The news and herald. (Winnsboro, S.C.) 1877-1900, 1888-04-07
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mothers influence will begin to give
MOTHERS SOWING SEED

i away. tE.ttt VI, .1t
i MOTHERS SOWING SEED
If mother tell Il child he is not
good, some bugaboo will come and
catch him, the fear excited may make
4 the child q coward, and the fact that he
finds that there is no bugaboo may
make him liar, and the echo OF that
false alarm may DO heard after fifteen
generations have been born and have
expired. If a mother promise child O
reward for good behavior, and after the
good behavior forgets to give the re-
ward, the cheat may crop out in some
faithlessnesS half q thousand years fur
ther on. If q mother culture u child's
vanity, and e,llogize his curls, and ex-
| tol the night-black or sky blue or nut
brown of the child's eyes, and call out
In his presence the admiration of spec
tatSrs, pride and arrogance may be pro-
lOnged after q dozen family records
have been obliteratod liza mother ex-
press doubt about SOmo statement of
the Holy Bible in q chilG's presence,
long after tho gates of this historical
era have closed and the gates Of an
other era have opened, the result may
be seen in champion blasphemer.
But, on the other hand, if mother
walking with a child seea suffering one
by the wayside and say: "My child,
give that ten-cent pieco to that lame
boy" the result may be seen on the
other side OF the following century in
some George Muller building q whole
village of orphanages. If q mother sit
almost every evening by the trundle-
bed of child and teach it lessons of u
Sav1olr's love and q Sayiour's example,
of the Importance Of truth and the hor-
ror or Il lie, and the virtues Of industry
and kindness and sympathy and self
sacrifice, long after. the mother has
gone, and the child has gone, and the
lettering on both the tombstones shall
have been washed ont by the storms of
innumerable winters, there may be
standing, as a result of those trundle-
bed lessons, flaming evangels, world
moving reformers, seraphic Summer
fields, weeping Paysons, laundering
Whitefields, emancipating Washing
tons. !.
Good OF bad influence may skip one
generation OF two generations, but it
will be sure to land in ~.
TIE THIRD OF FoURTH, GENERATION.
| just as the Zen Commandments.
| speaking Of the visitation OF God on
families, says nothing about tho second
generation, but entirely skips the Sec
ond and speaks Of the third and fourth
generation: '!Visting the iniquities Of
the fathers upon tho third and fourth
generations OF them THAT hate me-,
Parental influence, right and wrong,
| may jump over 81 generation, but it will
| come down further on, as sure as you
sit there and + stand here. Timothy's
ministry was projected 5y his grand
| mother Lois. There arc men and wo-
men here, tho sons and daughter Of the
| Christian Church, who are such as a
result Of the conservation of great-great-
grandmothers. Why, who do you think
tho Lord is2 You talk as though His
! memory was weak. Hecan no easier re-
member a prayer five minutes than he
can five centuries.
This explains what we often see
some man sksIIseinan distinguished for
benevolencdsAa2Hn the father or mother
were distinguished for penuriousness
or you see soEte young man or woman
with bad father and hard mother
come out gloriously for Christ, and
mako the church sob and shout and sing
under their eXhortations We stand in
corners OF the vestry and whisper over
the matter and say "How is this, such
great piety in sons and daughters Of
such parental worldlines and sinp'' I
will explain it to you if you will fetch
me the old Family Bible containing the
full record. Let some septuagenarian
look with me clear upon the page of
births and marriages, ana tell me who
that woman was with the old-fashioned
name of Jemima or Betsy or Mehitabel.
Ah, there she is, the old grandmother
or grcatgrandmother, who had enough
RELIGION TO sATURATE "A CENTURY.
The she is, the dear old soul, grand
mother Lois. In our beautiful Green
wood (may we all sleep there when our
work is done, for when I get up in the
Resurrection morning Iwant my con-
gregation all about me) lin Greenwood
there is the rcsting-place Of George w.
Bcthune, once a minister Of Brooklyn
Heights, his name never spoken among
Intelligent Americans without suggest
Ing two things = -cloquence, aud evangcl-
ism. In the same tomb sleeps his
grandmother, Isabella Graham, who
was the chief inspiration of his ministry.
Y You are not surprised at the poetry and
pathos and pulpit power of the grand
son when you read of the faith and de-
votion OF his wonderful ancestress.
When you read
THIS GRANDMOTHER LITTER,
in which she poured out her widowed
soul IN longings for sons salvation,
you will not wonder that succeeding
generations have been blessed:
"NEw York, May 20, 1701.
sThis day my only son left me in bit
ter wringings of heart; he is again
launched on the ocean, Gods ocean.
| The Lord saved him from. shipwreck,
brought him to my home and allowed
me once more to indulge my affections
over him. He has been with me but
q short time, and i'll have improved it;
he is gone from my sight, and my heart
| bursts with tllEultuO,ls grief r ord