Democratic messenger., 1892-04-16
A FEW LEAVES FROM OUR BRANCHES.


in all directions. What makes that
father have such hard work TO find the
hymn today: He puts ON his spectacles
and holds the book close up, and then
holds it far off, and is not quite sure
whether the number of the hymn is $50
or 100. and the fingers with which he
turns the leaves are very clumsy. He
stoops Il good deal, although once he was
straight as an arrow, and his eyes were
keen rs a hawks, and the hand he
offered to his bride on the marriage day
was of goodly shape and as God made it.
will tell you what is the matter Forty
! years ago he resolved his family should
have no need and his children should be
well educated and suffer none of the
disadvantages of lack of schooling from
which he had suffered for lifetime, and
/ that the wolf of hunger should never
put its paw on his doorsill, and Cor
forty or fifty years he has been tearing
off from the palm tree of his physical
strength and manly form branches TO
/ throw in the pathway of his household
I 1t has cost him muscle and brain and
health and eyesight. and there have
been twisted off more years from his life
I than any man in the crowd on the
| famous Palm Sunday twisted off
branches from the palm trees on the
road from Bethpage toJerusalem. What
makes that mother look so much older
than she really is: You say She ought
not yet TO have one gray line in her HAIR.
The truth is the family was not always
as well off as now. The married pain
had hard struggle ut the start Ex-
anime the tips of the forefinger and
thumb of her right hand and they will
tell you the story of the needle that was
piled day in and day out.
Yea. look at both her hands and they
will tell the story of the time when she
did her own work. her own mending
and scrubbing and washing. Yea. look
into the face and read the story of
scarlet fevers and Groups and midnight
watchings when none but God and her
self in that house We're awake, and then
the burials and the loneliness afterward.
which was more exhausting than the
preceding watching had been, and no
one now TO put to bed. How fair she
once was and as graceful as the palm
tree. but all the branches of her strength
and beauty were long ago torn off and
thrown into the pathway Of her house
hold. Alas. that sons and daughters.
themselves So straight and graceful and
educated. should ever forget that they
are walking today over the fallen
strength of an industrious and honored
parentage. \ little ashamed. are you.
at their ungramInatical utterance: 1t
was through their sacrifices that Won
learned accuracy of speech. Do You
lose patience with them because they
are a little querulous and complaining:
guess You have forgotten how queru-
lous and complaining when you were
getting over that whooping cough or
that intermittent fever. \ little an
noyed. are YOU, because her hearing is
poor and You have to tell her some
thing twice: She was not always hard
of hearing. When you were two years
old your first call for drink at mid
night woke her from sound sleep as
quick rs any one will waken ut the
trumpet call of the resurrection.
Oh my young lady. what is that under
the sole of your fine shoe: Ii is palm
leaf which WAS torn off the tree of ma
ternal fidelity. Young merchant. young
lawyer, young journalist, young me-
chanic. with good salary and fine clothes
and refined surroundings. have you for
gotten what IA time Your father had that
winter. after the summers crops had
failed through droughts or floods or To-
Gusts, and how he wore his old coat too
long and made his old hat do. that he
might keep you at school or college:
What Is that, my young man, under your
fine boot today, the boot that SO well fits
your foot, such boot as Your father
could never afford to wear? 1t must be
leaf from the palm tree of your fathers
self sacrifices. Do not be ashamed of
him when he comes to town, and. be-
cause his manners are Il little old fash
ioned. try to sinugglc him i'll and SNUG
gle him out, but call i'll your best friends
and take him TO the house of God and
introduce him to your pastor and say.
This is my father" If he had kept for
himself the advantages which he gave
you he would be rs we'll educated and
as well gotten up rs You. When III the
English parliament Il member was max
ing great speech that was unanswera-
bic. lord derisivcly cried out, Il re-
member You when you blackened my
fathers boots" "Yes. replied the man.
"and did not do it well:" Never he
ashamed of your early surroundings.
Yes, yes, all the green leaves we walk
over We're torn off some palm tree.
have cultivated the habit of forgetting
the unpleasant things of life. and chiefly
remember the smooth things, and as fan
as | remember now my life has for the
most part moved on over road soft
with green leaves. They were torn of
two palm trees that stood at the start of
the road. The prayers. the Christian ex
ample. the good advice, the hard work
of my father and mother. How they
toiled. Their fingers We're knotted with
hard work. Their foreheads were wrin
kled with many cares. Their backs
stopped from carrying our burdens.
They long ago went into slumbei
among their kindred and friends ON the
banks of the Raritan, but the influences
they threw in the way Of their children
are yet green rs leaves the moment they
are plucked from a palm tree. and we
feel them ON our brow and under our
feet and they will strew all the way
until we lie down i'll the same slumber.
Self sacrifice. What thrilling word.
Glad am that our world has So many
specimens of it. The sailor boy on ship
board was derided because he would not
fight or gamble, and they called him
coward. But when a child fell over
board and no one else was ready to help,
the derided sailor leaped into the sea.
and. though the waves were rough, the
sailor swimming with one arm carried
the child ON the other arm till rescued
and rescuer We're lifted into safety, and
the cry of coward ceased and all huz-
Zaed at the scene of daring and self
sacrifice