The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-09-06

grandmother, Lois.
 And there are many cases of bad
 and disappointing children-some of the
 other children of Jacob, but they are
 children of heather wives and of his own hard and interruptions years
 Eh's two sons, Hophni and Phineas:
 put, then, the picture distinctly made
 TOT us Is that of father perfectly Sood himself but too easy-going to | compel righteousness in his family. | !haeed, God was very angry with Eli,
 because he knew of the iniqulty of his
 children and did not restrain it. There
 are easy-going men who are good for
 nothing, and there are easy-going men | who are such only in appearance for at
 the right moments they are incarna-
 tons Of energy and decision. Absalom
 and David have furnished us with the
 most tragic illustration of broken pa
 rent love and hope, but it would be very
 nara to show that God had broken any
 promise or proved mysterious. David | never thought so; indeed, David's whole attitude toward Absalom is that | or man toward a son from whom he | mas a right to expect badness; the at tltude or a repentant man who is des- perately trying to fight the conse- | quences of his own sins in his children.
 mus saith the Lord, said Nathan to DaVld after Davids cruel and shame
 less treachery to Uriah Samuel ii, 12 Iz)' the sword shall never depart
 rom thine house. Behold, I will raise
 up evil against thee out of thine own house.
 lhere IS no such case in scripture
 as thls case of Earl Smith as I have
 stated 1t and as people persisted in
 statlng 1t to me. Either. then. we
 must say that here is a case in human
 experience of which the Bible contains
 no parallel, which the Bible does not
 meet-a statement which most of us
 would so thoroughly distrust that if
 would De useless-or we must say that
 the case Itself of Earl Smith does not sAl@l III human experience as stated
 lie ropped safe, the young criminal
 .he SHrlstlan home, all exist. but not III tne condition and relation in which 'he town and church stated and I have repeated to you In short. the whole thing IS hrst-class illustration of what your soul and mine are always doing puttlng up case between itself and Gou winch, as you persist in repeatine, IL to yourself and God, does not exist at all; arguing with Him complainine to Him, on basis which is false Goa does not talk back in these days. but there is the Bible. That is His last word, and it were we'll for a man he fore he denies God to consider whether there is any such case in the word a g he claims his to be, and, if there is not | py9n1ina htc not bearing false witness to his own soul.
 There is no case in scripture where | godly parents saw child of theirs who had done their whole reasonable | duty, go down in utter moral disaster. l
 And in this case of Earl Smith, on review, it appears by no means as stat ca. The town was full of sympathy With the family, and is little skepti- cal, anyway. It was inclined to be easy with the family and hard on God remember very we'll how this family used to be considered before this thing happened, and there was never any ex aited oplnlon of their godliness before The mother, if we know anything about such things, is certainly a beautiful Chrlst1an; so is the father. But it is one of those families in which the en- tire responsibility of the training of the children is left to the mother and Whatever our modern notions and prac tices, the word of God holds the father responsible for the moral standing of the family. Then the father has rela- tive who is a good-for-nothing if not scamp, and, whatever else there be in hprp6ifU n% nf | m IL 10 make a family which has got a oad development anywhere in it's past of present intensely careful and watch ful ot the moves they make It was a mistake to send this boy to college l mistake which the father was fairly ( warned against.
 And, finally, as already hinted the :, .otal depravity of this boy is not to ba :, admitted. Even if it is admitted that here are such cases sometimes if is to :, De denied that this is one of them-to z oe denled for the very reason that the 4 own planes God and denies the valid |; " or the promises, namely, that this f 'oys parents are godly people and he q las grown up in Christian home. The I own says God is useless because eodlv f people rail utterly in their holiest am \ '1tlon. The argument is just the other Y vay The boy is not ruined because for no other reason, his parents are c friends of God. The very fact used to i, lisprove God is a claim on God which Ii nay still be worked to more golden 1; field than all Alaska It is to he said e o that man and his wife: This is the l; upreme emergency of your lives Pro essional success, home. comfort.-au n re to be neglected and abandoned if V eed be. You are to lead such lives as s1 'ere never led before on earth to sava t. his boy, for 1t can be done. Ton have fc ot God with you It is to be said to si ou: In your problem, in the guise of is puzzle, comes to you the fight of vour g fe. It is puzzle only when von den,, a hat God is helping you--a puzzle onlJ, il 'hen you deny that the groundworl of tc lghteousness and faith in God under u ou has become useless as a strongboId III he promise is fruitless only when YOU ease to claim the fruit
 What this sermon amounts to tben ou say, is this: It starts out to offer n explanation of a real case in h,i,nan ht