Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1899-05-11
DIR. TALMAGTS SERMON.
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE BY THE NOTED
DIVINE.

MOST
Whose Life is Worthy Of Emulation.
TEXT: Know ye not that there is a
orince and a great man fallen this day In
Israelp'-II Samuel ILL.,, 80.
Here is plumed catafalque, followed by
King David and funeral Grafton which he
delivers at the tomb. Concerning Abner,
the great. David weeps out the text. More
appropriately than when originally ut
tered we may now utter this resoundtng
lamentation, "Know ye not that there is n
prince and great man fallen this day in
Israeli"
1t was thirty minutes after six, 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 states
man, the Christian. ascended. 1t was sun
down In the home on yonder Capitol hill,
Washington, as 1t was sundown 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 a minister's home in New England.
He knelt with father and mother at morn
ing and evening prayer, learned from ma
ternal 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
tojudioial bench and commercial circle and
national Legislature and Presidential chair,
and you would obliterate many OF the
grandest chapters of that history. 1t is no
small advantage to have started from
home where God Is honored and the SUBJ
ject of worlds emancipation from sin
and sorrow Is under constant discus
sion. The Ten Commandments, which
In nd MI nf all In M
Roman law, German law English
Jaw. American law-are the best foun-
dation upon which to build character, and
those which the boy, Stephen ]. Field, 80
often heard in the parsonage at Stock
bridge were his guidance when half CEN
tury after, as a gowned justice OF the su-
preme Court OF the United States, he un-
rolled his opinions. Bibles, hymn books,
catechisms, family prayers, atmosphere
sanctified, are good surroundings for boys
and girls to start from, and II our laxer
ideas OF religion and Sabbath days and
home training produce as splendid men
and women as the much derided Puritanic
Sabbath and Puritanic teachings have pro-
duced, 1t will be r matter OF congratulation
and thanksgiving.
yet seen emphasized that stephen J. Field
was a minister's son. Notwithstanding
that there are conspicuous exceptions to
the rule-and the exceptions have built up
stereotyped defamation on the subject
statistics plain and undeniable prove that
larger proportion Of ministers sons turn
out we'll 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 that manger!
Notice also that our departed friend was
member Of a royal family. There were
no crowns 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 score of families that might
mention, II it were best 70 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
Hubertus de 10 Field, coadjutor OF William
the Conqueror. Let us thank God for
such families, generation after gener-
tion on the side OF that which is right
and good. Four sons OF that coun-
try minister, known the world over for ex-
traordinary 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,
unrighteously got and stingiIy kept or
wickedly squandered; families that stand
for fraud or impurity or malevolence;
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
synonym for religion, for great jurispru-
dence, for 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 I could 90
through this country and find thousand
households which have by the grace of
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 long
while, but by the deed OF one son sacri-
feed, disgraced and blasted. Look out
how you rob your consecrated ancestry OF
the name they handed to you unsullied!
Better as trustee to that name add some
thing worthy. Do something to honor the
or city mansion or a 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.
It declares OF King Abijam, "He walked In
all the sins of his father which he had done
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
Eiah had DONE" We owe debt 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
30 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 it bright. I charge you. Keep 1t
suggestive Of something elevated in
character. Trample not underfoot that
which to your father and mother was
dearer than life itself. Defend their graves