The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1886-04-22

are you going to pass the blessing on,
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, anc are you going to augment or
squandes' that solemn trust fund? Are you
going to disinherit your sons and daugh.
tiers of the heirloom which your parents
left your All! that can not be possible,
that can not be possible that you are going
to take l5uch a 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
off the stage you want your children to
get 1t 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
err!
In this name of God, amen. I, being of
sound mind, make this my last will and ties.
lament, 1 bequ cath to my children all the
money! ever made and all the houses
own; hut disinherit them, / rob them of the
ancestral grace and the Christian influence
that Inherited. / have squandered that on
my own woridIiness Share and share alike
must they in the misfortune and the ever
lasting outrage. Signed, sealed and deliv.
cred IN the presence of God, and men, and
angels; and devils, and all the generations
of earth, and heaven, and hell. March, 1856
o, W highly favored ancestry, wake up
this morning to sense of your opportuni-
ty and and your responsibility. think
there must be an old cradle or fragment
of a cradle somewhere that could tell
story of midnight duplication 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 ewake-you
and God and mother? Is there not an old
staff in some closet? Is there not an old
family Bible on some shelf that seems to
addr sess 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 the
graves in which our bodies sleep while our
spirits hover, we beg you to turn over q
new leaf, and that now"
2. But turn for moment to those who
had evil parentage, and l want to tell
you that the highest thrones in Heaven,
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, as
splendid a gentleman as I know of TO-
day, bad for father a man who died blas-
phem!ng God until the neighbors had to
put their fingers in their ears to shut out
| the horror. One of the most consecrated
and nseful Christian ministers of to-day
was born of drunken horse jockey. Tide
of evil tremendous in some families. 1t is
like Niagara rapids, and yet men have
| chung to rock and been rescued.
| There is a family in New York whose
wealth has rolled up into many millions
that was founded by 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 will be grip and grind and
gouge in the twentieth genera
|
has burned down through the
arteries of a hundred and fifty
years. Pugnacity or combativeness char
actefizes other families. Sometimes one
| form of evil, sometimes another form of
evil; But it may be resisted, it has been
resisted. If the family frailty be avarice,
cultivate unselfshness and charity, and
teacn your children never to eat an apple
without offering somebody else half of It.
Is the family frailty combativeness, keep
| out of the company of quick-tempered
| people, and never answer an impertinent
question until you have counted hundred
both ways, and after you have written a
letter keep 1t week before you send it,
and then burn it upl Is the family frailty
timfdity and cowardice, cultivate back.
bone, read the biography of brave men
like Joshua and Paul, and see if you car
not get a little iron in your blood. Find
out what the family frailty is, 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 up in an an.
cestral line and beat back successfully al
the influences of bad heredity. See in that
genealogical table that good King Asa
came of vile King Abba. See in thai
genealogical table that Joseph and Mary
and the most illustrious Being that evel
touched our world, or ever win touch it
had in their ancestral line scandalous Re-
hoboam and Themar and Bathsheba. L
this world is ever to be Edenized-and i
viii be-an the infected families of tn,
earth are to be regenerated, and there will
some arise in each family line and oper
new genealogical table. There will
be some Joseph in the line to re
verse the evil influence of Rehoboam, ant
there viii be some Mary in the line to re-
verse the evil influence of Bathsheba. Per
haps the star of hope may point down t,
your manger. Perhaps you are to be tn
hero or the heroine that is to put down Oh,
brakes and stop that long train of genoa
logical tendencies, and switch it off on an
other track from that on which it has beer
running for century. You do that, and
will promise you as fine a palace as th
architects of heaven can build, the arch
way inscribed with the words: "More thai
eonqueror."