And Judas Iscariot | Page 9

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