The record-union., 1896-06-01
ABRIFH ON A SEA OF SIN.
How Parents Are NegleCtins Their Chill
dr0n'S Training.
Rev. w. s. Hoskinson Points Out
Some of the Dangers That
Beset Them.

At the Sixteenth-street Lutheran
Church last evening Rev. W. 5. Hos
kinson, the pastor, delivered a thought
ful sermon on the subject of parents
neglect of their children, and how the
latter, left without restraint, are drift
ing away from religious thought and
practices. He chose for his text:
For 1 have told him that will judge
his house forever for the iniquity which
heknoweth; because his sons made them
selves vile and he restrained them
not''-I. Sam, ill.,, 13.
Eli, the father, was a good man, said
the speaker but his sons went far from
his example. The verse tells of their
going astray and mentions reason for
their conduct. 1t lays charge against
the parent that is serious. Here was a
busy man, a priest. Very indulgent to-
ward his children and neglectful of their
training; too much taken up with other
things to have much to do in the matter.
Good enough influences around the
boys all the time, for their youth was
passed in the shadows of the tabernacle,
and these boys should have been priests
after their father died. But they turned
out very bad, became sons of Belial,
and filed all Israel with the stencil of
their Yileness. Fearful evil followed,
judgment was pronounced on Ellis house
forever, the ark was wrenched from him
and he died of a broken heart in shame
and disgrace: all because Of iniquity
which he saw and knew of in his sons,
but failed to rebuke and restrain them.
1t is a fearful lesson to parents in all
time, of the danger to them, and child
ren after them, of giving too great Ii
cense and too little restraint in the
home. We see the result of such home
influence on every hand. Too many
men and boys go not to the sanctuary.
Worldly institutions, lOOseness as to
Sunday observance, amusements, dis
sipation, are leading them away from
the church of Jesus Christ. Men and
boys there are in abundance, but where
do you find them?
Well, 10000 of them die drunkards
every year; $1,000 of them are tramps
in the United States; 10000 of the 80
600 criminals Gr jails and penitentiar-
ies) are men and boys. And so you see
how many of them are making their
record in our day, filling all the land
with the stencil Of their Vileness.
And it is no wonder, for the restraints
are less and less to keep them close to
the church and God, while evil currents
are seething in every direction to bear
them away
A minister was urging one careless
fellow to attend church, possibly one of
the cyclists" and the reply was, only
women care for the church-it is no
place for men" But" said the min
lister, I preached last Sunday to an
audience of 600 men, and there was not
woman present" Where was that? ?''
In the chapel of our State Peniten-
tiary," was the reply.
Too small a proportion of men are
in the church, but they are still making
their record. I was going to say they
are writing it in the sand. I could wish
they were, then the waves Of a day
would wash it out. But as it is, "the
evil they do will live after them" They
are not in the church, but society is
getting impressions from them that will
bring fruitage of iniquity for our day
and for the coming days
Read the signs Of the times-rhe deeds
of lust, of violence, of cold-blooded viii
lainy. They show a widespread moral
perversity, a looseness, a departure
from the old ways and safe paths thai
leads straight to degeneracy. It has led
in historic days to disintegra ton and
ruin. May IT not break in destruction
on our heads, too?
This father knew his boys were DOING
wrong, but did not check them Nc
family discipline led to male degen-
eracy here. There were no moral re-
straints in the early period Of life
and this, too, in a home where the
parent was pious. And still may there
be found wicked sons coming cut from
religious homes. This is not general
The exceptions make them stand out tC
the gaze of all For there still remains
one place of life and hope, and it is the
Cld-fashioned, piOus home. Here they
honor the word of God and "its pages
are marked by teardrOps drawn from
eyes of loving readers VINO have made
this word the law of the home"
Here they pray often, and the
"bairne" grow up breathing an atmos-
phere of sturdy piety and a love o.
what is right that anchors them for
ever in the path Of Righteousness and
love of God" We see them every day
go out from such homes into positions
Of honor and wide influence a stancl
"H ~