The news and herald. (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1877-1900, 1888-04-07

and read the old Book moro than they
used to, hardly knowing which most
they enjoy, the Old Testament OF tile
New, and often stop and dwell tear
| fully over the family record half way
between. We hail them to-day, whether
in the House of God or at the home-
stead. Blessed is that household that
has In 1t Il grandmother Lois. Where
She is, angels are lowering round, ana
God is i'll the room. May her last days
be like those lovely autumnal days that
we call Indian Summer.
never knew the Joy OF having q
grandmother; that is the disadvantage
OF being the youngest child Of the fam
lly. The elder members only have that
benediction. But though she went up
out OF this life before began 1t, have
heard Of her faith III God, that brought
all her children into the kingdom and
two Of them into the ministry, and
then brought all her grandchildren into
tho kingdom, myself the last and least
worthy. Is it not time that you and
40 two things, swing open a picture
gallery Of the wrinkled faces and stoop-
ed shoulders Of the past, and call down
from their heavenly thrones the godly
grandmothers, to give them our thanks,
and then persuade the mothers of to-day
that they are living for all time, and
that against tho sides Of every cradle in
which child is rocked beat
J. THE TWO ENTERNIrIEs.
Here we have an untried, undiscussed
and upeXplored subject. You often
hear about your influence upon your
own children-I am not talking about
that. What about your influence upon
the twentieth century, upon the thir-
tleth century, upon the fortieth CEN
tury, upon the year two thousand, upon
the year four THOUSAND If the world
lasts so long? Tho world stood four
thousand years before Christ came; it
is not unreasonable to suppose that it
may stand four thousand years after
His arrival. -Four thousand years the
world swung off in sin, four thousand
years 1t may be swinging back into
righteousness. BY the ordinary ratio Of
multiplication OF tile worlds pDpula-
ton in century, your descendants will
be over three hundred, and by two CEN
turles at least over fifty thousand, per-
haps two hundred thousand, and upon
every one of them you, the mother Of
to-day, VIII have an influence for good
or evil And if in four centuries your
descendants shall have with their names
filled scroll of hundreds Of thousands,
will some angel from heaven to whom
is given the capacity to calculate the
number Of the stars of heaven and the
sands of the seashoro, step down and
tell us how many descendants you will
have in the four thousandth year Of the
worlds possible continuancep
Do not let the grandmotllers any
longer think that they are retired, and
sit clear back out of sight from the
world, feeling that they have no rela-
tion to it. The mothers Of the last CEN
tury are to-day in the senates, the par
haments, the palaces, the pulpits, tho
banking houses, the professional chairs,
the prisons, the almshouses, the COM
pany of midnight brigands, the cellars,
the bitches Of this country. You have
been thinking about the Importance of
having the right influence upon one
nursery. You have been thinking about
the Importance Of getting those two
little feet on the right path. You have
been thinking of your child's destiny
Tor the next eighty years, if it should
pass on to be al octOgenarian. That
is we'll, but my subject sweeps q thou
sand years, a million years. o quadril-
lion OF years. cannot stop at ono
cradle; I am looking at the cradles that
reach all round the world and across all
time. am not talking of mother
Eunice, L am 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
the ship against it. Running along
with it we cannot appreciate the force.
ESTIMATING MATERNAL INFLUENCE
wo generally run along with it down
the stream Of time, and SO we don't un-
derstand the full force. Let us come
up to it from the eternity side, after it
has been working Oh for centuries, and
SEQ all the good it has done and all the
evil it has accomplished multiplied in
magnificent or appalling compound in
terest. The difference between that
mothers influence on her children now,
and the influence when it has been null
tlplied in hundreds of thousands of
lives, Is the difference between the Mis-
sissippi River way up at the top of the
continent, starting from the little lake
Itasca, seven miles long and one wide,
and its mouth at the Gulf Of Mexico,
where navies might ride. Between the
birth Of that river and It's burial in tho
sea, tho Missouri pours in, and the
Ohio pours in, and the Arkansas pours
in, and the Red and White and Yazoo
rivers pour in, and all the States and
Territories between the Allegheny and
Rocky mountains make contribution.
Now, in order to test the power Of q
mothers influence, we need to come in
off Of tho ocean Of eternity and sail up
toward the one cradle, and we will find
ten thousand tributaries pouring in and
pouring down. But it is, after all,
ONE GREAT RIVER OLE POWER