The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-03-28

Christian ancestry. do not ask II your par
ents were perfect Perhaps there was sometimes
too much blood in their eye when they chastised
you. But from what know Of you, you got no
more than You deserved, and perhaps little more
chastsement would have been salutary. But
you are willing to acknowledge, l think, that
they wanted to do right. From what you over
heard in conversations. and from whatyou saw
at the family altar and at neighborhood obse-
quies, you know they had invited God into their
heart and life. There was something that
sustained those old people supernaturally. You
have no doubt about their destiny. You expect
If You ever get to heaveQto eet them, as GER
tainly as you expect to meet the Lord Jesus
Christ.
That early association has been charm for
you. There was time when you got right up
from house of iniquity and walked out into
the fresh air because you thought your mother
was looking at you. You have never been very
happy in sin because of sweet old face that
would present itself. TremulouS voices from
the past accosted You until they were seem
ingly audible, and you looked around to see
In the last will and testament-a vast estate or
prayer and holy example, and Christian entreaty,
and glorious memory. The survivors OF the
family gathered to hear the will read, and this
was to be kept, and that was to be sold, and 1t
was share and share alike But there was an
unwritten will that read something like this:
I'm the name of God, Amen. /, being of sound
mind, bequeath to my children all my prayers
for their salvation | bequsath to them the
Christian religion, which has been so much com
fort to me, and hope may be soace for them; |
bequeath to them hope of reunion when the
partings of life are over; share and share alike
may they have in eternal riches | bequeath to
them the wish that they may avoid my errors
and copy anything that may have been worthy.
In the name of God who made me, and the
Christ who redeemed me- and the Holy Ghost
who sanctifed me, make this my last will and
testiment. Witness, all We hosts of heaven.
Witness, time; Witness eternity. Signed, sealed
and delivered in this our dying hour. Father
and Mother"
You did not get that will proved at the surro-
gates Office; but take it out to-day and read
it to you take it out of the alcoves of your
heart; shake the dust off of it; ask you if you
will accept that inheritance will you break the
wilN O, We of Christian ancestry, you have
responsibility vast beyond all measurement.
God will not let you off with just being as good
as ordinary people when you had such extraor-
binary advantage. Ought not flower planted
in dollhouse be more thrifty than a flower
turned by the Housatonic do more work than
factory turned oy thin and shallow mountain
streamf Ought not you of great early oppor-
tunity be better than those who had cradle un
biesseda
A father sets his son up in business. He
keeps an account of all the expenditures
So much for store fixtures, so much for rent
SO much for this, much for that, and
all the items aggregated, and the father expects
the son to give an account. Your Heavenly
Father charges against you ali the advantages
OF plous ancestry-so many prayers. so much
Christian entreaties-all these gracious infu-
ences, one tremendous aggregate, and He asks
you for an account of It. Ought you not to be
better shan those who had no such sdvantagess
Better have been founding, picked up off the
city commons, than with such magnificent In
heritance of conservation to surn out inainer-
entity.
Ought not you, my brother, to be better, nav
ing had Christian nature. than that man who
remember my father speaking to me was an
oath; the first time l remember my father TAX
my hold of me was in wrath; never saw BIZ
be till was ten years of age, and then l was
told it was pack of lies. The first
ated with the vicious. I seemed to be
walled in Ivy sin and DEATH Now. my
brother. ought you mott leave it as a matter
of fairness to you-ought you not be far better
than those WI had no early Christian influenceY
is past and the generation that is to come 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 trustee of piety in that ancestral
line, and are you going to augment or squander
that solemn trust fund.- Are you going to disin-
herit your sons and daughters of the heirloom
which you parents left youi All! that cannot be
possible! That cannot be possible, that you are
going to take such position as that. You are
very careful about the life Insurance. and care
full about the deeds, and careful about the
mortgages, and careful about the title to
your property, because when you step off the
stage you want your children TO get it all. Are
you making no provision that they. shall get
grandfather and grandmother's religion9 Oh!
what last will and testament you are making,
my brother. SIN the name of God, amen.
being of sound mind make this my last will and
testament. bequeath to my children all the
money | ever made and all the houses I own;
but disinherit them. I rob them of the ances
trail grace and the Christian influence that in
herited. have squandered that on my own
worldiness. Share and share alike must they in
the misfortune and the everlasting outrage.
God, and men, and angels, and devils and all the
generations of earth and heaven and he'll, March,
1885,"
Oye highly favored ancestry, wake up this
morning to sense of your opportunity and your
l think there must be an old
cradle, or fragment of cradle, somewhere that
could tell a story of midnight surplication in
your behalf Where is the old rocking-char in
which you were sung to sleep with the holy nur-
sery rhyme? Where is the old clock that licked
away the moments of that sickness on that aw-
full night when there were but three of you
awake-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 address
You, saying: My son, my daughter. how can
you reject that God who SO kindly dealt with ms
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 new leaf and that now" Oh, the
power of ancestral piety, well illustrated by a
young man of New York who attended prayer
meeting one night and asked for prayer, and
went home and wrote these words:
Twenty-Five years ago tonight, my mother
went to heaven; my beautiful blessed mother,
and have been alone. tossed up and down upon
the pillows of LIES tempestuous ocean Shall
ever go to heaven? She told me l must meet
her in heaven. When she took her boys hand
in hers, and turned her gentle loving eyes on
me and gazed earnestly and long into 10y face,
and then lifted them to heaven in that last
prayer, she prayed that might meet her in
heaven. / wonder If ever shalll
MY mothers prayer! Oh. my sweet, blessed
mothers prayersl Did ever boy have such