The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1890-03-19
LOVE YOUR PARENTS.
DR. Talmage breaches Sermon tc
the Young on Filial Affection.
How the waywardness OF Boys and Girls
NJ Sometimes Breaks Old Hearts-The
Duty OF Parents to Their chill
dren-Return OF the lsasp
Prodigal.

nov. 4. Oc UlJI ldlmdRo prodCutu
IN Eloquent and forcible sermon to
young people recently at the Brooklyn
Academy Of Music. After expounding
chapter describing Absalom's carriage
toward his father, David, the preacher
announced as his text the words, "a
foolish son is the heaviness Of his
mother" Proverbs X, /. 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 forty years OF age
parents may have ambitions for them
selves, after that their chief ambitions
are for their children. Some Of the
old-time names indicate this. The
name Of Abner means "his fathers
lamp" The name Of Abigail mean 8
''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 son, and the
strongest arm mother has to help her
down the steep of years is that Of q
grateful child. But it is not rare
thing to find people unfilial, and often
tho parents are themselves to blame.
Aged persons sometimes become quer.
ulous Snd snappy, and the children
Z have their hands full with the old
folks. Before entering my profess
sion l was for three months what
Is called colpor teur. One day
In the country districts stopped
at the house of a good, intelligent,
genial farmer. The hospita lity Of such
q country house is especially 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-fve 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 playing about
the room. We gathered at the dining
table. After the blessing was asked tho
farmer put some OF the meat upon his
plate and courteously passed 1t to me,
when his father Of sixty-five years ofage
called 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 1t of the plate ourselves? You
are trying to show of because we have
company" Meanwhile his grandfather
Of ninety sat with his hat on at the
table, his face unclean, and his apparel
untidy. Still the farmer kept his pa
tience and equipoise, and / never think
OF him without admiration. He must
have had more grace than ever had.
Because people are old they have no
right 10 be either ungen tlemanly or un-
canny. There are old people so disa-
greeable that they have nearly broken
up some homes. The young married
man with whom the aged one lives
stands 1t because he has been used to 1t
all his life, but the young wife, coming
In from another household, can hardly
endure IL, and som etimes almost cries
her eyes out. And when the little chill
dren gather in the house, they are afraid
Of the venerable patriarch, who has for
gotten that he ever was child himself,
and can not understand why children
should ever want to play "hide and
seek" or roll hoop, or fly kite, and he
becomes impatient at the sound from the
nursery, and shouts with an expendi-
tute Of voice that keeps him coughing
fifteen minutes afterwards: "Boysl stop
that racketr as though any boy that
ever amounted to any thing in the world
did not begin life by making racket!
Indeed, there are children who owe
nothing 10 their parents, for those pa
rents have been profigates 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 a drunk
ard and disgrace, and the son did not
feel called upon TO carry such carcass
all his life. While children must al
ways be dutiful, sym pathize with all
young people who have disagreeable or
unprincipled old folks around the house.
Some Of us, drawing out OF our memo
ries, know that 1t is possible, after sixty
or seventy or eighty or ninety years OF
age, for the old TO be kind and genial;
and the grandest adornment OF home
Is an aged father and an aged mother,
II the process OF years has mellowed
them. Besides that, II your old parents
are hard TO get along with now, you
must remember there was time when
they had hard work 10 get along with
you. When you were about five or seven
or ten or twelve years OF age what time
they had with you'll II they had kept a
written account Of your early pranls
and misdoings II would make whole
volume. That time when You gave your
little sister clip; that time when you
explored the depth Of jar of sweet !
things for which you had no permission;
that havoc you one day made with your
jack-knife; that plucking from the Or
chard Of unripe fruit; that day when, in.
stead OF being at school, as your parents
supposed, you went a-Hshing; and many |
. time did yov 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 Of your !
life and your good morals was fearful |
draft upon parental fidelity and endur-
anoe. Indeed, II may be that much Of
this present physical and mental weak
ness In your parents may have been q
result Of your early waywardness You
have made such large and sudden drafts
upon the bank Of their patience that you