ployed in preparing supper. l seated
myself upon the hearth, and musing
gaZed intently at the fire. Strange
forms of houses, churches, trees and
| flowers appeared in glowing embers.-
These gave place to Others still more
strange, for imagined could see Shad-
rach and his friends in the burning fiery
furnace; Daniel in the lions den; the
SONS of Jacob casting their brother
Joseph into the pit; and the poor ne,
gro boy whom Captain Cooley tied to
the mast of his ship till his hands and
feet were so frozen that they had to be
cut OF. But these soon gave place to
human faces, and Isaw one with frown-
ing brow, compressed limps, and angry
countenanee. It was my fathers. AS
it faded away, L gently called
"Mother, mother, is father q drunk
ard ?"
In an instant ali was still. Not a dish
was heard upon the table nor football
on the floor. Again L called
Mother, mother! is father a drunk
ard?"
She pressed me to her throbbing heart,
and wept in the bitterness Of her soul,
and then said
"My son. always love and pray for
your father. But what made you ask
me such question:
| told her that L had been reading
that day III the spelling book the His
tory of the Drunkard,- how poor he
would become, and how he would abuse
his wife and children. And then L saw
face in the fire just like my father's.-
Then you know how cross he is to you
sometimes; then how foolish. And |
have no hat, my shoes are poor, and my
clothes are ragged. And then he always
keeps his bottle in the chest, and think
he is drunkard."
Again she wept over me, and repeat
ed
"You must love your father, and al
ways pray for him.
But" inquired, "must 1 always
lire with him?"
She replied, mo, my son, 1 shall soon
die, and you will have another home
God will take care of you. But remem-
Der, you must he soOd boy, and al rays
love and pray for your father"
When six years old, l had another
home. Soon my mother went to her
rest; but my father remained the same
erring man as before. | found but little
sunshine in the world; but dark sad
I off oh hvy. - ba
ing presence of my mothers face, and it
ALWAYS seemed to say, Love and pray
for your father" which | did in words,
if not in heart.
Tweuty-three years had passed, and it
was again cold November night. The
clock had struck ten, and |, stranger
in strange land, sat gazing intently in
to the fire. Suddenly there appeared
the form of human face. The face was
wrinkled by age, and the form bent by
the pressure of siXty-eight years. Just
before il seemed coffin and grave;
and the voice that charmed my child
hood said to my soul, always love and
pray for your father" In that lone
chamber 1 knelt before my fathers God,
and wrestled alone with the "angel OF
the Covenant till I laid the burden OF
my soul on the arm of Jesus, with the
"angel of the covenant" till | laid the
burden of. When next 1 heard from my
father, his faltering feet had been direc-
ted 60 the cross. y new heart had been
given him, and the power of'sinful habit
was broken forever. He died in hope
NJ the age of eighty-five.
When I see the husband and father
indulging in the daily use of intoxicat-
ing drinks, ask, "Is it quite certain
that the heart of the wife of his bosom
and the mother of his children is not
convulsed by the .artless inquiry, rs
not father drunkard?'"
When the hapless child sufferin g
cruelty, disgrace, and misery, from the
intemperance of faCher, l ask, Has
heard his mother say, "My child, al
ways love and pray for your father?'