The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1902-12-05
TALMAGE
SERMON
By Rev.
FRANK DE WITT TALMAGE. DID,,
Pastor of jefferson Park Presby-
terrain Church, Chicago

Chicago, Nov. 30.-In todays sermon
Rev. +. De Witt Talmage utters words
of counsel to parents and children from
the text Proverbs xxx, II, 1.-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 Solomonfc word pic
ture The gibbet, the stenchful corpse,
the skeleton protruding through the
torn and Notifying fiesh the feathered
COMMANDERS banqueting upon the car
rion, the changing, rusty chains holding
aloft the putrefying mass - these are
the theme of my text. 1t is a warning
to all boys and girls, as well as to all
grown men and women that tilial con-
tempt is never justifable 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
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-
~, ii, md
state criminals, whose heads used to be
stuck upon lohg 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
l find that many of the most common
filial 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 birdcage. No sooner
was this done than the mother bird ap-
peared and tried to liberate her young.
Failing in this, she flew away and
brought to her incarcerated babies
sprig of the deadly larkspur. In 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-
val death.
shall try this morning to enumerate
some 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 go, 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 no
parental favOrites. They should prove
that all the children as individuals have
an equal share of a fathers and
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, for
when a child begins to feel that the ia
Their or mother does not care for him as
much as the rest of the children that
child Immediately begins to despise that
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 than
two or three days before you could,
while there, tell which was the favOrite
son or daughter. That child will per-
haps be better dressed, as old Jacob
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 a 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 are
not allowed to do. On the other hand,
the child which is not the parental IA
vorite will often be showed into the
background or sent away to the coun-
try, as Jesse sent his youngest son, Da-
vid, off to tend the sheep. 1t is easy
enough for parents to say that they
have no favorites, but the words of the
lip do not always correspond with the
facts of the life. At nearly. every fu-
neral of little child which have at
tended in my pastoral work have
heard a statement like this made by
the side of the white casket: 1T is too
bad the little one was taken. She was
her fathers or mothers favorite." Now
before God today declare that no par
ent has a right to have favorite child
no favorite unless that child is a
born idiot or an invalid or one who
should be cared for and guarded the
more carefully because Of his or her
helplessness. The fraternal hatred ex-
listing between Esau and Jacob can be
directly attributed to Isaac's favoritism
for his eldest son and Rebekah's favor
ltism for her younger boy. And many
and many a home is broken up today
hepause fathers and mothers will per-