Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1900-03-30
.Your son wrote that {.

Ing Tor the son TO come home at night.
Ii is u o'clock. IL Is half past IL
o'clock. IL Is 1 o'clock. The son comes
through the hallway. The father says:
my son. what does all this mean?
gave you every opportunity. gave
you all the money you wanted. and
here I'm my old days l find that you
have become a spendthrift, a libertine
and sot." The son says: Now. IA
Their. what Is the use OF your talking
that way? You told me TO go IL, and
Just took your suggestion" And so
to strike the medium between severity
and too great leniency, to strike the
happy medium between the two and
to train our children for God and for
heaven. Is the anxiety OF every intelli.
gent parent.
Childish sInfulncss.
Another great solicitude is I'm the fact
that so early is developed childish sin
fulness. Morning glories put out their
bloom in the early part Of the day, but
as the hot sun comes on they close up.
While there are other flowers that
blaze their beauty along the Amazon
for n week at a time without closing.
yet the morning glory does its work as
certainly as Victoria regia. So there
are some children that just put forth
their bloom, and they close and they
are gone. There is something super
natural about them while they tarry,
and there Is an ethereal appearance
about them. There is a wonderful
depth to their eye, and they are gone.
They are too delicate a plant for this
world. The Heavenly Gardener sees
them. and he takes them in.
But for the most part the children
Shat live sometimes get cross and pick
up bad words in the street or are dis
posed to quarrel with brother or sister
and show that they are wicked. You
see them in the Sabbath school class.
They are so sunshiny and bright you
would think they were always so, but
the rlother looking over at them re-
members what an awful time she had
to get them ready. Time passes on.
They get considerably older, and the
son comes in from the street from a
pugilistic encounter bearing on his APP
pearance the marks OF defeat, or the
daughter practices some little decep-
says, 81 can't always be scolding and
fretting and finding fault, but this
must be stopped" So In many a house
hold there is the sign of sin, the sign
Of the truthfulness OF what the Bible
says when It declares. "They go astray
as soon as they be born, speaking
les
Some go to work and try to correct
all this. and the boy Is picked at and
picked at and picked Mt. That always
is ruinous- There is more help In one
good thunderstorm than In FIVE days OF
cold drizzle. Better the old fashioned
style of chastisement. IL that be peces-
sary. than the fretting and the scold-
ing which have destroyed so many.
There Is also cause Of great solicit
tu6e sometimes because our young peo-
pie are surrounded by SO many tempta-
tons. A castle may not be taken by a
straightforward siege. but suppose
there be Inside the castle an enemy,
and In the night he shoves back the
bolt and swings open the door. Our
young folks have foes without, and
they have foes within. Who does not
understand Il? Who is the man here
who is not aware of the fact that the
young people OF this day have tremen-
dous temptations?
Some man Will come to the young
people and try TO persuade them that
purity and honesty and uprlghtness are
sign OF weakness. Some man will
take dramatic attitude, and he will
talk TO the young man, and he will say:
you must break away from your
mothers apron strings: you must get
out OF that Puritanical straitjacket. 1t.
Is time you were your own master.
You are verdant; you are green; you
are unsophisticated. Come with me.
will show you the world III show
you life. Come with me. You need to
see the world. IL won't hurt you"
After awhile the young man says:
well, | can't afford TO be odd: can't
afford to be peculiar: can't afford to
sacrifice oil my friends. Ill just 20
and see for myself" Farewell to in
nocence, which. once gone, never fully
comes back. Do not he under the de-
fusion that because you repent OF sin
you get rid forever OF its CONSEQUENCES.
1 say farewell 20 innocence, which.
once gone, never fully comes backl
Traps For the Young.
Oh, how many traps set for the
young! Styles OF temptation just suit
ed TO them. Do you suppose that n
man who went clear TO the depths OF
dissipation went down In one great
plunge? Oh. no! At first II was a
fashionable hotel. Marble floor. No
unclean pictures behind the counter.
No drunken hiccough while they drink,
but the click OF cut glass to the elegant
sentiment. You ask that young man
now TO go into some low restaurant
and get drink, and he would say, do
you mean TO insult me?" But the
fashionable and the elegant hotel Is
not always close by. and now the
young man Is on the down grade Far
Their and farther down until he has
about struck the bottom OF the depths
or ruin. Now he Is in the low restau-
rant. The cards SO greasy you can
hardly tell who has the best hand.
Gambling for drinks. Shuttle away,
shuttle away. The landlord stands In
his shirt sleeves, with his hands on his
hips. waiting for an order to all up the
glasses.
The clock strikes 12-the tolling Of
the funeral bell OF a soul. The breath
OF eternal woe fiushes In that young
mans cheeks In the Jets OF the gas
light the fiery tongue OF the worm that
never dies. Two O'Clock In the morn
Ing, and now they are sound asleep In
their chairs Landlord comes around
and says: wake up, wake upI Time
to shut upr' "Whatv' says the young
man. "rime to shut upY' Push them
all out into the night air. Now they
are going home. Going homei Let the
wife crouch In the corner and the chill
dren hide under the bed. What was
the history Of that young man? He
began his designations In the barroom
or Fifth avenue hotel and completed
his damnation in the lowest grogshop.
Sometimes sin does not halt In that