The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1899-1900, 1899-04-26
I A LESSON FROM, LIFE.
Dr. Talmage EulOgizes the Late JUS
tiee Stephen ]. Fiela.
Religious Training Laid the FOun-
datIOn of His Character - The
Great Divine'H Tribute to
DepaHteA Friend.
Copyright. Louis Klopsch lsg9.)
WachfnoNhn Anvil %

Copyright, Louis Klopsch, 1879
Washington, April 23.
One of the most notable characters of
our time is the subject of DIR. Ialmages
discourse, and the lessons drawn are
inspiring, Text, Samuel, 3;3s; 4Know
yenot that there is a prince and great
mnh fallen this day in Israeli"
Here is plumed catafalque, followed
by King David and funeral oration
which he delivers at the tomb. Concern
ing Abner, the great, David weeps out
the text. More appropriately than
when originally uttered we may now
utter this resounding lamentation:
"Know ye not thatthere is prince and
agreat man fallen this day in Israeli"
1t was 80 minutes after six, the ex-
act hour of the sunset of the Sabbath
day, and while the evening lights were
being kindled,, that the soul of Stephen
], Field, the lawyer, the judge, the pa
triot, the statesman. the Christian, as
eended. 1t was sundown in the home
on yonder Capitol hill, as it was sun
down on all the surrounding hills, but
in both cases the sun set to be followed
by glorious sunrise. Hear the Easter
anthems still lingering in the air. The
. trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall
RISE"
Our departed friend came forth boy
from minister's home in New Eng
land. He knelt with father and mother
at morning and evening prayer, learned
from maternal lips lessons of piety
which lasted him and controlled him
amid all the varied and exciting scenes
Of lifetime and helped him to die
in peace an octogenarian. Blot out
from American history the names of
those ministers sons who have done
honor to judicial bench and CONNER
cial circle and national legislature and
presidential chair, and you would OBJ
iiterate many of the grandest chapters
of that history. 1t is no small adyan-
tage to have started from home where
God Is honored and the subject of a
worlds emancipation from sin and sor-
row is under constant discussion. The
Ten Commandments, which are the
foundation of all good law-Roman
law, German law, English law, Ameri-
can law--are the best foundation upon
which to build character, and those
which the boy, Stephen j. Field, so
often heard in the parsonage at Stock
bridge were his guidance when, half
century after, as a gowned justice of
the supreme court of the United States,
he unrolled his opinions. Bibles, hymn
books, catechisms, family prayers, at
mosphere sanctified, are good surl ound-
ings for boys and girls to start from,
and if our laXer ideas Of religion and
Sabbath days. and home training pro-
duce as splendid men and women as
the much-deridcd Furitanic Sabbath
and Puritanic teachings have produced
it will be matter of congratulation
and thanksgiving. s.i'".f
Do not pass by the fact that / have
moi. yet seen emphasized that Stephen
J. Field was a minister's son, Notwith-
standing that there are conspicuous ex-
ceptions to the rule-and the exceptions
have built up stereotyped defamation
on the subject-statistics plain and un-
deniable prove that a larger proportion
of ministers sons turn out well than
are to be found in any other genealog-
ical table. Let all the parsonages of
all denominations of Christians where
children are growing up take the con-
ISOLATION. See the star of hope pointing
down to that manger!
Notice also that our departed friend
was member of royal family. There
were no crowns or scepters or thrones
III that ancestral line, but the family
of the Fields, like the family of the
New York Primes, like the family of
the Princeton Alexanders, like a score
of families that / might mention. IL it
were best to mention them, were "the
children of the King" and had put on
them honors brighter than crowns and
welded influence longer and wider than
scepters. That family of Fields traces
an honorable lineage back 500 years to
Hubertus de la Field, coadjutor of Will
liam the Conqueror. Let us thank God
for such families, generation after gen.
GRAFTON on the side of that which is
right and good. Four sons of that coun-
try minister, known the world over for
extraordinary usefulness in their
spheres, legal, commercial, literary and
theological, and daughter, the mother
Of one Of the associate justices of the
supreme court. Such families counter
balance for good those families all
wrong from generation to generation
families that stand for wealth, uh-
righteously got and stingily kept or
wickedly squandered; families that
stand for fraud or impurity or malcv-
olence; family names that immediately
come to every mind, though through
sense of propriety they do not come to
the lip. The name of Field will survive
centuries and be synonym for reli-
gion, for great jurisprudence, for able
Christian journalism, as the names of
the Pharaohs and the Caesars stand for
cruelty and oppression and vice.
While all parentsc cannotaspire to have
such conspicuous households as the one
the name Of whose son we now ceIe-
brate, all parents may by fidelity in
prayer and holy example have their
sons and daughters become kings and
queens unto God, to reign forever and
ever, But the work has already been
done, and feouId golthrongh this coun.
try and fnd Q thousand households
which have by the grace of God and
blessing upon paternal and maternal
excellence become the royal families of
America. '
Let young men beware lest they by
their behavior blot such family records
with some misdeed. We can all think
Of households the names of which
meant everything honorable and con-
secrated for long while, but by she
deed of one son sacrificed, disgraced
and blasted, Look ONT how-vori ,ob.