Second: _Example_, suggested by the expression, "He will command his
children and his household after him."
In order that one may rightly command he must himself be controlled or
be able to obey an authority higher than his own. It is absolutely
impossible for one to be the father he ought to be and not be a
Christian, or to be worthy of the name of mother and not yield
allegiance to Jesus Christ. If we are to set before those about us a
right example, we cannot begin too soon. Your children are a
reproduction of yourself, weakness in them is weakness in yourself,
strength in them is but the reproduction of your own virtue.
A convention of mothers met some years ago in the city of Cincinnati
and was discussing the question as to when one ought properly to begin
to train the child for Christ. One mother said, "I begin at six";
another suggested seven as the proper age; another said, "I begin when
my child takes his first step, and thus point him to Christ, or when he
speaks his first word I teach him the name of Jesus." Finally an old
saint arose and said, "You are all of you wrong; the time to begin to
train the child is the generation before the child is born," and this
we all know to be true.
But the responsibility does not rest simply upon mothers; fathers
cannot ignore their God-given position. Judge Alton B. Parker and his
favorite grandson, Alton Parker Hall, five years old, narrowly escaped
death by drowning in the Hudson River. For half an hour the two played
in the water. Then Judge Parker took the boy for a swim into deep
water. Placing the boy on his back, he swam around for awhile, and
then, deciding to float, turned over, seating the boy astride his
chest. In this manner the judge floated a distance from the wharf
before noticing it. Then he attempted to turn over again, intending to
swim nearer the shore. In the effort to transfer the boy to his back
the little fellow became frightened and tightly clasped the judge about
the neck. Judge Parker called to the boy to let go his hold, but the
youth only held on the tighter, and, frightened at the evident distress
of the judge, began to whimper. In a few moments the grasp of the boy
became so tight that Judge Parker could not breathe. He tried to shake
the boy loose, and then attempted to break his grasp. The boy held on
with the desperation of death, however, and every effort of the judge
only plunged them both beneath the choking waves. With his last few
remaining breaths, Judge Parker gave up the struggle and shouted for
assistance. The mistake that the distinguished man made was that he
went too far from shore with the boy. There are too many men to-day
who are doing the same thing. They are going out too far in social
life, they are too lax in the question of amusements, they are too
thoughtless on the subject of dissipation. Some day they will stop,
themselves recovering, but their boys will be gone.
Example counts for everything in a home. It there is any blessing in
my own life or others, if there has been any helpfulness in my ministry
to others, I owe it all to my mother, who lived before me a consistent
Christian life and died giving me her blessing; and to my father, who
with his arms about me one day said, "My son, if you go wrong it will
kill me." I was at one time under the influence of a boy older than
myself and cursed with too much money. I had taken my first
questionable step at least, and was on my way one night to a place
which was at least questionable if not sinful. I had turned the street
corner and ahead of me was the very gate to hell. Suddenly, as I
turned, the face of my father came before me and his words rang in my
very soul. If my father had been anything but a consistent Christian
man I myself, I am sure, would have been far from the pulpit, and might
have been in the lost world. There are those who seem to think that
the height of one's ambition is to amass a fortune, to build a palace
or to acquire a social position. My friend, George R. Stuart, says you
may build your palaces, amass your fortunes, provide for the
satisfaction of every desire, but as you sit amid these luxurious
surroundings waiting for the staggering steps of a son, or as you think
of a wayward daughter, all this will be as nothing, for there is
nothing that can give happiness to the parents of Godless, wayward
children. Some one has said, "Every drunkard, every gambler, every
lost woman once sat in a mother's lap, and the downfall of the most of
them may be traced to some defect in home life."
The real purpose of every home is to shape character for time and
eternity. The home may be one of poverty, the cross of self-sacrifice
may be required, suffering may sometimes be necessary, but wherever a
home fulfills this purpose it is overflowing with joy. One of my
friends has drawn the following picture which he says is fanciful, but
which I think is absolutely true to life:
Back in the country there is a boy who wants to go to a college and get
an education. They call him a book-worm. Wherever they find him--in
the barn or in the house--he is reading a book. "What a pity it is,"
they say, "that Ed cannot get an education!" His father, work as hard
as he will, can no more than support the family by the products of the
farm. One night Ed has retired to his room and there is a family
conference about him. The sisters say, "Father, I wish you would send
Ed to college; if you will we will work harder than we ever did, and we
will make our old dresses do." The mother says, "Yes, I will get along
without any hired help; although I am not as strong as I used to be, I
think I can get along without any hired help." The father says, "Well,
I think by husking corn nights in the barn I can get along without any
assistance." Sugar is banished from the table, butter is banished from
the plate. That family is put down on rigid, yea, suffering, economy
that the boy may go to college. Time passes on. Commencement day has
come and the professors walk in on the stage in their long gowns and
their classic but absurd hats. The interest of the occasion is passing
on, and after a while it comes to a climax of interest as the
valedictorian is introduced. Ed has studied so hard and worked so well
that he has had the honor conferred upon him. There are rounds of
applause, sometimes breaking into vociferation. It is a great day for
Ed. But away back in the galleries are his sisters in their old plain
hats and faded clothes, and the old-fashioned father and mother; dear
me, she has not had a new hat for six years; he has not had a new coat
for a longer time. They rise and look over on the platform, then they
laugh and they cry, and as they sit down, their faces grow pale, and
then are very flushed. Ed gets the garlands and the old-fashioned
group in the gallery have their full share of the triumph. They have
made that scene possible, and in the day that God shall more fully
reward self-sacrifice made for others, he will give grand and glorious
recognition. "As his part is that goeth down to battle, so shall his
part be that tarrieth by the stuff."
This experience describes a home in the truest sense of the word better
than all the palaces the world has ever known where love is lacking and
the spirit of God is gone.