Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1899-04-27
A GREAT MANS LIFE.
STEPHEN ]. FIELD THE SUBJECT OF
Or. TALMAGE'S SERMON.
His Religious Training Laid the
Foundation of His sterling Chnrnc-
tcr--Thc Great Divinc's Tribute to
Departed Friend.
Copyright. Louis Klopsch, 1891

Copyright, Louis klOpSCh, lS99.
WASHINGTON, April 23.-One Of the
most notable characters of our time is the
subject of Dr. Talmagcs DISCOURSE and
The lessons drawn are inspiring; text, II
samuel ill., IS, "know We not that there
j. prince and great man fallen this
day in Israeli"
Here is u plumed catafalquc, followed
by King David and funeral Grafton
which he delivers at the tomb. Concern
Ing Abner, the great, David wecps out the
text More appropriately than when
originally uttered we may now utter this
rcsounding lamentation, know ye not
shat there is prince and n great man
fallen this day in Israeli"
1t was 30 minutes after 6, the exact
hour of sunset of the Sabbath day, and
while the evening lights were being kim
died, that the soul of stephen j. Field
the lawyer the judge, the patriot, the
statesman, the Christian, assembled. 1t
was shutdown in tho home on yondcr Cap
itol hill, rs it was shutdown on all the sur
rounding hills, but in both cases the sun
set to be followed by II glorious sunrise
Hear the Easter anthems still lingering In
the air, 1.-The trumpet shall sound, and
the dead shall rise
Our departed friend came forth boy
from u ministers home in New England.
Ilc knclt with father and mother at morn
ing and evening prayer, learned from ma
tcrnal lips lessons of piety which lasted
him and controlled him amid all the varied
and exciting scenes of "a lifetime and help
ed him to die in peace an octogenaran.
Blot out from American history the names
OF those ministers sons who have done
honor to judicial bench and commercial
circle and national legislature and presi-
dental chair and you would obliteratc
many of the grandcst chapters of that his
TORY. 1t is no small advantage to have
started from n home where God is honorcd
and the subject of n worlds emancipation
from sin and sorrow is under constant dis
cussion. The Ten Commandments, which
are the foundation of all good law--Roman
law, German law, English law, American
law--are tho best foundation upon which
70 build character, and those which the
boy, stephen j. Field, so often heard in
,he parsonage at Stockbridgo were his
guidance when, a half century after, as a
gowned justice of the supreme court of
the United States, he unrolled his opin-
ions Bibles hymnbooks catechsms,
family prayers, atmosphere sanctifcd are
good surroundings for boys and girls to
start from, and II our laxCr ideas of reli
Eion and Sabbath days and home training
produce Us splendid men and women as
the much dcridcd Puritanic sabbath and
purtaniC teachings have produced it will
b. n matter of congratulation and thanks
giving.
A Minister'S Son.
Do not pass by the fact that / have not
yet seen emphasized that stephen J. Field
was minister's SON Notwithstanding
that there are conspicuous exceptions to
the rue--and the exceptions have built
CT Il ut hn cu1,
lcct--statistics plain and undcniablc prove
that a larger proportion of ministers sons
turn out well than are to be found in any
other genealogical table. Let all the par
sunages of all denominations of Christians
where children are growing up take the
consolation See the star of hope pointing
down to that manager!
Notice also that our departed friend was
member of a royal family. There were
no crowns or sccpters or thrones in that
ancestral line, but the family of the
Fields, like the family of the New York
Primes, like the family of the Princeton
Ale1anders, like a score of families that
might mention if it We're 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 800 years
to Huhcrtus de Ia Field, cOadjut of Will
liam the Conqueror. Let us thank God for
such families, generation after generation
on the side of that which ia right and
good -Four sons of that country minis
ter known the world over for extraordi-
nary usefulness in their spheres, legal,
commercial literary and theological, and
daughter, the mother of one of the aSso-
ciate justices of the supreme court such
hal,
families all wrong from generation to gen
eration-familes that stand for wealth,
unrighteous'y got and stingily kept or
wickedly squandcrcd; families that stand
for fraud or impurty or malcvolcnce;
family names thai Immediately come &c
every mind, though through sense of pro
Iricty they do not come to the lip. The
,nme of Field will survive centuries and
tie a synonym for rcli gion, for great juris
prudence, for able Christian journalism
"a the names Of the Pharaohs and the
Cesars stand for cruelty and oppression
and vice
While parents cannot aspire to have
such conspicuous households as the ont
the namc of whose son we now celebrate
al parents may by fidelity in prayer ant
holy example have their sons and daugh
tors become kings and queens unto God
t. reign forever and ever. But the worl
has already been done, and I could q
through this country and find thousant
households which have by the grace o
tod and blessing upon paternal and ma
tcrnal excellence become the royal familie
Of America.
Honor the Home.
Let young men beware lest they by thei
behavior blot such family rccorde will
tomc misdeed. We can all think of house
holds the names of which meant every
thing honorable and consccrated for n lon!
while, but by the deed of one sOr sacri
Gccd disgraced and blasted Look OH
how you rob your consecrated ancestry O
the name they handed to you unsullied
Better as trustee to that name add some
Thing worthy. Do something to honor tn
old homestead, whether n mountain cabil
On n city mansion or u country parsonage
Rev David Dudley Field, though 81 year
passed upward, is honored today by tn
Christian life the service the death of hi
son Stephen.
Among the most absorbing books Of tn
Bible is the book Of Kings, which agai
and again illustrates that though piety
not hereditary the style of parentage ha
much to do with the style Of descendan,
II declares Of King Abijam, "He wake
in all tho sins Of his father which he hn
done before him." and of King Azariaf
He did that which was right in the sigh
a. I ,l,,. l, l., ..