The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-12-13

medlately ceare, Whyg Because Christ mas opportunities of future family recon citations may bc very few They may never come again, We are intensely shocked at the sudden departures of our great men and women. When Mrs. Emma Bocth-Tucker of the Salvation Army was killed on October 29 in rail- road accident the news was telegraphed from the Atlantic to the Pacific We commented upon the beautiful coffin plate which we saw and read thus: Born June 8. 1860, Consul Emma Booth-Tucker; Promoted to Glory October 2s, 1903." We were intensely shocked when King Hum bert was shot and when President Carnot was assassinated with a knife thrust. But why should we be so shocked at the sud- den death of this man or that, as with the tremendous emigration of vast host each year from earth into the realm be- yond the grave? This is not a p,atitude, a purposeless saying. It is a statement which ought to be pregnant with the most tremendous import to us all. Can any here be sure that before another Christmas rolls around the death angels wing will not have futtered over our 1 beds?
 Oh. my friends, if we are eevr going to have Christmas reconeiliations we had better have them now Human life at the longest is short When children havc grown and scattered how soon they die. A family may exist intact for ten, twenty, thirty years, but after the death angel calls one child he is very apt to come back soon after another and another until all are gone. When the family plot Is once selected and a couple of graves dug therein the hearse gets into the habit of travelling in the same direction and the black horses to stopping at the same gate. Then the sad truth is that when death T 411... mountains high upon the casket, brothers may weep over the dead brother. the hands may be pressed and the lips pressed and the forhead stroked. but the dead will hear not one word He will not lift one eyeld. He will not smile one look of forgiveness back to those who want to be forgiven. Oh, regrets. regretsl How often have we wept our regrets over the coffin lidsl How often that word might have been chseled an epitaph upon the tomb stone of the dead Regrets, bitter heart rending. but useless regretsl Regrets, burning regrets in reference to our kth and kin who are gone.
 A Blunt Question.
 Family dissensons should cease. Dare any one. old or young, gainsay this n- manent truth? But if this warning comes with mighty force to brothers and sisters
  thers and mothers who are angry or in- different with their children, Many peo- pie are apt to judge the children harshly when domestic troubles arise between parents and their offspring. But as men and women grow older and have children of their own they are more willing to blame the parent for the arrangements than they are to blame the child. Have you, parents, ever tried to win back the affections of your children? Did you ever l try to recall that cruel remark you once | made to your obstinate boy? That remark l cut into his heart as a surgeons knife 1 buries itself in the flesh quivering upon l the operating table. Have you, o parent. since that second marriage, which so l trampled upon the love of your children, | gone regularly to visit your children. as l you used to do before their mothers 1 death? Do you send them the warm, cor | dial invitations to come home and insist 1 that they come with their families? Do l you, the parents, try to instill into your l children the thought that their father and 1 their mother are absolutely dependent for happiness upon their boys and girls af- l factions?
 | Parents. let me ask you one blunt ques tion. Supposing your children have done wrong-and in all probability they have who ought to forgive first? Who ought | to be continually forgiving until the old not the first forgiver the chief forgiver. l be you. O father, mother you who l have been worshiping at Christ's feet for