Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1871-03-30
THE RUTLAND HERALD.
SATURDAY, MARCH %. 1871.
HenOring Parents.

No earthly claim is so sacred as 'na' -
q narent to the love and honor OF . child.
TT there be one throb of human emotion
that is pure, disinterested and almost
heavenly. it is parental love. If there be
a monster in human shape, it is the son
who returns ingratitude or neglect TO
parents who have cherished him from IN
fancy. No less repulsive is the conduct
of him, who having been educated by the
noble self denial of parents, themselves IL
literate, treats with contempt or with ne
glect those parents because inferior In
knowledge and in refinement of manners
to himself; that very inferiority should
awaken emotions of gratitude and reVer-
ence-not of contempt; for 1t Is the
memorial of their strong parental atfec-
ton. bent on educating their offspring in
society, even at the risk of detriment to
themselves. The very follies OF parent
should be sacred in the eyes of his child ;
and even crime itself cannot rob parent
of his claim on his offspring for tender
ness and sympathy at least, even when re-
spect must be withheld.
Nearly all are the offspring of parents
who have watched over them in infancy,
nursed them in sickness, provided for
them during the years Of helplessness, in
structed the youthful mind, and labored
earnestly to form the heart to virtue and
prepare them for usefulness and respecta.
bility in life. Even now their work Of
love is not ended. Even now, in manhood
years, when we meet them, if kind
Providence has spared them, they show
the depth of their solicitude for the vel.
fare of their child. When now and then
the mail brings the lines which a father's
care has dictated, or which mothers
hand has traced, every line tells that the
father, that the affectionate mother, liues
but in the hope of their sons activity in
life. They have done their part, and full
of unutterable solioitude they have Sc
their beloved children from beueath the
shelter of the paternal roof to learn other
lessons needful to prepare them to act a
part in the busy world, that they may
test the value of their moral workman
ship in the development of character, the
assumption of their proper places and the
exercise of their appropriate influence
in the society moving Immediately around
them.
To those, therefore, who have dis
creetly acted tender parents part. it is,
in declining years, life, and vigor, and
Joy, to witness the virtue, prosperity and
honor Of beloved son. In him the pa
rent lives anew. But in the disgrace of a
profigate and worthless son, a parents
deepest sensibilities are wounded, his
name is dishonored, his very soul is
stabbed.
The responsibility rests on each young
man or woman, to pour sunshine around
the hearts of their parents-to irradiate
with joy the evening of their life, or to
fill their cup with bitterness, their hearts
with heaviness, and to weigh them down,
dishonored and sorrowing, to their graves.
The connection which God himself has
established between the conduct and the
honor or dishonor of those who gave us
being, cannot be sundered. Responsible
tiles of high interest are sustained be.
tween child and parent which cannot be
avoided. Therefore, "Honor thy father
and thy mother, as the Lord thy God
hath commanded thee, that thy days may
be prolonged, and that it may go well
with thee in the land which the Lord thy
God giveth thee"