National Republican., 1888-02-27

Important Hints to Men," His subject was
"The Grandmother and Her Grandchildren"
A vast congregation was present. The open.
ing hymn begins:
'Give to the wind thy fears,
Hope, and be undismRyed;
God hears thy sighs and counts thy tears,
GOD shall lift up thy head"
Dr. Talmage's text was from Second Timo-
thy, T. 8: "The unfeigned faith that is in thee,
which dwelt first in thy grandmother, Lois"
The eloquent preacher said:
In this love letter which Paul, the old min
lister, is writing to Timothy, the young minis.
ter the family record is brought out. Paul
practically says: "rimothy, what good
i tar tban most H foiks because uSn not C only was
your mother good, but your grandmother
Two preceding generations of piety ought to
lion. The S fact Was THAT that Timothy needed en-.
couragement. He was In poor health, having
weak stomach, and was dyspeptic. and Paul
pTetcIibed for him tonic, "a little wine for
Thy stomach's sake'i-not much wine but a
little wine, and only as medicine. And If
the wine then had reen as much adulterated
with logwood and stry chnine as our modern
wires, he would not have prescribed any.
Ent Timothy, not strong physically, Is en-
couiaged spiritually BY the recital OF grand
motberly excellence, Paul limiting 10 him rs
h!nt this day 10 you, that God sometimes
galfCrs up as in reservoir away back of the
active generations OF TO day cody influence,
and then ~ response to prayer lets down the
power upon children and grandchildren aud
great grandchildren. The world Is wogiilly
in want of a table of statistics in regard to
what is the prOtractedness aud imm9nslty OF
influence one good woman In the church
and world. We have accounts of now much
evil has been wrought BY Margaret, the mother
of criminals, who lived near a hundred years
ago, and of how many hundreds of criminals
her descendants furnished for the peniteniafy
apd the galloys; and how many hundreds Of
thousands of dollars they cost this country In
their nrraignment and prison support, as well
as in the property they bnrglarized or de-
stroyed. But will not some one come out
with brain comprehensive enough and heart
warm enough and pen keen enough TO give us
the facts in regard to some good woman OF
hundred years ago, and let us know how many
christian men and women and reformers and
useful people have been found among her de.
sceDdants, and how many asylums and COL
ieges and churches they built, and how many
millions Of dollars they contributed for hu-
manitarian and Christian purposes?
The good women whose tombstones were
planted in the eighteenth century are more
alive for good in the nineteenth injury than
they were before. as the good women of this
nineteenth century will be more alive for good
in the twentieth century than now; Marx
were any better than their .granddaughteTs.
You cannot BET very old people to talk much
about how things were when they were boys
and girls. They have retcel ce and non.
committalism which makes me think they feel
themselves TO be the custodians Of the reputa.
tion oftheir early comrades. While our dear
old folks are rehearsing the follies of the
present, ifyou put them on the witness stand
and cross.examine them as to how things were
styenty years ago the silence becomes OPP
A celebrated Frenchman by the name OF
Volney v sited this country in 1896, and he
says OF woman's diet in those times: III pre-
MUM were offered for a regimen most destruc-
tive to health, none could be DEVISE more
ehcacious for these ends than that in use
among these people" That eclipse, our lob
the designations OF modern fociety and how
womaply health goes down under IT., but 1t was
worse hundred years ago, for the CT aplain OF
French regiment IN our revolutionary war
wrote In liS2, in his bouk Of American women,
p faying: They are tall and well .proportioned,
their features are generally regular. their oom.
pleyions are generally fair and without color.
At twenty years OF age the women have no
longer The freshness Of youth. AT thirty. or
forty they are tdeSrepitm In lS2 foreign
United States at the Commencement OF the
Present Century" and h. says Of the women
q those times; the age Of thirty all thei,
portraits of the women hundred years age
and their style Of dre' makes US wonder how
they, ever GOTH ir breath, All this makes me
think that the cXprcss rail train is no more au
improvement on the old canal boat, or the
telegraph no more al Improvement on the old
time saddlebags, than the women OF our day
are an improvement on the women OF the last
Celtury.
But still. notwithstanding that those time.
were 80 much worse than ours. there was
glorious race of Cody women sew nty and {
hundred years ago who held the world back
from Sin and lifted II toward virtue and with
cut their exalted and sanGtified influence be
fore this the last good influence would havt
peIished from The earth. Indeed, all over thi
land there are seated 10 day--not SO much II
churches, for many OF them are too feeble Z
come-a great many aged grandmothers, The!
sometimes feel that the world has gone pas
them, and they have an idea they are of littl'
account. Their headisonc times gets achini
from the racket OF the grandchildren dow
stairs or in the next room. They steady them
selves by the bapistersa as they go up and down
When they get cold 4 hangs on to them Ion
the grandchildren punished, even when the
deserve il, ana have so relaxed their ideas Q
family discipline that they would spoil all tn
youngsters of the household by too great ler
iency. Thete old folks are the resort whe
great tr2ahles come, aud there Is calmin
and soothing power in the touch Of an age
hand that is almost supernatural. They fee
they s(e nlI.lst through with the journey {
lie at fead the old book more than the
6Pady on wheh e Ne% dey
stop and dwell tearfulIy over the family n resor g
stead. Blessed ID that household that has in
grandmother Lois. Where she is angels ar
hovering round and God is in the room. Ma
days that We call cal Indian summer. '''
mother; that is the disadvantage OF feing th
hers only have that benediction. But thoug
she went up out Of this life before ] began !
have heard Of her faith in God, that brougl
them into the ministry, and then brought a
her grandchildren into the kingdom. myse
the last and least worthy. Is 1t not time th'
lure gallery Of the Wrinkied faces pdI ana stoope
shoulders of the past, and call down froi
their heavenly thrones the godly grand
persuade the mothers of to-day that they al
living for all time, and that against the sidt
ofeyery cradle in which y child Is rocke
lnaN lnt t,rl vail
Here we have an untried, undiscussed, an
unexplored subject You often hear abo'
your influence upon your own children-l a.
not talking about that. What about your I
fuence upon the twentieth century. upon Il
,hirtieth century, upon the fortieth centur
upon the yetr two thousand, upon the ye
four thousand, If the world lasts SO long? I'll
world stood four thousand years before Chri
came; it is not unreasonable to suppose that
may stand four thousand years after his a
OH in sin, four thousand years II may
swinging back into Righteousness. By q
ordinary rate Of multiplication of the world
lie over six hundred, and by two centuries
least over a hundred thousand, perhaps tv
hundred thousand, and upon every, one
them you, the mother of to-day, Will have {
influence for good or evil. And II In two ce
turies YOU. descendants shall have with the
names filled scroll of hundreds Of thousand
will some angel from heaven, to whom
given the capacity to calculate the number
The stars OF heaven and sands of the seashoI
step down and tell us now many descen
ants you will have In the four thousand
year of the worlds possible coutinuanc
Donot letthe grandmothers any longer thir
that they are retired. and sit clear back out
sight from the world feeling that they ha
no relation to 1t. The mothers of the Ii
century are to-day IN the senateS, the parl
ments, the palaces, the pulpits. the bGnkii
houses, the professional chairs, the prsor
the almshouSes, the company OF mldnig
brigands, the cellars, the bitches Of this ce
tuTy. You have been thinking about the IL
portSnce Of having the right influence upt
one nursery. You have been thinking of /
Importance Of getting these two little feet
the right path. You have been thinking
your child's destiny for the next eighty yea
III should pass on % he an oclogenarla