The Indiana State sentinel., 1880-03-31

/ III
father plans the character of the child and
its destiny for time and eternity; then the
son completes the structure. You might as
well put down a foundation ten feet by five
! and expect TO rear on it great cathedral, as
to put down contracted character IN aehild's S
| soul, and yet rear upon it something extern
sively grand and extensively useful. Let
me say to those Christian parents who are
doing their best in the education of their
children, take good heart. your sons this
morning may be far away from you and in a
distant city, but God, to whom you dedicated
them, will look after them The God of
Daniel will look after them far away ia Baby
lon ''T-ain up child in the way he should
go and when he is old he will not depart
from it," He may wander away for awhile,
and fall iato sin, and break your heart; but
before he is done with this life, you having
commenced him to God, he will come back
again; for L put the emphasis in the right
place on the word ''old, . when / repeat that
passage and say, Train up child in the
way he should go, and when he is OLD
he will not depart from it." May you
all have the glorious satisfaction of seeing
your children walk N the paths ofrighteous-
ness and peace One with them on earth,
may you be one with them in heaven.
learn also from this subject the beauty of
Christian sobriety. The meat and the wine
that were to come to Daniels table were to
come from the kings table. Well, Daniel
had no right to take that food. The king
was heather, and, like all the heather, was
accustomed to ask blessing before he par
took of food, and in that blessing they al
ways dedicated the food to the gods. So that
if Daniel had taken this food he would have
broken the law which forbade the taking of
food dedicated to idols He chose pulse 1t
was a miracle that he did not dwindle away.
There is nothing in pulse, such poor herb
to make man rUddy and healthfnl. Some
people talk as though that were kind of
diet which would make man strong and
competent to do the duties ofthis life. That
is not the lesson at all. But for positive
miracle Daniel would have dwindled away,
and when God for his self-denial puts
benediction upon all Christian sObriety,
| would not have you class your preacher
among those who would put unnecessary
restraints upon unlawful appetites. There
are those in this day who dispute the grant
which God gave to man for animal food,
and then make a religion of their hunger
as the Pharisees expected heaven for their
fasting. Daniel did not always live on pulse
He was not a Grahamite, he was not
a vegetarian. He went through that self
denial because the food offered him was idol
atrous food. When L see God filling the
earth with all varieties of food l have not
much confidence in the teaching of those who
would put us on severe regimen. There are
parents who, with wrong theory in this re-
spect, deny their children all harmless luxu-
ries, and, without sufficient inquiry, send
them off to boarding schools where their in
tellects are cultured to the disadvantage of
their starved bodies; so that from many a
bOarding-school class of 20 will graduate
I9 of them ghosts! Now, when | see three
angels eating the calf which Abraham slew,
and when | find Christ eating broiled fish
even after His resurrection, | come to the
conclusion that the theories of the vegetarian
are we'll founded But OIL how many temp
tations to dissipation. With omsny things
to tempt the appetite, how many temptations
to gluttony. With so many sparkling bev-
erages, how much temptation to drunken.
ness. Could bring before you this morning
the mothers and the wives and the sisters
who have wept at the graves of the inebri-
ate, your soul would be eoverpowered with the
spectacle. Could L show you the manly
forms robbed of their beauty, the eye flash
ings quenched in the wine cup, the ruddy
cheek from which rum has wormed the rose,
your souls would recoil with horror, and you
would rise up and cry, "Begone, thou dream
of helll' Charles Lamb made all the world
laugh at his humor, and then afterward
made all the world weep at his fate, who
outwitted everybody, and was at last out
witted of his own appetites.
Are you fond of pictures? Here is one
drawn by Solomon:
"WhO hath woe2 who hath sorrow? who
hath contentious? who hath blabbling? who
hath wounds without cause? They that tarry
long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed
wine. Look not thou upon the wine when
it is red, when it moveth itself Alright in the
cup At the last it biteth like serpent, and
stingeth like an adder"
ado you know what you are doing2" said
a mother who had broken into a restaurant,
the door locked against her, her son inside.
She came up to the counter and saw the man
of the restaurant mingling the intoxicating
cup for her own son. She said to the man be-
hind the counter: "Do YOU know what you
are doing?" NO." said he, al don't" Says
she. "You are fattening graveysrds." l was
told at Des Moines last week of train OF
cars going, through a very stormy night,
over one of the Western prairies. The
young man who was present told us the
sIOTe III Inc niSHb LucTc was ntIic Cullu
in the sleeping-car, fretful, and worrying
and crying hour after hour. A man on the
opposite side of the car lost his patience, and
SAID, EITHER make that child shut up, or
pitch it out of the Window Then another
man on the opposite side of the sleeping-car
"a man with a broken heart-pushed back
the curtain and looked out, and said: "Young
man, that child's mother is dead in the bag
gage-car" Then the man who committed
the affront rose up, offered his services for
t night, and took care of the child unit.
the morning, and all the passengers in the
car was broken down with emotion. Oh, if
the cry of one child could arouse so many
sympathies, what ought to be the effect of
the ten-thousand-voiced shrieks of orphan
age and widowhood from the inebriates
gravel God save this country from the perils
of strong drink.
My subject also impresses me with the
beauty of youthful character remaining in
corrupt away from home. If Daniel had
plunged into every wickedness of the city of
Babylon, the old folks at home would never
have heard of it. If he had gone through all