The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1890-03-19


me to-day have had good parentage,
want to urge upon all the young the
fact that the Happiness and longevity Of
parents much depend upon the right
behavior Of their children, and can do
this no more effectually than by demon
strating the truth Of my text, "a fool
ish son is the heayiness Of his mother" I"
Perhaps some young man astray may
be brought back by thought Of how
they feel about him at home. A French
soldier lay wounded and dying in the
hospital at Geneva, Switzerland. His
father, at home, seventy years Of age,
heard of his sons suffering, and started,
and took the long journey, and found
the hospital, and as he entered the son
cried 30, father, am so glad you have
come to see me die." "No," said the IA
ther, you are not going to die; your
mother is waiting for you, and am 60
ing to take you home; have brought
you money and every thing you need"
mo" said the soldier, 'they give me
here every thing that is nice to eat but 1
have no appetite, and | must die" Then
his father took from his knapsack loaf
of rye-bread, such as the plain people Of
his country ate, and said: Here is q
loaf OF bread your mother made, and l
am sure you can eat this; she sent 1t to
you." Then the soldier frightened up,
and took the bread and ate II, and said,
'It is so good, the bread from home, the
bread that my mother madel" No won
der that in few days he had recovered.
o, young man, wounded in the battle OF
life, and discouraged, given up by your
self, and given up by others, the old folks
at the country freside have not given
you up. | bring you bread from home.
1t may be plain bread, but it is that
bread OF which II a man eat he never
again shall hunger. Bread from home
Bread from home!
Carrying out the idea Of my text,
remark that reckless or dissipated son
makes heavy hearted parent because
1t hurts the family pride. 1t is not the
given name, or the name which you re-
ceived at the hristening that is injured
by your prodigality You can not hurt
your name Of John, or George, or Henry,
or Mary, or Frances, or Rachel, because
there have been thousands of people,
good and bad, having those names,
and you can not improve or depreci-
ate the responsibility Of those given
names. But 1t is your last name, your
family name, that is at your mercy. All
who bear that name are bound before
God and man not to damage its happy
significance. You are charged, by all the
generations Of the past and all the gen.
erations to come, to do your share for
the protection and the honor and the in
tegrity OF that name. You have no right,
my young friend, by bad life to blot the
old family Bible containing the story Of
the marriages and births and deaths of
the years gone by, or to cast a blot upon
the family Bibles whose records are
yet to be opened. There are in our
American city directories names thatal-
ways suggest commercial dishonesty or
libertinism or cruelty or meanness, just
because one man or woman bearing that
Look out how you stab the fam
lily name. IL is especially dear to
your mother. She was not born under
that name. She was born under an
other name, but tho years passed on and
she came to young womsnhood, and she
saw some one with whom she could
trust her happiness, her life and her
immortal destiny; and she took his
name, took II while the orange blossoms
were filling the air with fragrance, took
IL with Joined hands, took II while the
heavens witnessed. She chose 1t out Of
all the family names since the world
stood, chose it for better or worse,
through sickness and through health,
by cradles and by graves. Yea, she put
of her old family name TO take the
family name you now wear, and she
has done her part to mako II an honor
able name. How heavy a trouble you
put upon her when, by misdeeds, you
wrench that name from its high signih-
canoe To haul 1t down from your
mothers forehead and trample II in the
dust would be criminal. Your fathers
name may not be a distinguished name,
but hope 1t stands for something good.
It may not be famous, like that Of
Homer, the father Of epic poetry, or
Izaak Walton, the father Of angling, or
Eschylus, the father Of tragedy, or
Ethelwold, the father Of monks, or
Herodotus, the father Of history, or
Thomas Aquinas, the father Of moral
philosophy, or Abraham, the father OF
the faithful, but your father has a name
in q small circle as precious to him as
theirs in large circle. Look out how
you tarnish It,
Further, the recklessness and dissipa-
tion OF young man are cause Of pa
rental distress at time when the par.
ent Is less able to bear 1t. The vicissi.
tudes OF life have left their impression
upon those parents. The eye is not az
clear as once, nor the hearing as acute,
nor the nerves as steady, nor the step
as strong, and with the tide Of incoming
years comes the weight Of unfilial be-
havior. You take your parents at
great disadvantage, for they can not
stand as much as they once could.
They have not the elasticity OF feel.
ing with which once they could
throw of trouble. That shoulder, now
somewhat bent, can not bear as heavy
burden as once 1t could. At the
time when the machinery is getting
worn out you put upon II the most ter
rife strain. At sixty and seventy years
the vitality Is not so strong as at thirty
or forty. Surely they are descending