Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1888-03-03
ACooMAC=C {. q. VA. SATURDAY, MARCH 8, 1887
noro wo have an untrlcd, undlscussco ,

nm not talking about that. w hat aoouC
your influence upon tho Twentieth century,
upon tho Thirticth century, upon tho Fortieth
century, upon the year 1000, upon the year
4,O00, if the world lasts SO long. Tho world
stood 1000 years before Christ cnrno; 1t is
not unreasonable to suppose that it may
stand 1000 years after his arrival. -Four
thousand years tho world swung OF In sin,
1000 years it may be swinging back into
righteousness. By the ordinary ratio Of null
DUPLICATION, Of tho worlds population in a
century your descendants will DO over GOO,
and by two centuries ut least over 100000,
perhaps zoe, 900, and upon every ono of them
you, tho mother of today, will have an infu-
enco for good or evil. And if III
two centuries your descendants shall
have with their names filed @ scroll
of hundreds of thousands, will somo angel
from heaven to whom is given the capacity
to calculate tho number of tho stars OF
heaven and tho sands Of the scashorc, stop
down and tell us how many descendants you
will have in the 4,000th year Of tho worlds
possible continuance. Do not let tho grand
mothers any longer think that they ore no
tired, and sit clear back out Of sight from the
.sworld feeling that they have nc rela tionsto
a Die moth era ff$ ttihe Lust centur to-
dry Is tliE soma ttfhp iamonts the rels
noes, the pulpits, the banking houses, the
professional chairs, tho prisons, tho aims
houses, tho company ofsmidnight briSands,
the collars the bitches Of this century. You
have been thinking about the importance Of
having tho right influence upon ono nursery.
You have been thinking Of tho importance Of
getting those two little feet on tho right path.
You havo been thinking of your child's dca-
tiny for tho next eighty years, if it should
pass on to be an octoGenarlan. That
is well; but my subject sweeps thousand
years, million years, quadrillion OF
years. cannot stop at ono cradle, I ain
looking ut tho cradles that reach ell round
tho world and across all timo. I nm not
talking of Mother Eunice; 1 an talking Of
grandmother Lois. The only way you can
tell tho force of current is by sailing up
stream; or the force Of an ocean wave, by
running tho ship against it. Running along
with it VIC cannot appreciate the force. In
estimating maternal influence NO generally
run along with it down the stream of tiinc,
and SO we don't understand tho full force.
Let US como up to it from tho eternity sido,
after it has been working on for centuries,
and SEQ oil tho good it has done and oil tho
evil it has accomplished multiplied in mag
niilcent or appalling compound interest. Tho
difference between that mothers influence
Oh her children now and tho influence when
it has been multiplied in hundreds Of
thousands Of lives Is the difference be-
tween tho Mississippi river way up at
tho top Of the continent, starting
from tho little Lake Itasca, seven miles long
and one wide, and its mouth at tho Gulf of
Mexico, where navics might ride Between
tho birth of that river and its burial in the
sea tho Missouri pours in, and the Ohio pours
in, and the Arkansas pours in, and tho Red
and White and Yazoo rivers pour in, and oil
the states ard territories between the Ale
ghany and Rocky mountains mako contribu-
ton. Now, in order to test the power of
mothers influence, wo need to como in or Of
tho ocean of eternity and soil up toward the
one cradle, and we will find 10000 tributaries
c. influence pouring in aud pouring down.
But it is, after all, one great river of power
rolling en- and rolling forever. Who can
fathom itl Who can bridge It'll Who can
stop itl Had not mothers better BIO intcnsi-
flying their prayers? Had they not better DO
elevating their example? Had they not
better DO rousing themselves with tho
consideration that by their faithfulncss or
neglect they arc starting On influence which
will DO stupendous after tho last mountain Of
earth is fat, and tho last sea hes been dried
up, and the laet lakc of tho ashes Of con-
sumed world shall have been blown away,
and oil tho telescopes Of other worlds directed
to the track around which our wcrld once
swung shall discover not SO much Us q cinder
of tho burncd-down and swept-oR planet.
In Ccylon thcrcis a granite column Of thirty
six square feet in sizc which is thought Ivy
the natives to decide the worlds continuance.
An angel with robe spun from zephyrs is
onco century to descend and sweep the hom
of that robe across the granite, and when by
that attrition tho column is worn away they
say time will end But by that process that
granite column would be worn out of exist
encc before mothers influence will begin to
give away.
II O mother tell child ho is not good,
some bugaboo will como and catch him, the
fear excited may make tho child coward,
and tho fact that he finds that there is no
bugaboo may make him q liar, and the echo
of that false alarm may DO heard after fifteen
generations have been born and have ex-
pircd. II mother promise child reward
for good behavior and after tho good be-
havior forgets to give the reward, the cheat
may crop out in some faithlessness 500 years
further on. If mother culture child's
vanity and eulogizo his curls and e1tol the
night black or sky blue or nut brown of the
child,s eyes, and call out in his presence the
admiration or spectators, pride and arrogance
may be prolonged after half q dozen family
records harc been obliterated. II mother
express doubt about some statement of the
Holy Diblc in child's presence, long after
the gates of this historical era have closed
and tho gates of another GRO hayo opened,
the result may be seen in o champion BIAS
phemer. But, on the other hand, il O
mother walking with child SEQ suffering
one by the wayside, and says, "My child,
give that ten cent piece to that lamo boy" "
the result may DO seen on the other side of
tho following century In some George Muller
building whole village of orphanages II.
q mother sit almost every evening by the
trundlc bed of q child and teach it lessons OF
q Sayiour's love and Saviour's example, Of
the Importance of truth and tho horror of
lie, and the virtues of industry and kindness
and sympathy and seH-sacriflce, long after
the mother has gone and tho child has gone
and the lettering on both the tombstones
shall have been washed out by the storms OF
innumerablo winters, there may be standing,
as a result of those trundle bed lessons, fam
ing evangcls, world moving rcformers, circu-
lating Summerields, weeping Paysons, thun-
dering Whitefelds, emancipating Washing
TONS
Good or bad influence may skip ono geuer-
ton or two generations, but it will be sure to
land in the third or fourth generation, just
as tho Ten Commandments, speaking of the
visitation of God on families, says nothing
about the second generation, but entirely
skips the second and speaks of the third and
and fourth generation: "visitins the iniqui
ties of the fathers upon. the third and fourth
generations of them that hate me.h Parental
influence, right and wrong, may jump over