National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1886-11-22
\ " e. =

had the mont windows open in six months or O
year. The mothers hair suddenly turned
white; father, hollow-cheeked and bent
There has been no death in that
seized upon themr MOI mol 4, villain. kid:
graceful manner, took that cup Of domestic
bliss, elevated 1t high In the air until the sun
light struck II, and all the rainbows danced
about the brim, and then dashed It down in
desolation and woe, until all the harpies of
darkness clapped their hands with glee, and
all the voices OF hell uttered loud "Ha har'
Oh there are scores and hundreds OF homes
that have been blasted, aud If the awful stats:
tics could be fully set before you, your blood
would freeze into a solid cake OF leo at the
heart. DO you wonder that fathers and mothers
are anxious about their children, and that they
ask themselves the questions day and night:
What lsto become Of them?" "What Will be
shall devote the rest of my remarks to
alienation Ct parental anxiety. Let me say
TO YOU as parents, that great deal of that
anxiety will be lifted Il you will begin early
first FIVE years of my life | became an infde."
A vessel goes out to sea- II has been five days
out. storm comes on II 1t springs leak;
oPar W MI The @ae sysThH e Es Is qs NOT
seoworthy, and never was. il Is poor time
to find IL out now Under the fury of the
storm the vessel goes down, with $50 paSsen-
ship seaworthy was in the dry dock, before II
started. Alas for US, II we wait until our chill
drep get out into the world before we try to
bring upon them the influence of Christ re-
ligion tell you the dry dock of the Chris.
tian home is the place where we arc TO III
them for usefulness and for Heaven. In this
world, under the storm OF vice and tempta-
ton, 1t will be too late. In the domestic circle
you decide whether your child shall be truth
ful or false-wheLher II shall be generous or
divides an apple Just what its future history
will be. You ought to oversee the process. If
the child takes ninc.tenths of the apple, giving
the other tenth to his sister, he should lire to
be 100 he Will be grasptng aud want tho biggest
piece of everything. | stood in a house In one
Of the Long Island villages, aud saw beau.
tiful tree, and said to the owner, That Is a
very fine tree, but what curious crook there
Is in itr' "Yes" said he, ~ planted that tree,
and when 1t was a year old went to New
York and worked as a mechanic for year or
two, and when came back found that they
had allowed something TO stand against the
tree; so II has always had that crook" And so
thought 1t was with the influence upon chill
dren. If you allow anything to stand In the
way of moral influence against n child on this
side or that side, to the latest day of its life on
earth and through all eternity 1t Will show the
pressure. No wonder Lord Byron, was bad. %
| you know his mother said to him when she
saw him one day limping across the tioor with
his unsOund foot, "Get out of my way, you
lame brat " What chance for boy ike that?
Two young men come to the door OF sin.
They consult whether they will go in. The one
young man goes In and the other retreats, oh,
you say, the last had better resolution. No,
that was not Il. The first young man had no
early good influence; the last had been piously
trained, and when he stood at the door of sin
discussing the matter, he looked around rs II
| to see some one, and he felt an invisible hand
on his shoulder, saying "Don't so in don't
go inW Whose hand was III A mothers
hand fifteen years ago gone to dust. A gem
tleman was telling me of the fact that some
years ago there were two young men who
stopped at the door of the Park 'rhcater. in
New YORK, The question was whether they
should so In, That night, there was to be II
very immoral play enacted In the Park The
ater One went in, the other stayed out, The
young man who In Went from sin to sin, and
through crowd of iniquitles, and died in the
man who relreatGd chose Christ, went
into the Gospel, aud is now one
Of the most eminent ministers of Christ
in this country. And the man who retreated
gave as his reason for turning back from Park
Theater that night, that there was an early
voice within him, saying Don't go inl don't
90 inl' And for that reason, my friends, be- =
lieyeso much in Bible classes, But there is
something better than the Bible class, and
that Ia the Sunday school class. like II be-
keS o ssq se G IL beS1 point Sn
takes children before they begin to walk or to
talk straight, and puts them on the road TO
heaven: You cannot begin too early. You stand
ON the bank of u river flowing by You can
not stop that river, but you travel days and
days towards the source oft, and you find after
awhile where it comes down dropping from
course in this or that direction for the dropping
TO take and you decide the course of the river.
You stand and sec your children's character
rolling on with great impetuosty and passion,
and you cannot affect them. Go up towards
the source where the character first starts, aud
decide that IL shall take the right direction and
1t will follow the path you give IT,
But want you to remember, o father o
mother that II Is what you do that is going TO
affect your children, and not what you say.
You tell your children to become Christians
while you are not, and they will not. DO YOU
think Noah's family would have gone into the