Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1902-12-01
TALMAGE
SERMON
BY Rev.
FRANK DE WITT TALMACE. DID,.
Pastor Of Jefferson Park Presby-
terrain Church, Chicago


the text Proverbs xxx, II, THE eye
that mocketh at his father and despis-
eth to obey his mother the ravens of
the valley shall pick it out and the
young eagles shall eat it,
Horrible is the Solomonic word pic
Tture. The gibbet, the stenchful corpse,
the skeleton protruding through the
torn and notifying flesh, the feathered
lgormandizers banqueting upon the car
rion, the changing, rusty chains holding
nloft the putrefying mass - these are
the theme Of my text. 1t is warning
to all boys and girls, as well as to all
grown men and women, that filial con-
tempt Is never justifiable in Gods sight.
No matter what our parents may do or
say, we must always respect and honor
them, because they are our father and
mother. If we ever allow ourselves to
despise them, then we shall incur the
anger Of God, who by one of the Ten
Commandments explicitly enjoined that
parents be honored by their offspring
And with that command public opinion
Is fully in accord. The son who dis
honors his parents is despised in his
life, and his very memory is gibbeted
by public contumely after his death.
He is held up to public scOrn and deri-
sion, as were the ancient robbers and
state criminals, whose heads used to be
stuck upon long poles and for weeks
exposed to public view from the top of
the arch of London Temple Bar until at
last all the flesh disappeared and moth
Ing remained but the bleached skulls.
But though God denounces children
who despise their parents. no matter
how heinous the parental sins and
shortcomings may be. yet as | begin to
study my text in it's connection with
other passages of Scripture the more
1 find that many Of the most common
fillal sins can be traced back to paren-
tai sins. Some years ago, upon the
Holstein ranch in California. three lit
tie orioles were taken from a nest and
confined within n birdcage. No sooner
was this done than the mother bird APP
peared and tried to liberate her young.
Failing In this, she flew away and
brought to her incarcerated babies a
sprig of the deadly larkspur. In a few
minutes those three fedgelings with
foaming mouths lay dead in the bot
tom of the cage. If the mother bird
could not free her young, then she pre-
ferred to kill them How often, alas
have human parents seen their Off
spring in a captivity to sin to which
death would have been preferable, and
the saddest reflection they can have is
that this captivity is the result of the
moral poison they have themselves ad-
ministered. BY thoughtless mistakes
and culpable negligence they may have
inspired their children with a contempt
for themselves which has been the be-
ginning of an evil life, ending in spir-
1tual death.
shall try this morning to enumerate
@ome of the shortcomings and sins into
which neglectful and selfish and sinful
parents have fallen in their dealings
with their children. | would enumer-
ate those parental sins because the in
spired author who penned the words
Of my text is also the Solomon who
wrote that If consecrated, godly parents
would train up a child in the way he
should 60 when he is grown that ma
tured child would not only be loyal to
his earthly parents. but also to his
Heavenly Father.
Parental Partially.
All parents. in the first place, should
show their children that they have nc
parental favorites. They should prove
that all the children as individuals have
an equal share of a fathers and a
mothers love. They should convince
their boys and girls alike that no one
child occupies a larger area in the paren
tai heart cells than every other child, fol
when child begins to feel that the ia
ther or mother does not care for him as
much as the rest of the children thai
child Immediately begins to despise thai
parental Partially. Love feeds on love
And yet there are thousands upon thou
sands of homes in America in which
you would not have to visit more thar
two or three days before you could
while there, tell which was the favorit'
son or daughter. That child will per
haps be better dressed as old Jacot
aroused the jealousy of his other chill
dren by buying for his favorite boy, 10
seph, a coat of many colors. That Child
will have better room in the house
than the other children. He will have
more spending money; he will be al
lowed to do what the other children ar,
not allowed to do. On the other hand
the child which is not the parental ia
vorite will often be showed into tn,
background or sent away to the coun
try, as Jesse sent his youngest son, Da
vid, Off to tend the sheep. 1t is cas-.
enough for parents to say that the.
have no ia vorites but the words of tn
lip do not always correspond with tn
facts of the life. At nearly every fu
neral of little child which | have al
tended In my pastoral work hav
heard a statement like this made b.
the side of the white caSket: lit is to