The southern sentinel. (Winnfield, La.) 1883-1910, 1886-05-07

or are you going to have your life the
gulf in which that tide of blessing
shall drop out Of sight forever! You
are the trustees Of piety in that ancestral
line, and are you going to augment or
souander that solemn trust fund? Are you
going to disinherit your sons and daugh.
ters of the heirloom which your parents
left you? All! that can not be possible,
that can not be possible that you are going
to take such position as that. You are
very careful about the life assurances, and
careful about the deeds, and careful about
the mortgages, and careful about the title
of your property, because when you step
of the stage you want your children to
get II all. Are you making no provision
that they shall get grandfather and grand
mothers religion: Oh. what last will
and testament you are making, my broth.
or!
In the name Of God. amen. ], being of
sound mind, make this my last will and ties.
lament. I bequ cath to my children all the
money ever made and all the houses
own; but disinherit them, I rob them of the
ancestral grace and the Christian influence
that inherited. have squandered that on
my own woridliness. Share and share alike
lasting outrage. Signed, sealed and de,iv-
cred In the presence of God, and men, and
angels, and devils, and all the generations
of earth, and heaven. and hell. March, 1886
O,ye highly-favored ancestry, wake up
this morning to a sense of your opportuni.
ty and and your responsibility. think
there must be an old cradle or fragment
of cradle somewhere that could tell .
story of midnight supplication in your be-
half. Where is the old rocking chair in
which you were sung to sleep with the
holy nursery rhyme: Where is the old
clock that licked away the moments of
that sickness on that awful night when
there were but three Of you awake-you
and God and mother! Is there not an old
staff in some closetl Is there not an old
family Bible on some shelf that seems to
Address you. saying:
"My son, my daughter, how can you re.
ject that God who so kindly dealt with Us
all our lives and to whom we commended
you in our prayers, living and dying! BY
the memory of the old homestead, by the
family altar, by our dying pillow, by tho
graves in which our bodies sleep while our
spirits hover, we beg you to turn over .
new leaf, and that now"
2. But I turn for moment to those who
had evil parentage, and / want to tell
you that the highest thrones in Hea zen,
and the mightiest triumphs and the
brightest crowns will be for those who
had evil parentage, but who, by the
grace of God, conquered. As useful, a.
splendid . gentleman as know of to.
day, had for father q man who died bias.
pheming God until the neighbors had to
put their fingers in their ears to shut out
the horror. One of the most consecrated
and useful Christian ministers of to-day
was born Of q drunken horse jockey. Tide
of evil tremendous in some families. It is
like Niagara rapids, and yet men have
chung to . rock and been rescued.
There II q family in New York whose
that was founded by q man who, after
he had vast estate, sent back . paper of
tacks because they were two cents
more than he expected. Grip and grind
and gouge in the fourth generation-I sup
pose It win be grip and grind and
gouge In the twentieth genera
ton. The thirst for intoxicants
has burned down through the
arteries Of . hundred and fifty
years. Pugnacity or combativensss char.
acterixes other families. Sometimes one
form Of evil, sometimes another form of
evil. But 1t may be resisted, It has been
resisted. II the family frailty be avarice,
cultivate unselfshness and charity, and
teach your children never to eat an apple
without offering somebody else half Of it.
IL the family frailty combativeness, keep
ont of the company Of quick-tempered
people, and never answer nm impertinent
question until you have counted hundred
both ways, and after you have written
letter keep IL . week before you send Il.
and then burn it up! Is the family frailty
timidity and cowardice. cultivate back.
bone, read the biography Of brave men
like Joshua and Paul, and see II you can
not get little iron in your blood. Find
ont what the family frailty IL. and set
body, mind and soul in battle array.
think the genealogical table was put
In the first chapter of the New Testament
not only to show our Lords pedigree. but
to show that man may rise mp in an an.
cestral line and beat back successfully all
the influences Of bad heredity. Seein that
genealogical table that good King Asa
came Of vile King Alba. See in that
genealogical table that Joseph and Mary
and the most illustrious Being that ever
touched our world, or ever WIN touch Il.
had in their ancestral line scandalous Re.
hoboam and Themar and Bathshebe. II
this world 10 ever to be Edenixed-sud IL
win be-an the infected families Of the
earth arc to b regenerated, and there win
some arise in each family line and open
new genealogical table. There win
b some Joseph in the line to 70.
verso the evil influence Of Rehoboam. and
there viii b some Mary in the line 70 70.
verse the evn influence Of Bathsheba. Per.
haps the star Of hope may point down to
your manger. Perhaps you are TO be the
hero or the heroine that 10 to put down thu
brakes and stop that long train Of genoa.
logical tendencies, and switch il on on an.
other track from that on which Il has 49,.
running for century. Youdo that, and I
VIII promise you ~ 6ne . palace a. the
architects Of heaven can build. the Arch.
way Inscribed with the words. 'sNore than
But whstever your hera1litv ,.<