Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1890-03-17
TREATMENT OF PARENTS.
DR.. TALMAGE BREACHES A SERMON
ON A PROLIFIC SUBJECT.

The Young owe as Much Consideration
to the Aged as the Aged Do to the
Young - Good Advice for Youth and
Maiden.
BROOKLYN March 16.-Tlle follow
ing sermon was preached this,morn-
ing by DR.. Talmage in the Academy
of Music, IN which his church IS wOr-
Shipping during the rebuilding OF the
Brooklyn Tabernacle, and which will
continue to be so occupied until that
edilice is completed After eXpound-
ing a chapter describing Absalom's
carriage toward his father David, and
the singing of an appropriate hymn,
DR.. Talmage announced as his text the
words, "A foolish son is the heaviEess
of iis mother''-Prov. Y, 1. He said:
All parents want their children to
turn out well. However poorly father
and mother may have done them
selves they want their sons and daugh-
tiers to do splendidly. Up to forty
years of age parents may have ambi-
tons for themselves, after that their
chief ambitions are for their children.
Some of the old time names indicate
this The name of Abner means This
fathers lamp" The name Abigail
means her fathers joy" And what
parental delight was Solomon to
David, and Samuel to Hannah, and
| Joseph to jacob! And the best earthly
staff that father has to lean on is
| good one, and the strongest arm
| mother has to help her down the steep
Of years is that of a grateful child.
But It IS not a rare thing to find people
unhlial. and often the parents are
/ themselves to blame. Aged persons
sometimes become querulOus and
snappy, and the children have their
! hands full with the old folks.
Before entering my profession was
! for three months what is called a col
pOrteur. One day in the country dis
! tricts | stopped at the house of good,
! intelligent, genial farmer. The hos
| pitalitY of such q country house IS eS-
! pecially pleasing to me- for [ was born
| in the country. This farmer and his
| wife were hard working people, but
tried to make their home agreeable
! and attractive The farmers father
about siXty-live years of age, and his
| grandfather about ninety, were yet
! alive and with him. Indeed, there
! were four generations in the house.
| for the farmer had little children play
| ing about the room.
We gathered at the dining table
| After the blessing was asked the farmer
| put some Of the meat upon his plate
| and courteously passed it to me, when
| his father of siXty-iive years cried out
| to his son, who was at least thirty
years of age: why do you not pass
| the meat as you always do, and let us
take il off the plate ourselves? you are
trying to show off because we have
company" Meanwhile his GRANDPA
4, > IL.
the table, his face unclean, and his
apparel untidy Still the farmer kept
his patience and equipose, and [ never
think of him without admiration. He
must have had more grace than [ ever
had.
Because people are old they have no
light 10 be either ungentlemanly or
9ncanny. There are old people so
1isagreeable that they have nearly |
broken up some homes. The young
married man with whom the aged one |
ives stands it because he has been |
ased to it all his life, but the young
wife, coming in from another house
lold, can hardly endure it, and some
lines almost cries her eyes out. And |
when little children gather in the |
house they are afraid of the venerable |
patriarch, who has forgotten that he /
understand why children should ever
want to play hide and seek, or roll
hoop, or fly kite, and he becomes i'm
patient at the sound from the nursery, |
and shouts with an expenditure of |
voice that keeps him coughing fifteen |
minutes afterwards, "Boys stop that |
racket as though any boy that ever
amounted to anything in the world
did not begin by making a racket!
Indeed, there are children vino owe
nothing to their parents, for those
parents have been prOfligates My la
mented friend, good and Christian and
lovely Henry Wilson, vice president
. OF the United States, in early life
changed his name. Henry Wilson was
not his original name. He dropped
his fathers name because that father
was Il drunkard and a disgrace, and
the son did not feel called upon to
carry such u carcass all his life While
children must always be dutiful, |
sympathize with all young people who
have disagreeable or unprincipled old
folks around the house Some Of us,
drawing out of our memories, know
that it IS possible, after sixty or seventy
or eighty or ninety years of age, for
the old to be kind and genial; and the
grandest adjournment Of q home is an
aged father and an aged mother if the
process Of years has mellowed them.
Besides that, if your old parents are
hard to get along with now, you must
remember there was time when they
had hard work 20 get along with you.
When You were about five or seven or
ten or twelve years of age what Il time
they had with you. If they had kept
Il written account of your early pranks
and misd0ings it would make a whole
volume That time when you gave
your little sister clip; that time when
YOU explored the depth Of a jar of
sweet things for which you had no
permission; that havoc you one day
made with your jack knife; that pluck
ing from the orchard of unripe fruit;
that day when, instead of being at
school, as your parents supposed, you
went a-fishing; and many time did
you imperil your young life in places
where you had no business to climb
or swim or venture. To get you
through your first fifteen years with
your life and your good morals was a
fearful draft upon parental fidelity and
endurance.
Indeed it may be that much of this
present physical and mental weakness
IN your parents may have been a re
SUiL VI Jul CttI Wy w a NtliNSS L va
made such large and sudden drafts
upon the bank OF their patience that
YOU broke the bank. They were in
jured in being thrown, while trying to
break the colt 1t is matter of only
common honesty that you pay back to
them some of the long suffering which
they paid to you. a father said to
his son: Surely no father ever had as
bad BOY as have" Yes, . said the
son, my grandfather had" 1t is about
the same from generation to gener
alton, and parents need to be patient
with children, and children dutiful to
their parents. Taking it for granted
that those who hear me today have
had good parentage, [ want to urge
upon all the young the fact that the
happiness and longevity of parents
much depends upon the right behavior
of their children, and [ can do this no
more effectually than by demonstrate
ing the truth of my text, "a foolish
son is the heaviness of his mother.
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