The Penn's Grove record., 1899-04-28

TEXT: Know We not that there IL, q
prince ana q great man fallen this day In
lsraelf"-u Samuel ill.,, IS.
Here is a plumed catatalque. followed nv
hlng David and a funeral Grafton which he
uelvers at the tomb. Concerning Abner
ane great, David weeps out the text. More
appropriately than when originally ut.
teIeu we may now utter this r%esoundinq
laUehlhtion, Know ye not that there is n
prince and a great man fallen this dav in
Israeli" H'' u"J ia
IL was thirty minutes after six, the exact
hour OF sunset Of the Sabbath day. and
Whlie the evening lights were being kin.
aleo, that tho soul OF Stephen J. Field, the
aWyer the Judge, the patriot, the states
nan, tue christian, assembled. 1t was sun
down IN the home on yonder Capftol hill
Washington, as it was shutdown On nil The
surrounding hills, but In both cases the sun
SET TO be followed by q glorious sunrise.
near the Easter anthems still lingering in
the air, The trumpet shall sound, and the
dead shall rise"
Our departed friend came forth a bow
rom a minister's home In New England.
lie knelt with father and mother at morn.
ing and evening PRAYER; learned from mn.
terhai lips lessons Of piety which lasted
ul1 anu controlled him amid all the varied
ana exciting scenes of a lifetime and helped
MN 70 die IN peace IN octogenarIap. 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 Presidential chair.
and you would obliterate many Of tbe
srandest chapters of that history. 1t Is no
small advantage to have started from a
home where God is honored and the SUBJ
Iect OF q worlds emancipation from sin
ana sorrow is under constant discus
SION Inc Ten Commandments, which
are tie foundation of all good law
homan law, German law English
law, American law-are the best foun-
dation upon which to build character, and
those which tho boy, stephen ]. Field, so
often heard in the parsonage at StocK-
bridge were his guidance when a half CEN
fury alter, as a gowned justice of the Su-
preme Court of the United States. he un-
rolled his opinions. Bibles, hymn books,
cHteehisms, family prayers, atmosphere
sahctlned, are good surroundings for boys
and girls to start from, and II our laxer
ideas OF religion and Sabbath days and
home training produce rs splendid men
and women as the much derided Purltanic
sabbath and Puritanic teachings have pro.
dueed, it will be a matter of eongratulation
and thanksgiving.
Do not pass by the fact that I have not
yet seen emphasized that Stephen j. Field
was a minister's son. Notwithstanding
that there are conspicuous exceptions to
the rule-and the exceptions nave built up
Il stereotyped defamation on the subject
statistics plain and undeniable prove that
larger proportion Of ministers sons turn
out well than are to be found In any other
genealogical table. Let all the ~parsonages
OF all denominations of Christians where
children are growing up take the consola-
ton. See the star Of hope pointing down
to hat mangerl
Notice also that our departed friend was
a member of a royal family. There were
no crown or scepters 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 Alex
anders, like a score of families that / might
mention, II 1t were best to mention them,
were 1.-THE children OF the king" and had
put on them onors brighter than crowns
and Welded influence longer and wider
b scepters. That family OF Fields traces
an honorable lineage back 800 years to
Hubertus de la Field, coadlutor Of William
the ~Conqueror. Let us thank God for
such families, generation after gener-
ton on the side of that which is right
and good. Four sons OF that eoun-
try minister, known the world over for ex-
traordinary usefulness In their spheres,
legal, commercial, literary and theological,
and a daughter, the mother of one of the
associate justices of the Supreme Court.
cuCn lAlllllts tDuultl-Dulluc IOf ROOQ
those families all wrong from generation to
generation-iamilles that stand for wealth,
unrighteously got and stingily kept or
wiekedly s~quaudered; families that stand
for fraud or impurity or malevolenee;
family names that Immediately come to
every mind, though through sense OF pro-
priety they do not come to the lip. The
name OF Field will survive centuries and be
a synonym for religion, for great jurlspru-
d., fer able Christian journalism, as the
names of the Pharaohs and the Caesars
stand for cruelty and oppression and vice.
While parents cannot aspire to have
such conspicuous households as the one
the name Of whose son we now celebrate,
all parents may, by fidelity in prayer and
holy example have their sons and daugh-
tiers become kings and queens unto God,
to reign forever and ever. But the work
has already been done, and 1 could go
through this country and find a thousand
households which have by the grace Of
God and blessing upon paternal n ma
ternal 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 house.
holds the names of which meant everything
honorable and consecrated for a long
while, but by the deed of one son saeri-
feed, disgraced and blasted. Look out
how you rob your consecrated ancestry of
the name they handed to you unsulliedl
Better as trustee to that name add some
thing worthy. Do something to honor the
old homestead, whether a mountain cabin
or a city mansion or n country parsonage.
Rev. David Dudley Field, though thirty
two years passed upward, Is honored to-
day by the Christian life, the service, the
death Of his son stephen.
Among the most absorbing books Of the
Bible is the book of Kings, which-again
and again illustrates that, though piety Is
not hereditary. the style of parentage has
much to do with the style of descendant,
1t declares of King Abijam, "He walked In
all the sins of his father which he had lone
before him" and of King Azariah, "He did
that which was right in the sight of the
Lord, according to all that his father ANA
ziah had done" We Owe n Gebt to those
who have gone before In our line as GER
tainly as we have obligations to those who
subsequently appear In the household. Not
SO sacred is your old fathers walking staff,
which you keep IN his memory or the eye
glasses through which your mother studied
the Bible in her old age as the name they
bore, the name which you inherited.
Keep 1t bright, l charge you. Keep 1t
suggestive of something elevated In
character. Trample not underfoot that
which to your father and mother was
ueRfef tlnn lie it5ell. Deituu luelT graves
rs they defended your cradle. Family coat
of arms, escutcheons, enslgns armorial,
lion eouchant, or lion dormant, or lion
rampant, or lion combatant, may attract
attention, but better than all heraldic in
scription is a family name which means
from generation to generation faith in
God, self sacrifice, duty performed, a life
well lived and a death happily died and a
heaven gloriously wonl That was the
kind of name that Justice Field augmented
and adorned and perpetuated-a name
honorable at the close of the eighteenth
century, more honored now at the close OF
the nineteenth.
Notice also that our illustrious friend
was great in. reasonable and genial dis
sent. OF 1912 opinions he rendered. none
were more potent or memorable than those
rendered while he was in small minority
and sometimes In u minority of one. A
learned and distinguished lawyer of this
country said he would rather be author Of
Judge Fields dissenting opinions than to
be the author of the Constitution OF the
United States. The tendency is to go
with the multitude, to think what others
think, to say and do what others do. Some
times the majority are wrong, and 1t
resuires heroes to take the negative,
but to do that logically and IN good
hunror raouiras some elements of make IN