The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1890-05-22
FILIAL PIETY.
The Duty and Respect Due from
Children to Parents.
sermon by Rev. t. Dewitt TaImage on
the Subject of FiliaI Piety-The
Cares and Anxietles of Pa
rental Life.

Sabbath, his text being:
A foolish son is the heaviness of his moth
er.-Prov. K, /.
He said: All parents want their
children to turn out well. 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 themselves; 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 Abigail means ''her
fathers JOY" And what parental de-
light was Solomon to David, and Samuel
to Hannah, and Joseph to Jacob! And
the best earthly staff that father has
to lean on is a good son, and the strong
est arm mother has to help her down
the steep of years is that of a grateful
child. But it is not rare thing to find
people unfilial, and often the parents
are themselves to blame. Aged per-
sons 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 colporteur. One
day in the country districts l stopped
at the house of a good, intelligent,
genial farmer. The hospitality of such
= country house is especially pleasing
TO me. for I was born in the country.
This farmer and his wife were hard
working people, but tried to make their
home agreeable and attractive. The
@o, sc 70 al, c;v WANNA 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 the farmer put some of the
meat upon his plate and courteously
passed it to me, when his father of six
tY-five years of age cried out to his son,
who was at least thirty: ''Why do you
not pass the meat as you al ways do, and
let us AXE it off the plate ourselves?
You are trying to show off because we
have company" Meanwhile his grand
father of ninety sat with his hat on the
table, his face unclean and his apparel
untidy. Still the farmer kept his pa
thence and equipoise, and never think
ofohim without admiration. He must
have had more grace than ever had.
Because people are old they have NJ
right to be either ungentlemanly or I'M
canny. There are old people so dis
agreeable that they have nearly broker
up some homes. The young married
man with whom the aged one live!
stands it because he has been used to i
all his life, but the young wife, coming
in from another household, can hardly
endure it, and sometimes almost criei
her eyes out. And when little children
gather in the house, they are afraid o
che venerable patriarch, who has for
gotten that he ever was child himself
and can not understand why children
should ever want to play ''hide ant
seek" or roll hoop, or fly kite, and h
becomes impatient at the sound iron
the nursery, and shouts with an ex
penditure of voice that keeps hin
coughing fifteen minutes afterward
s'Boys! stop that racket!' as though
any boy that ever amounted to an,
thing in the world did not begin life b,
making racket.
Indeed, there are children who ow
nothing to their parents, for those par
ents have been profigates. My lament
cd friend, good and Christian and love
ly Henry Wilson, Vice-President of tn
United States, in early life changed hi
name. Henry Wilson was not his orig
inal name. He dropped his father
name because that father was a drunk
ard and disgrace, and the son did NO
feel called upon to carry such carcas
all his life. While children must al
ways be dutiful, / sympathize with al
young people who have disagreeable O
unprincipled old folks around tn
house. Some of US, drawing out of on
memories, know that it is possible
after sixty, or seventy or eighty Q
ninety years Of age, for the old to b
kind and genial; and the grandes
adornment of a home is an aged fathe
and aged mother, if the process of year
has mellowed them. Besides that,
your old parents are hard to get alon
with now, you must remember ther
was time when they had hard work /
get along with you. When you weI
about five or seven or ten or twely
years of age what a time the
had with you! If they had kept wri
ten account of your early pranks an
misdoings it would make whole vo
ume. TnaS time when you gave yol
little sister clip; that time when yc
explored the depth of a jar of swe,
things for which you had no permissiol
that havoc you one day made with yol
jack-knife; that plucking from the o
chard of unripe fruit; that day whel
instead of being at school, as your pa
ents supposed, you went a-fishing; an
many time did you imperil your youn
life in places where you mad no bus
ness to climb or swim or venture.
To get you through your first fftee
years with your life and your good mo
ais was fearful draft upon parents
fidelity and endurance. Indeed, it ma
be that much of this present physics
and mental weakness in your paren
may have been q result of your ear
waywardness. You made such large III
sudden drafts upon the bank of their p