The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1906-05-04
SERMON BY REV. H.W. SLOUGH
Too Many Young Boys and Girls Rails
ed on the Painless System; Par
enth0od and Home.
From Saturdays Daily.

guardian of child could be the same
after an address of such tremendous in
tensity and interest.
1--WE saw our home as only too many
of them are" as one person remarked
after the sermon. The truth was low
ngly but very plainly pressed home to
householders. 1t is probable that no
one in that packed house had ever had
the subject of "Parenthood and the
Home" so plainly and powerfully pre-
scented to them. Riddell may have phll-
osophized and apostrophized on that
theme i'm your hearing. You may have
heard other ministers, evangelists or lee
turers speak to the same theme. But it
is not likely that you ever had 1T so Wv
idly or variously, so devoutly or dra-
matically, so truthfully or trenchantly
presented to your consideration as it
was last night.
Dr. Slough believes in blowing deep;
in thoroughly subsoiing the ground
where a great harvest is expected. He
laid bare the roots last night of civic
unrighteousness, of domestic tragedies
ligious apathy. He went to the source
of social and individual evil in the home
@,,,. Lob hn lItrht md Won
make the church victorious and the
state secure. He said in part
There is no more pathetic story in
all literature than that of David weep
ing over his prodigal boy, Absalom,
whose prodigality had led him to lift
his hand in rebellion against his own
fathers government, and whose untime-
ly end in the midst of battle brought
grief to his father more keenly and bit
terly than if Absalom had overthrow
his power.
"The trembling question of the cou-
rier, rs the young man Absalom safe 2"
has been the question on the lips of
every true parent since. is my boy
safe? VIII he be safe when he crosses
the threshold of home and out from
under the immediate care of father and
mother begins the great battle of life?"
I'VE reply that he will not be safe
unless he has a good heredity. We for
get sometimes that obligations to child
rem begin long before they are born
back when the foundations of charac
ters in youths and maidens are laid
when the much-ridiculed courtship be-
gins. If one could choose his : own
grandfather, as was once suggested, one
might determine more accurately the
course of ones future life.
THE young man will not be safe UNI
less he has right parental authority
Childhood must be disciplined The will
must be- trained. The fundamental of
all life, whether it is governmental, So
cial or religious, is obedience. Religion
is simply obedience to God. One great
difficulty these days to get men to obey
God lies in the fact that they have
never been taught to obey their parents.
Too many children are brought up to-
day on the painless system. Prayer and
hickory was the recipe of dear old
fashioned mother once when asked how
she brought up her excellent family of
boys
He pictured the mother getting the
children and herself ready for church
and Sunday school on the Sabbath. The
father will have on his old clothes, and
a pair of old carpet slippers, and an
old ill-smelling corn-cob pipe in his
mouth, and with feet on table and the
Sunday paper spread out before him
will prepare to spend the day at home.
Papa" pipes little John, "are you
not coming with u.s."
mo, no. Papa is busy. Run along
now with your mother"
Will that boy go with his mother?
Oh, yes, for while But that father
is his hero. He is bigger than the presi-
dent in the eyes of that boy. Johnny
wants to be like him. 1t won't be long
before the mother will say: "John, come,
get ready for church." And John will
answer: II am not going today; | am
busy Another man in that house will
have his old clothes on, and the carpet
slippers, and the feet on the table, and
a corn cob pipe in his mou---, and Sun
day paper spread out before him. And
when John comes home drunk at 3 a.
m, and when John is overheard using
profanity and unclean language and
when John spends his time and his mon
ey where he mas found other heroes and
heroines, along the path on which his
own father started him, old John
mourns over the degeneracy of the pres
|ent generation and wonders why he
should be cursed with such a shiftless