Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1903-12-11
TALMAGE
SERMON
By Rev.
FRANK DE WITT TALMAcE. DID,.
OPassor OF Jefferson Park Prcsby-
terrain Church. Chicago


ing of family differences and the put
ting aside forever OF all discussions, in
accordance with the spirit and teach
ings OF the sacred season. Tie text is
Luke Il, IA. ION earth peace, good will
toward men,"
Christmas day has the Manager for
its gem, with the home for a setting.
From time immemorial the commemo-
ration of the birth of Christ has had its
true and real celebration not so much
in public festivity and church cere-
monial as In the family gathering
around the domestic fireside. Other
customs may change, new movements
may transform our social life, but the
Christmas family gathering maintains
its hold ON society. The other day a
convict was liberated from Sing Sing
penitentiary. He had been imprisoned
there for nearly thirty years. He was
sixty-four years. He went in a strong
limbed young man of thirty-dve. Up 10
1903 he had never ridden on an electric
car; he had never seen the wonderful
development of the telephone; he had
never seen an automobile or the mar
velous development of doing business
through the typewriter. He said that
he was coming into n strange and q
new world - not the world he left
but another he had never seen. But
though many customs may change
within a quarter of century the Gus
toms OF Christmas day neither change
in a generation or a century. Christ
mas day always has been and we hope
always will be a family day. 1t is
well that Mt least once year the chill
dren and the grandchildren, the broth
ers and the sisters and the nephews and
the nieces, as well as the fathers and
mothers and grandparents, should be
gathered within the four walls of the
old homestead. and it is appropriate
that the season for such reunions should
be that at which we celebrate the ad-
vent of our Lord.
BLOOD Thicker Than Water.
But though God "setteth the solitary
in families" though on Christmas day,
above all other days. he would have
e worship him In communion with our
kith and kin. though we should delight
TO prove that blood is thicker than wa
ter. yet the startling fact remains I'M
controverted that the grinning skeleton,
Which rattles its bones and clatters its
tcoih almost every Christmas eve in
ALMOST every family closet is the hid
eous skeleton of domestic strife. BY
this statement we do not mean that the
father ana mother and the little chill
dren living within the four walls of a
house are necessarily unhappy or that
most homes IRE not peaceful and loving.
We do mean, however that the fam
lily name, taken in it's larger relation,
IL not always loving and harmonious
name. We do mean by this statement
that after the father and mother have
been carried out to their last resting
place. to sleep the sleep of death under
coverlid of snow, arrangements often
arise between the married children.
We do mean by this statement that
many and many home mas been split
from top 10 bottom on account of the
second marriage of n father or n moth
or. We do mean that today all over
the United States brothers can be
found Mt variance with brothers. sisters
with sisters and cousins with cousins.
This nation is struck through and
through with family strife. The An
palachian mountains. where Kentucky
Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia
meet. have aptly been called "the land
or the feud." There families have bat.
tied with each other for generations.
There the McCoys and the Hatfields
have we'll nigh exterminated each 9th
or. There the Howards and the Turn.
ers have fought each other TO the death.
Ihere the wounded John Philipotts
shot dead the four GrifIins, and he him
self was found unconscious among his
slain. But though the Appalachians
can be called ''the land of the feud.~
the whole United States can truthfully
be termed "the land of family strife"
IL Were to enter your family homes
ana learn the inner secrets of those
MONIES In all probability there would
be found not one family which among
It's larger connections Is not cursed
with internal strife.
A Family Day.
Christmas day is essentially family
day. Would IL not be possible In the
weeks before its dawn for you TO ar
range your family differences so that
on that day the old quarrel may be set
tied and all the hard thoughts and hard
words ii has engendered may be for
given and forgotten? would suggest
10 You today some reasons why such
reconciliation may be and should he
effected. l would try. in the name or
Jesus Christ, to have over the manager
prother clasp hands with brother, sis
Ter with sister, parent with child and
child with parent I would try to do
this because when the Christmas bells
are ringing their carol no man. no wo-
man. can so truly honor the newborn
child called the Christ as by doing his
or her part to fulfill the angel message
OK Peace on earth and good will to-
ward men,"
Family dissensions should cease. and
immediately cease. Why? They have
nearly all-aye, practically aIl-been
caused by faults committed on both
sides They have been caused by the
pot calling the kettle black. the ket-
lie retaiiating by calling the Dot black.
and at the same time both are SO
blinded by the hot fires of domestic
dissensions that they cannot see that
each is black. 1t may not be clear who
started the family trouble. 1t is enough
to show that il both parties had not
erred there would not have been con-
tinued domestic disturbance.
Father and Son.
Take, for illustration, the trouble be-
tween father and his son. Every lit
tie while we hear of the son of some
prominent man being at variance with
bis father. An inkling of the trouble
may get into the newspaper or be sos-
siped about the neighborhood. Some
OF US side with the parent. We say:
NO matter what the father may have
done, the son has no right TO turn his
back upon his sire. He has no right to
despise the parent who cared for him
when he was little child and who ed
ucated him and started him out as a
young man into the world" On the other