Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1902-12-04
TALMAGE
SERMON
By Rev.
FRANK DE WITT TALMAGE. DID,,
Pastor of Jefferson Park Presby-
terrain Church, Chicago


Rev. r. 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 desp.s-
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 notifying flesh the feathered
gormandizers 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, rs well as to all
! grown men and women. that filial 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. II we ever allow ourselves to
despise them, then we shall incur the
anger Of God. who by one of the Ten
Commandments explicitly enjolned 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 desplsed 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 CT
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 heDous the parental sins and
shortcomings may be, yet rs begin to
study my text in its connection with
other passages of Scripture the more
I 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 nest and
confined within a birdcage. No sooner
was this done than the mother bird ap-
peared and tried to lberate her young.
Failing in this, she flew away and
brought to her incarceratcd babies n
sprig Of the deadly larkspur. In few
minutes those three 1edgelings 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 adj
ministered. 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 neClectful 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 20, 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 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, 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 despisc that
parental partially. Love feeds on love.
And yet there are thousa nds 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, Jo-
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
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 statement like this made by
khe 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 right to have favorite child
no favorite unless that child is q
born idiot or an invalid or one who
should be cared for and guarded the
more carefully because Of his or her