Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1902-12-06
TALMAGE
SERMON
BY Rev.
FRANK DE WITT TALMAGE. 3D..
Pastor OF Jefferson Park Presby-
terian Church, Chicago

Chicago, Nov. 30.-In today's sermon
Rev. f. De Witt Talmage utters words
OF counsel to parents and children from
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 1t out and the
young eagles shall eat It,"
Horrible is the Solomonlc word pic
ture. The gibbet. the stenchful corpse,
the skeleton protruding through the
torn and mortifying flesh. the feathered
gormandlzers banqueting upon the car
rion, the changing. rusty chains holding
aloft 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 justifabe 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
IUOIUtI.
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 contunely 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 desplse their parents, no matter
how helnous the parental sins and
shortcomings may be, yet as | begin to
study my text In its connection with
other passages OF Scripture the more
/ find that many OF the most common
filial sins can be traced back to paren-
tai sins. Some years ago. upon the
Holsteln ranch In California, three lit
tie orioles were taken from nest and
confined within birdcage. No sooner
was this done than the mother bird ap-
peared and tried to llberate her young.
Failing in this, she few away and
brought to her incarcerated babies a
sprig Of the deadly larkspur. In few
minutes those three hedgeiings with
foamIng mouths lay dead in the bot
tom Of the cage. II the mother bird
could not free her young. then she pre-.
ferred to kill them. How often, alas,
have human parents seen their on
spring In q 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 adj
minstered. BY thOughtless mistakes
and culpable negligence they may have
inspired their children with contempt
for themselves which has been the be-
ginning Of an evil life, ending In spir-
itual 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 " consecrated. gOdly parents
would train up child in the way he
should 20. when he Is grown that ma
tured child would not only be loyal to
his earthly parents, but also to his
Heavenly Father.