The Bottineau pioneer. (Bottineau, N.D.) 1885-1895, 1890-03-22
PARENT AND CHILD.
That was the Subject Upon
Which Talmage Preached
his Last Sermon
The Parental Grief That is
Caused by the Ingratitude
Of Children.

Of Children.
BRookLYN, Special.-After ~expounding q
chapter describing Absalom's cnrriage to.
ward his father David, and the singing OF an
appropriate hymn, DR.. Talmage announced
as his text the words: "A foolish son 10 the
heaviness OF his mother" Prov. T., /. he
said: "
All parents want their children to turn out
we'll. However poorly father and mother
may have done themselves, they want their
sons and daughters to do splendidly. Up to
40 years OF age pnrents may have ambitions
for themselves, utter thnt their chief ambi.
tons are for their children. Some of the
old time numes in iicate this. The name OF
Abner me ans This fathers lamp" The name
Abigail means s.her fathers Joy" And
what q parental delight was Solomon to
David, and Samuel to Hannah, and Joseph
to Jocobl And the best earthly staff that a
father has to lean on is n good son, and the
strongest arm q mother has to help herdown
the steep ofyears is that off grateful child.
But it is not a rare thing to find people un-
fi!ial, and often the parents are themselves to
blame. Aged persons sometimes become
guerulous and snappy, and the children havo
their hands full with the old folks. Before en-
tering my profession I was for three months
what is called Q colporteur. One day in the
country districts ! stopped at the house of
a good, Intelligent, genial farmer. The hos
pitailty OF such q country house is especially
pleasing to me, for l was born in the country.
This farmer and his wife were hard working
people, but tried to make their home agree.
able and attractive. The farmers father,
about sixty-ive years OF age, md his grand.
father, about ninety, were yet alive and with
MIN. indeed, there were. four generations
in the house, for the farmer had little chill.
dren playing 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-ive years of nge
cried out to his son, who was at least thirty
years Of age: why do you not pass the
meat as you aIwnys do, and let us take it off
the plate ourselves? You are trying to show
of because we have company" Meanwhile
at the table. his lace u~nciean, and his apparel
untidy- Still the farmer kept his patience
and equipoise, and I never think of him with.
out admiration. He must nave had more
grace than l ever had.
Because people are old they have no right
to be either ungentlemanly or uncanny.
There are old peopleso disagreeable that they
have nearly broken up some homes. The
young married man with, whom the aged one
lives stands it because he has been used to
it all his life, but the young wife,
coming in from another household, can
hardly endure it, and sometimes almost cries
her eyes out. And when little children gath
er in the house, they are AFRAID of the vener.
able patriarch. who has forgotten that heeyer
was q child himself, and cannot under
derstand why children should ever want to
play hide and seek,', or roll hoop, or fy
kite, and he becomes impatient at the sound
from the nursery, and he shouts with an ex-
penditure Of voice that keeps him coughing
Is minutes afterwards. "Boys! stop that
racket" as though any boy that ever
amounted to anything in the world did not
begin life by making a racket
Indeed, there are children who owe nothing
to their parents, for those parents have been
profigates. Ny lamented friend. good and
Christian and lovely Henry Wilson, vice.
president Of tho United States. in early Ii e
changed his name. Henry Wilson was not
!ather's name because that father was
o drunkard and a disgrace. and the son
did not feel called upon to carry such a car
cass all his life. While children must always
be dutiful. I sympathize with oil young peo-
pie who have disagreeable or unprincipled
old folks around the house. Some OF us,
drawing out o flour memories. know that it is
possible, after 60 or 20 or 80 or 80 years of
age, for the old to be kind and genial; and
the grandest adornment of q home is an
aged father and an aged mother, if the pro-
cess OF years has mellowed them. Besides
that, if your old parents are hard to get
along with now, you must remember there
was o time when they had hard work to get
along with you. When you were about 5 or
z or 10 or IL years OF age what a time they
had to get along with you! If they had kept
a written account of your early pranks and
misG oines, it would make u whole volume.
That time when o gave your little sister
a clip; that time when you explored the
depth of q jnr of sweet things Tor which you
had no permission; that havoc you one day
made with y%ourjack. knife; that pluckingfrom
the orchard of unripe fruit; that day when,
instead Of being at school, as your parents
supposed, you went u fishing; and many q
time did You imperil youryoung life in places
where you had no business to climb or swim
or venture. To get you through your first
L. years with yourlife and your good morals
was o fearful DRIFT upon parental fidelity and
endurance. Indeed, it may be that much of
this present physical and mental weakness in
your parents mnv have been a result of your
early waywardness. You made such large
and heavy drafts upon the band oil their
patience that you broke the bank. They were
injured in being thrown Withdrawing to break
in the colt. 1t is O NATTER 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 a boy os ] have EYES,"
said the son, "my grandfather had" 1t is
about the Same from generation to genera
.tion, and parents need to be patient with
children, and children duti'ul to their par.
ents. Taking it for granted that those who
hear me to-day have had a good parcntage, !
want to urge upon all the young the fact that
the happiness ind longevity OF parents much
depend upon the right behavior of their
children, and / ran do this no more effectual-
" than by demonstrating the truth Of my
text, "A foolish son is the heaviness Of his
mother" Perhaps some young man astray
may be brought back by a thought of how
they feel about him ut home. A French
soldier lay wounded and dying in the hospit-
al at Geneva, Switzerland. His father, at
home seventy years Of age, heard of his son.
suffering, and started andtook the long jour-
ney, and found the hospital; and as he enter.
ed the son cried: ttoh father. / am SO glad
you have come to nee me die" 'No" said
the father; lyon are o going % die; your
mother is waiting for you, and ] am going
to take y0u home; 7 have brought you
money and everything you need" NO.
said the soldier, tthey rive me here every
thing that is nice to eat. but / have no appe-
lite, and / must die.s' Then the father took
rom his knapsack O loaf Of rye bread, such
rs the plain people Of his country ate, md
made, and / nm I'M sure you ear eat this,
she sent it to YOU" Then the soldier bright
5ened up and tool the bread and ate it and
said, cit is so good the bread from home,
the bread that my mother madel" Nowonder
that in a few days he had recovered. Oyoung
man wounded in the battle Of life, and dis
scouraged, given up by yourself and given mp
BY others, the old folks at the country Are.
side have not given you up. bring you