The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1897-10-06
Former Times and These.
Christian Advocate.

An old minister said: "when
young had q sermon on Solomon's
caution about comparing the former
with present times. From that text
would now preach different SER
mon.n Perhaps the wise mans maxim,
in lis breadth manysidedness, is too
wide for one man 10 compass fully at
any stage of life. Who has measured
exactly in all its features any former
age ur his own? For example it is
easy to say, in sweeping terms, that
children now have more liberty than
they had a generation ago, and they
are less respectful to their seniors.
This may be true or it may not. Per-
haps witnesses might be brought for
ward with apparently contradictory
evidence.
DIR. John Witherspoon. President of
Princeton College, died in 1874. A
few years before his death he wrote
"Letters on Education" Here is
short extract: "In the former age, both
public and private, learned and relig-
ious education was carried on by mere
dint of authority. This, to be sure,
was a savage and barbarous method,
aud was, in many instances, terrible
and disgusting to the youth. NOW,
on the other hand, not only severity,
but authority is often discried; persua-
sion and every soft and gentle method
is recommended in such terms as
plainly lead TO relaxation" DIR.
Jasper Adams, in his "Moral Pholos-
ophy," published sixty years ago. 1887,
quoted some Bible maXims on educa-
ton, adds this comment: ''In the
present relaxed state of domestic dis
cipline I can only cite these precepts
on the ground of their being divinely
sanctioned. They must wear an air Of
strictness and severity, to which, in
these days, we are not accustomed"
An elderly man of to-day hears a
fast young man flippantly allude te his
father as ''the old man" "tne gov
enor,n etc. Our old friend, of course is
shocked, and says mournfully '"There
was nothing like this in my boyhood."
Here is 1.-The natural outgrowth Of
radical democratic, young America"
Perhaps this rude speech Is not very
recent invention of the young sons Of
Be.ial. In the year 1889 Rev. j. c.
Hare delivered a series of sermons be-
fore the University of Cambridge,
England. In one of them he speaks of
the "Want of due honor for the paren-
tai name and authority, 80 lamentable
common in these days." AS one illus
tration, he adds: allude to the habit
which sons have in speaking of their
father to disguise and disclaim the
bond of natural affection, and to call
him governor, as the vulgar phrase is"
Perhaps all that we can safely say is
that some families now train theiI
children more loosely than the best
families did a generation or century
ago. Looking back through the en-
chantment which distance of time
lends to the view, we recall the pic
ture of a happy, well ordered, Christ
ian home. The man is happy whose
own childhood home furnishes pic
ture! But in some home or other he
finds this ideal, and he thinks that was
an average representative home, while
perhaps it was really rare home in its
day.
No man now living is old enough to
remember time when all christians,
all Methodists even, had family prayer
regularly, and set their children a good
example in all things. In the "Meth-
odist Magazine" New York. 1922, a
writer oil parental duty and response
bility" says: It,not uncommon to meet
the children of Methodist parents. III
towns and villages shining in gay
attire, and displaying to the world
how much they respect the judgment
of their venerable parents
Perhaps some good parents of that
day may have placed unnecessary and
unwise restrictions on their children:
Still the pastors of that day, and of all
days since then, have had members to
try their patience.
And where is the pastor who has not
such in his charge to-day? Is not
open disorder in our Sabbath gather
ing. less common than it was among
the last generation? Let the older
men of to day be asked, individually,
plain question: "Are you sure that as
a boy you were always more respectful
to old people than the boys around you
are to-day?"