The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-12-07

out wrong
 Good old Dr. Alexander of Princeton College once preached upon this text: Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not de. | part from it." He preached to prove that nearly all the sins that men and women practice can ultimately be traced back to wrong parental training or to the hypoe- risies of parents who have lived Tn the home a religion of sham After the ser mon was over some Of Dr. Alexandefs l friends said to him: Professor, 1t is ao- | surd for you to preach sermon like that. If what you say is true then you 1 yourself have been living the wrong kind 1 of Christian life or else you have not 1 trained your children as you should. have | 1 done. You know doctor, that your boy | Dick Is one of the worst boys In Prince 1 ton College He is as wild as wild can | l be-" "Oh," answered the good old doc | tor, ''you did not hear my text alright. | My text was. Train up child In the | way he should go and when he Is old
 Dick is not old yet. Just wait awhile and l the boy will come out all right Dh. 1 Alexander spoke the truth. Dick did | come out all right In a few years he
 not only gave his heart to God, but he | went to New York city and entered bus
 iness as a Christian layman and long | after his honored father had pillowed his | head in the dust Richard Alexander, the | wild Princeton student, welded l mighty influence for God and for heaven. | So. my friends, today, as Christian men 1 and women, we must realize that the | whole future destinies of our children are l largely dependent upon us. If we live | consecrated, godly lives and train up our children in the way they should go, they l will also become consecrated Christian | l men and women. and if we are hypocrites and do not train them as they ought to be trained, then our children will also turn out wrong. Bad parents have bad sons and daughters; good parents pro- duce good children. There Is hardly an exception to the rule
 The Effect of Example.
 Parental examples and training invaria- ply reproduce themselves in the lives of
 children There Is a beautiful story told
 of a noted king in the far east who was
 about to take a journey into a remote
 part of his kingdom. He therefore sent
 ahead of him a trusted minister to build
 for his royal master a suitable palace
 where the king could lodge In the far
 country. When the royal courier reached
 the remote part of that kingdom, he
 found a plague raging tlere and people
 were dying by thousands and tens of l thousands. So instead of taking the | rum lAlo iOydl dCaoHAS oAAN
 spending 1t for bricks and stones and
 mortar, the royal messenger spent it for 1 bread and medicine. With 1t he dug
 graves and buried the dead. With 1t he
 bought clothing to protect the living. l And when the king came and found what
 his messenger had done, instead of pun l ishing his minister, he commended him.
 He said "Oh faithful servant you have l builded for me a palace You builded 1t
 in the hearts of my people You have l builded it's white walls out of the tomb l stones which you have erected over the l graves of the dead. You have jeweled it
 with the tears you have wiped away. You 1 have made my palace echo with the
 sweetest of songs; for those songs are
 the echoing sobs which you have stilled." I So like the king of old, who sent his | messenger into the far country, God
 sends us forth as parents on a most im- 1 portant mission. By our examples and | self sacrificing love- we to build the | palace of purity in the hearts of our
 children What we do invariably decides
 how our children shall live and die; 1t
 decides their eternal welfare. The inf1u-
 ence of noble Christian parents upon the l lives of their children cannot be described | better by me in closing than by telling
 the history of my old home, the home of | my boyhood!
 My father and mother had a large | brood--we were seven. never knew any
 one of those seven children to have more
 indulgence than the others. Each had
 the full measure of a parents love. When
 troubles came to that home and many
 troubles did come we always found that father and mother had divine strength l given to them to bear these troubles. 1 Way back in tho dim past. long before
 was born, they had set up the family
 altar I was carried to that sacred altar .~ktw aAA kl
 fall asleep during the prayers. My fa-
 ther and mother were not bound together
 so much by ties of law as by unbreak- | able ties of love. The first question father | always asked when he entered the home 1 was, Where is your mother?' The first
 question mother asked when s.:e came
 home was. Where is your father?" They | were side by side at the marriage altar. | They were side by side in the Christian l training of their children. Hand in hand as partners they spread two tables for
 their children. The one was for the sa-
 cred communion of family worship; the | other was the dining table, where we
 children were taught to love one another. l Christ was asked to sit at both tables. l That parental influence in the home of my childhood was a blessed one. In my 1 college days I used to cherish the hope | that that influence might be continued in 1 1 my own home by the earthly presence 1 1 of my father and mother, who l hoped would pass the twilight of their lives by my own freside. But God willed 1t other l wise On August 5. 1895, the death angel i | came to summon one of that living twain l 1 On April F. 1909, the same messenger came and called the other. They have | passed into the glorious presence where l | duty well done receives 1t reward To me | Is left only the hallowed memory of their l wise and tender training. which will re- main with me an influence and an ex- l ample to the end of my life. By my l l own experience I commend to you, o 1 fathers and mothers. this duty Of par ental care and solicitude. May God help | | you to perform 1t 50 efficiently that when l you pass from earth into the glories of
 heaven your children may rise up to call | you blessed May God answer this prayer of an anxious father to keep us one and all from committing the parental sins which everywhere beset us and which 50 easily may destroy us and jeopardize the | eternal welfare of our loving trustful