The semi-weekly messenger., 1900-10-26

BEL Now you expect to see him over
thrown amid all theseIchanged cfrcum-
stances. Oh, no. Daniel started right,
and he keeps on right When l find
what Daniel is in Jerusalem, u am not
surprised to find what he is in Baby
lon / wish I could write upon all
parents hearts the fact that early i'm
pressions are well nigh ineffaceable.
When 1 see Joseph, a pious LAD in the
house Of his father, Jacob, / am not
surprised to see him acting so nobly
down in Egypt. When 1 find Samuel,
a pious lad, in the houSafof his mother,
Hannah, / am not surprised that he
gives terrible shifting to idolary as
soon as he comes tos manhood David
planned the temple of Jerusalem ana
gathered the materials for its building,
but Solomon, the son, came and put up
the structure, and that goes In all ages.
The father plans the character of the
child and its destiny for time and
| eternity, then the son completes the
structure. You might as well put down
| a foundation ten feet by five and ex-
pect to rear on it a great cathedral as
| to put down a contracted character in
a child's soul and yet rear upon II Some
/ thing extensively grand and extensive
| ly useful.
ENCOURAGEMENT FOR PARENTS.
| Let me say to those Christian pa
rents who are doing their best in the
| education of their children: Take good
| heart; your sons this morning may be
| far away from you and in distant
| city, but God, to whom you dedicated
| them, will look after them. The God
| of Daniel will take care of them far
| away in Babylon Train up child
| in the way he should go, and when
he is old he will not depart from it.
| He may wander away for awhile and
fall into sin and break your heart, but
before he is done with this life, you
| having commended him to God. he will
come back agan, for 1 put the en-
phasis in the right place and on the
| word 'fold' when 1 repeat that passage
| and say, Train up a child in the way
he should go, and when he is old he
| will not depart from it, May you all
have the glorious satisfaction of seeing
| your children walk in paths of right
eousness and peace! One with them on
earth may you be one with them in
heaven!
But I learn also from this subject the
beauty of Christian sobriety. The
meat and the wine that were to come
to Daniels table were TO come from the
kings table. Well, Daniel had no right
| to take that food. The king was
heather and, like all the heathen, was
accustomed to ask blessing before he
partook of food, and in that blessing
they always dedicated the food to the
gods. so that if Daniel had taken this
food he would have broken the law
which forbade the taking of food dedi-
Gated to idols. He chose pulse. 1t was
miracle that he did not dwindle away.
There is nothing in pulse, such a poor
herb, to make a man ruddy and health
full. Some people talk as though that
were kind of diet which would make
a man. swathy and competent to do the
duties of this life. That is not the les
son at all. But for a positive miracle
4 T<~ I'll,
when God for his self denial puts upon
. him this benediction he puts benedic-
tion upon all Christion sobriety. I
J would not have you class your preacher
} among those who would put unneces-
I Sary restraints upon lawful appetiteS.
: There are those in this day who dispute
the grant which God gave to man for
animal food, and they make a religion
: of their hunger as the Pharisees eX-
pected heaven for their fasting. Daniel
did not always live on pulse. He was
not Grahamite; he was not a vegeta-
rian. He went through that self denial
because the food offered him was idol
atrous food. When I see God filling the
earth with all varieties of food, I have
not much confidence in the teaching
5 of those who would put us on severe
regime. There are parents who, with
} a wrong theory in this respect, deny
t their children all harmless luXurieS and
f out to boarding schools where their
S intellects are cultured to the diadvant-
S age of their starved bodies, so that
from many a boarding school a class
of 20 will graduate, 10 of them ghosts
/ Now, when 1 see the three angels eat
l ing the calf which Abraham slew and
r when / find Christ eating broiled fish
S even after his resurrection / come tC
0 the conclusion that the theories of the
e vegetarian are not from religious
t standpoint well founded.
e TEMPTATION TO DISSIPATION.
But, oh, how many temptations tc
} dissipation! With so many things tC
{ tempt the appetite, how many temp
}. tations to gluttonyi With so many
Il sparkling beverages, how much temp
: tation to drunkenness! Could I bring
!. before you this morning the mother:
:. and the wives and the sisters who have
; wept at the graves of the inebriate
y your soul would be overpowered will
n the spectacle. Could I show you the
: manly form robbed of their beauty thu
: eve fiashings quenched in the wine cup
e the ruddy cheek from which rum ha.
IL wormed the rose, your souls would re
}. coil with horror, and you would riS,
o up and cry, "Begone, thou dream o
IL helli"
Charles Lamb, who made all th
> world laugh at his humor and thel
: his fate, who outwitted everybody ant
was at last outwitted of his own ap
u petites, wrote thus: 1.-The waters hav,
: gone over me; but out Of the depths
: could / be heard, I would cry out to al
those who have set foot in the peril
Gus food. Could the youth to whom
the flavor of the first wine is deliciou
= as the opening scenes of his life, or tn
$ entering upon some newly discovers
: paradise-could he look into my desola
n tion and be made to understand what
IS dreary thing it is when a man sha
|. feel himself going down precipic
t with open eyes and a passive will;
e see his destruction and have no powe
J, to stop it. yet feel it all the way ema
k mating from himself: to see all godli
f ness empty out Of him. and yet nc
a | able to forget the time when it wa
: otherwise; to bear about the piteou
y spectacle of his own ruin-could he Sc
n | my feverish eye, feveriSh with Las
d nights drinking and feverishly lookin
/ fnr Of OF I'll llxy-