The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1886-11-25
have been acting on your suggestion, that's

another parent errs on the other, and how
to strike happy medium between severn
ty and toe great leniency, and train our
| sons and daughters for usefulness on earth
! and bliss in Heaven, is a question which
| agitates every Christian household in my
congregation. Where so many good men
| and women have failed, is it strange we
should sometimes doubt the propriety of
! our theory and the accuracy OF our kind of
| governments
Again. parental anxiety often arises
! from an early exhibition of sinfuiness in
/ the child. The morning glories bloom for
! a little while under the sun, and then they
shut up as the heat comes on /; but there are
| flowers along the Amazon that blaze their
beauty for weeks at time; but the short
lived morning-glory fultills its mission as
well as the Victoria Kcgia There are
some people who take forty, fifty or sixty
years to develop. Then there are little
children who fling their beauty on the Wis
! ion and vanish. They are morning glories
that can not stand the glare of the hot noon
| sun of trial
| have noticed that, for the most part,
! the children that live sometimes get cross,
and pick up bad words in the street, and
quarrel with brother and sister, and prove
Enthusiastically that they are wicl,ci-as the
! Bible says. going astray from the womb,
speaking lies. See the little ones in the
Sabbath class, so sunshiny and beautiful,
you would think they were always so, but
mother, seated little way of, looks over
/ at these children and thinks of the awful
time she has had to get them ready.
After the hoy or girl comes little fur
Their on in life the mark of sin upon him or
| her is still more evident. The son comes in
! from pugiiistic encounter in the streets,
bearing the marks of defeat. The
daughter practices positive deception, and
the parent says: What shall | DO.
can't always Ire correcting and scolding.
and yet these things must be stopped.'' 1t
is especially sad il the parent sees his own
faults copied by the child. 1t is very hard
work to pull up a nettie that we ourselves
planted. We remember that the greatest
frauds that ever shook the banking houses
of the country started from boys decep-
ton good many years ago; and the
cleaning blade of the murderer is only
another blade of the knife with which the
boy struck at his comrade.
Anxiety on the part of parents also arises
from the consciousness that there are so
many temptations thrown all around our
young people. 1t may be almost impossi-
bic TO take q castle by siegc-straightfor
ward siege-but suppose in the night there
is traitor within and he goes down and
draws the bolt and swings open the great
door, and then the castle falls Immediately.
That is the trouble with the hearts of the
young; they have foes without and foes
within.
There are great many who try to make
our young people believe that it is sign of
weakness TO be pure. The man will toss
his head and take dramatic attitudes and
tell of his own indiscretions, and ask the
young man If he would not like to do the
same. And they call him verdant, and they
say he is green and unsophisticated, and
wonder how he can bear the Puritanical
straight jacket. They tell him he ought to
break from his mothers apron-strings. and
they say: 81 will show you all about town.
Come with me. You ought to see the
world. 1t won't hurt you. DO as you
please; it will be the making of you" After
while the young man says: "ldcn't want
to be odd, nor can afford to sacrifice these
friends, and I'll go and see for myself"
From the gates of hell there goes shout
of victory. Farewell to all innocence;
farewell to all early restraints favorable to
that innocence, which, once gone, never
comes back.
How many traps there are set for our
young people! That is what makes parents
SO anxious. There are temptations for
every form of dissipation and every stage
of it. The young man when he goes into
dissipation is very particular where he
goes; 1t must be Il fashionable hotel. He
could not be tempted into these corner
nuisanccs with rcd-stained glass and mug
of beer painted on the sign-board. You
ask the young man to go into that place
and he would say: 'Do you mean to insult
mer' No; it must be a marble floored bar
room; it must be a place where elegant
gentlemen cone in and click their Gu; glass
and drink to the announcement of flatter-
ing sentiment. But the young man can
not always find that kind of a place; yet he
has thirst and it must be gratified. The
down grade is sleeper now, and he
is almost at the bottom. Here they
sit in an oyster cellar around a
card table, wheeling, bloated and
bloOdshot, with cards so greasy you can
hardly tell who has the best hand. But
never mind: they are only playing for
drinks. Shuttle away! Shuttle away! The
landlord stands in his shirt-slecves with his
hands on his hips, watching the game and
waiting for another call to fill up the
glasses. 1t is the hot breath of eternal woe
that flushes the cheek Of that young man.
In the Jets of gas-lght ! see the shooting
out of the fiery tongue Of the worm that
never dies The clock strikes twelve-it is
the tolling Of the bell Of eternity at the
burial of q soul. Two hours pass on, and they
are all sound asleep in their chairs. Land
lord says: "Cone, now, wake up-it's time to
shut up" Push them out into the air.
They are going home. Let the wife crouch
in the corner, and the children hide under
the bed. They are going home! What is
the history of that young mani He began
his dissipation at the Fifth Avenue Hotel,
and completed the damnation in the worst
grog-shOp in Navy street.
But sin even does not stop here. 1t
comes TO the door of the drawing-room.
There are men of leprous hearts that go
into the very best classes of society. They
are SO fascinating-thcy have such be-
witchirg way of Offering their arm. Yet
the poison of asps is under the tongue and
their heart is hell. At first their sinful de-
vices are hidden, but after a while they
begin to put forth their talons of death.
Now they begin to show what they really
are. Suddenly, although you could not
have expected it-they were so charming
in their manner, so fascinating in
their address-suddenly cloud blacker
than was ever woven of midnight
or hurricane, drops upon some domestic
circle. There is agony in the parental
bosom that none but the Lord God Al
mighty can measure an agony that wish
es that the children of the household had
been swallowed by TIE grave, when it
would have been only loss of body instead
of a loss of soul Oh, there are scores and
hundreds of homes that have been blasted,
and if the awful statistics could be set be-
fore you, your blood would freeze into
solid cake of ice at the heart. Do you Won
der that fathers and mothers are anxious
about their children. and that they ask