The Belding banner-news. (Belding, Mich.) 1918-1973, 1920-12-29
WHAT WOULD 4
FATHER GIVE
FOR HIS SONS
READER REQUESTS PUBLICA-
TON OF THE FOLLOWING
SPLENDID ARTICLE

My father was close to the presi-
dent as an official in large railway
company. His position compelled
him to attend to many important
affairs during the absence Of his chief
His Office adjoined the presidents
Office at the end of the long hall.
The president had been in Europe
many weeks, and my father had
worked long hours each day. One
might when it was almost time to go
home i slipped into fathers Office.
He was in the presidents room work
ing over his papers, and did not
hear me enter. / kept quiet, thinking
Il would surprise him. But he did
not come out. The rooms seemed
very still. The outer Offices had
emptied at five o'clock. 1t was get
ting dark, but the city lights stream
ed in through the windows. After a
while / peered through the crack of
the door; father was standing at the
window looking down upon the city
far below him. / was about to run
and grab him, when something in his
attitude arrested my attention. |
stood as still as he, watching him.
After a while he removed his hat and
dropped it on a chair beside him;
then he lifted his face to the stars
which were coming out in the heav-
ems. 1t gave me a strange feeling,
as if | were witnessing a silent trag-
edy. He stood that way long time
and to me, watching, the whole world
seemed to be revolving around him.
/ held my breath. Then he knelt by
the large office chair and put his face
in his hands and began to pray very
simply:
"My Father, | want to talk to you
awhile before / go home to the little
mother who is waiting and the boys
who, ! hope, are with her. 1t is
about the boys that / need advice and
wisdom. They are getting away
from us and the wholesome habits
we have formed. You now all the
struggles and sins and mistakes of
my own life. You know what they
had to pay for them, but when
found you / found life with its Won
derful blessings. i have hidden moth
lence of anger l had to overcome.
You know what an appetite burned
within me. You know what passions
tried to drive me. You turn the pag-
es of my life like the pages of a
book-not one thing is hidden from
you, and yet you are my friend. And
you know the little woman with the
heart of an angel who has given her
love to me, and all that she has been
to me through the passing years.
And now / come to you with our
great Joy and our great sorrow-the
children. We love them, think some
times even as you have loved us.
Our blood runs in their veins. They
must be our happiness or our despair
In them we live or die. For them
we pray and toll and for them we
would make any sacrifice and suffer
any pain. And we would suffer with
great joy because we love them
with great love. Now, Father, this
is the problem which | bring to you
for the little mother and myself.
What is it we must do to lead the
boys back and start them on the
Kings highway
What price must we pay for this
priceless privilege Of being a father
and mother? What sacrifices must
we make in order to lead them close
to you so that they may learn to
love you? What ransom must we
deliver to the world to prove the
great love we have for them? Are
many comforts spelling the fneness
of their natures? Then, Father,
take from US all that we have and
keep us very poor.
eff pride is marring them, then, o
Father, make US humble in your own
way. Maybe they have not had sor-
row enough to make them see the
/ Shining Light of the way of life;
then give them the sorrow necessary
to make them see. Maybe they must
learn the strength which comes from
the tragic battle for bread. Then, o
Father of mine, give them the bat
! tie!
Maybe they have been sheltered
too much. Perhaps there may have
! to be sickness or death in their
training school for life. They are
on the wrong highway. The end
cannot bring the glory of love which
we find in serving you. They must
be brought back at any cost-not as
punishment, but as a blessing. |
must have neglected them some
where along the way. Except what
they must pay themselves, let me
pay the price, whatever it may be,
for my neglect. If the cost must be
sickness or accident, let me bear it
to win them to you. If it must be
the shock of death, let me bear that
too. They would have no compass
of life without the little mother to
love them.
"And death, why should / fear
death? Are you not within it and
around it and beyond it to walk with
me all the way? Did not Jesus lay
down his life for his friends and his
enemies? And shall i not lay down
my life gladly, too, for my own
heart heart / love YOU you. You su1 know now" that I
love you. If necessary grant to me
this privilege, my Father, to lay
down my life for my sons. To give
my life is such little thing for me