The intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1887-1891, 1890-03-22
THE
DR.. Talmase Diacourses on Youth
and Old Age.
oaa People should Not Forget That They
Were Once YOung-Ths Duties %
tbs founG-Home Innuenoss-
Parental ANXIETY.

tbs founS-Homs Innusnoss-
Parental Anxiety.
In a recent sermon at Brooklyn Rev.
i. Dewitt Talmage took for his text the
words, "a foolish son Is the heaviness
OF his mother" Proverbs x. L. He
said:
All parents q 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 Tor their children. Some of tho old
ume names indicate this. The name Of
Abner means his fathers. lamp" The
name OF Abigail means ''her fathers
Joy" And what a parental delight was
solomon to David, and Samuel to Han
nah, and Joseph to jacob And the
best earthly staff hat q father has to
lean on Is a good son, and the strongest
arm q mother has to help her down the
steep OF years is that of q grateful child.
But 1t Is not a rare thing to find people
unflial, and often the parents are them
! to blame. Aged persons some
times become querulous and nappy and
the children have their hands full with
the old folks. Before entering my pro-
fessaon / was for three months what Is
called q colporteur. One day in the
country districts I stopped at the house
OF Q good, Intelligent, genial farmer.
The hospitality OF such Q country house
10 especially pleasing TO me, for I was
born In the country. This farmer and
his wife were hardworking people, but
trted to maee their home agreeable and
attractive. The farmers father, about
stxty-hve years OF age, and his grand
father, about ninety, were yet alive and
with him. Indeed there we're four gen.
eretions In the house, for the farmer had
little children 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
ooorteously passed. IL to me, when his
father Of sixty-ave years of age cried
out to his son. who was at least thirty
years OF age: why do you not pass the
meat Is you always. do aud let Us take
10 OF the plate ourselves? You are try
ing 70 show of because we have com
pany." Meanwhile his grandfather of
ninety sat with his hat on at the table,
his face unolesn and his apparel untidy.
Stn the farmer kept his patience and
equipoise. and I never think Of him
without admiration. He must have had
moro grace than I ever had.
Because people are old they have no
right TO be either ungentlemanly or I'M
canny. There are old people so dis
agreeable that they have nearly broken
up some homes. Tho young married
man with whom the aged Die, lives
stands II because ne has been usad TO 10
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
gather In the house they are afraid of
the venerable patriarch who has forgot
ten that he ever was a child himself.
and can not understand why children
should ever want 70 play ''hide and
seek, or roll hoop. or fly kite, and he
becomes impatient at the sound from
the nursery and shouts with IN expend-
iture Of voice that keeps him coughing
hftcen minutes Afterwards: Boys, stop
that racket as though any boy that
ever amounted 10 any thing in the
world did not begin life by making a
racket
Some of US, drawing out of our mem
cries, know hat Is impossible after
sixty or seventy or eighty or ninety years
Of age for the old to be kind and genial;
aid the grsndest adornment Of q home
u an aged father and or aged mother, II
the process Of years has mellowed them.
Besides that, II your old parents are hard
70 get along with now, you must remem-
Der there was a time when they had
hard work to get along with you. When
you were about Eve OF seven or ten or
twelve years Of age what q timo they had
with you'll II they bad kept a written
accounted your early prankss ard unia
doings II would mskea Hh4Ie volume
That time when sop gtxn your uttte.
sister . Oils; <hats tIrtb, <kIs1z you exS
ploret tbc depth OF 4 jar Of sweet things
for which r0u had no permission; that
hseao y8u onH dag made with your jack
knife; that pincking from the orchard OF
pnrtpe fruit; that day when, instead OF
being ut school, as your parents sup
posed. you went q fishingi and many Q
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 hrst fifteen years with
your life and your good morals was .
fearful draft upon parental fidelity
sna endurance. Indeed. 1t may be
that much OF this present physical and
mental weakness in your parents
mag have been . result Of your
early waywardness- You made such
lArGe and sudden drafts upon the bank
Of their patience that you broke the
bank. They we're injured In being
thrown while trying TO break the colt It
Ia only Q matter of oommop honesty
that you pay back to them some Of the
long suffering which they paid to you.
A father said 20 bis son: Surely no
father wei had a. bad o boy rs I have"
''Yes," said the son, my grandfstbes
had" It In about the same from gen.
srstion TO generation. and parents
need 10 DO patient with .ohil-
dran. and children dutiful to their
parenta Taking 1t for granted
that those who hear mo to-day have had
. good parentage, I want TO urge upon
all the young the fact that the happl
ness and longevity Of parents much de-
pond upon the right behavior Of their
children, and I can do this no more Of
feotually than by demonstrating the
truth Of my text "a foolish son is the
h~eavtness OF his mother"
Carrying out the idea of my text l re-
mark that q reckless or d~issipated son
makes 0 heavy hearted parent because
Il hurts tho family pride, 1t IL not the
given name, or tho name which you re-
esivcd III the christening. that 10 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 depreoiste the
respootability Of those given namea
But 10 Is your last name, your family
name, that IL at your mercy. All who
boar that name are bound before God
and man not 10 damage It's happy Hg'
nifcanGe.
You are charged, by all the genera
lions of the past and all the generations
TO come, TO do your share OF tho proteo.
zion and the honor and the integrity Of
that name.
You have no right, my young friend
by Q bad life, to blot the o d family Bible
containing the story OF the marriages
and births and deaths Of the years gone
By or to cast q blot upon the family BIZ
bles whose records are yet to be opened
There are in our American city direct
cries names hat always suggest com
mArndnl diahnnnakY or nhartiniRm or