Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1876-10-28
ERDSTOWM JEFFERSON COUNTY WEST VIRGINIA. SATURDAY, OCT % 1876

Cdllle-Uuulll Jul INO VI my yCaiHu {
had strayed off; and 1 stopped in at old
Brother Harkey's on Mud Creek and
took dinner He's a deacon in the
Presbyterian church over thar. Well,
as true as | stand here, my brethren,
sister Harkey had her little gal a-stand-
in right before her, with toes just even
with the crack O the floor and her
hands was a-hangin' down by her side,
and her mouth turned up like a chicken
when it drinks, and she was putin
this question to her out O that cate
chism:
"'What are the benefits which in this
life do either accompany or flow from
justification, adoption, and sanctlhca-
tion ?"
"Now, the question itself was enough
TO break the child down. But when
she had to begin and say that question
all over (for that's the way it was III the
book) and then hitch the answer to IT.,
and which put all together made this:
'The benefits which in this life do either
accompany or flow from justification,
adoption and santification, are peace OF
conscience, joy in the Holy Ghost, in
crease of grace, and perseverance there
in to the end'-I thought the child was
the greatest wonder Id ever seen in all
my life. She tuck 1t through, too,
without balkin or missn the first
word. And she spoke so sweet and
she looked so much like little angel
that before l know'd it the tears was a
runnin' down my cheeks as big as
buckshot. I've seen the day when |
could have mauled and split thousan
rails quicker and easier than | could
larnt that thing and said it Oft like she
did.
"Now, my brethren, that child didn't
understand or know the meanin OF one
word O that. 1t put me up to all l
knew to take it in myself. But just let
that Presbyterian grow up, and every
word of that Catechism will come back
to her, and her character will stliten up
under it, and she'll have the backbone
OF the matter in her for life.
"Now, l can't put things into my
children that way. Nothin don't stay,
somehow. It's like driyin' nail into a
rotten log,
This last remark I never forgot.
For thirty years afterwards, as | would
stand at the blackboard trying to fix
rules and principles in the mind of a
dull pupil, this remark would come
back to me with its peculiar pertinency.
81 tell you, my brethren" he con-
tiuued, ''it our children had little more
Catechism, and the Presbyterians little
less, it would be better for both.
''Then we don't pray in our families,
like they do. l know their prayers are
mighty long, and they pray all over
creation; but, after ali, it's the right
way. It's better than prayin' too little.
"Now, my father and mother was
good Baptists, and raised their children
to be honest and industrious; but |
never heerd one Of them pray in my
life, and | was most n grown man before
ever prayed prayer myself, and it
was in this wise:
There was to be big meetin over
in Ebert county and | knowed pref
ty gal over there that | wanted to see.
SO | borrowed little Jersey wagn,
which was stylish thing in them days,
and went ever to her house and stayed
all night, and engaged her to ride to
meetin' with me next day, which was
Sunday.
1--WE went and had a glorious time
and l may as well say right here that
she was afterward my wife-but u
comm home | met with powerful ac-
cident, that I've never got over to this
day. AS / was a-comin down a steep
hill, some part of the gearin give way
and let me out Of the wagin on my
cretur's heels; and bein' young and
skeery and not much used to wheels,
she wrig gled and kicked and tore from
one side of the road to the other, till |
was pitched head foremost as much as
ten foot, into a deep gully, and its 4
miracle of mercy that my neck wasn't
broken on the spot.
'EXpectln TO, be killed every mint, L
thought ought to ask the Lord for
mercy. But, as l had never prayed in
all my life, l couldn't think of the first
thing to say, but the blessin' my father
used to ask before eatin' when we had
company, and which was this: Lord,
make us thankful for what we're about
| to receive
Now, my brethren, do you 'spose
any Presbyterian raised boy was ever
put to such a strait as that for a'prayer?
No. He would have prayed for HIM
self and gone off after the Jews and
heathens, whilst | was huntin up and
a,gittin' off that blessin.'