Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1888-03-03
GRANDMOTHER LOIS.
On. TALMAag,s EIGHTH SERMON
.@TO THE WOMEN OF AMERICA.

On. TALMAaE's EIGHTH SERMON
YTO THE WOMEN OF AMERICA.
This Is Hard World for Women. and
Also for A1en-A Mothers Influence of
Immense und Lasting Importance on
sUnborn Generations.
BROOKLYN, Fob. 2o.-The Rev. T. De Witt
Talmago, D. D., preached in tho Brooklyn
Tabernacle to-day tho eighth of his series Of
.sSermonst to tho Women of America, with
Important Hints to Men" His subject was,
"Tho Grandmother aud Her Grandchildren. {"
Avast congregation was present. The open
Ing hymn begins:
Give to the wind thy fears,
Hope md be undismayed;
q God hears thy signs and counts thy tears,
God shall lift UP thy head.
DIR. Talmago's text was from II Timothy,
i;s6: "The unfeigned faith that is in thee,
which dweltlfist in thy grandmother Lois. !"
The eloquentpreacher said:
Fin this love lcttar which. Paul, the old min
.istar,z lis To- Timoth young min
1glsE G1o luI1.l ~
practically says: Timothy, what a good
grandmother you had. You ought to be bet
TOR than most folks, because not only was
your mother. good, but your grandmother.
Two preceding generations of piety ought to
give you mighty push in tho right direc-
tom The fact was that Timothy needed
encouragement He was in poor health, hav-
ing a week stomach, and was dyspeptic, and
| Paul prescribed for him tonic, "a little
vino for thy stomach's sake'-not much
! vino, but a little, and only as q mcdi-
cine And II the wine then had been as
much adulterated with logwood and strych-
nine as our modern wines, he would not have
prescribed any.
But Timothy, not strong physically, Is en-
couraged spiritually by the recital Of grand
motherly excellence, Paul limiting to him asl
lint this day to you, that God sometimes
gathers I'D, as in reservoir away back OF
the active generations of today, godly in
1uenco, and then in response to prayer lets
down the power upon children md grand
children and great-grandchildren The world
| Is woefllly in want Of q table Of statistics in
regard to what is'the protra ctedness and i'm
rensity Of influence of ONO good woman In
! the church and world. We havo accounts Of
how much evil hns been wrought by Mar
geret, tho mother Of criminals, who lived
near q hundred years ago, and of how many
hundreds of criminals hor descendants fur
nishcd for tho penitensiary end the gallows;
and how many hundreds OF thousands Of dol
lars they cost this country in their arraign-
ment and prison support, as well as In the
property they burglarized or destroyed. But
| will not some one come out with brain COM
prehensive enough, and heart warm enough,
and pen keen enough to give us tho facts IN
regard to some good woman of hundred
years ago. and let us know how many Chris
tian men and women and reformers and use
full people have been found among her de
sccndants, and how many asylums and col
legcs and churches they built. and how many
millions of dollars they contributed for hui
manitarian and Christian purposesl
The good women whose tombStones were
planted in tho Eighteenth century are more
alive for good in tho Nineteenth century than
they wero before, as tho good women Of this
Nineteenth century will be moro n1ivc for
good in the Twentieth century than now.
Mark YOU, have no idca that the grand
mothers were, any better than their grand
daughters. You cannot get very old people
to talk much about how things wcro when
they were boys and girls. They have reti-
CONGO and non-committalism which makes
me think they feel themselves to be the Gus
todians of the reputation of their early COM
rades. While our dear old folks are rehcars-
ing tho follics Of tho present, If you put them
on tho witness stand and cross examine them
as to how things were seventy years ago the
silence becomes oppressive.
A celebrated Frenchman by tho namo Of
Volney visited this country in 1708, and he
saws of womnn's diet in those times: If
premium was offered for regimen most de-
structive to health, mono could be devised
more eiIicacious for these ends than that in
use among these people" That cclipscs our
lobster salad at midnight. Everybody talks
about the dssipations of modern society and
how womanly health goes down under it,
but it was worse hundred years ago, for
tho chaplain of q French regiment in our re-
yolut:onary war wrote in 1882 in his book Of
American women. saying: "Thoy are tall
and well proportional, their features arc
generally regular, their compilations arc
cenernlly fnir and without color AT 20
years of age tho women havo.no longer tho
freshness of youth At 30 or 40 they arc de-
crcpit,n In 1872 foreign consul wrote
boo;, entitled "a Skotch Of the United States
at the Commencement of tho Present Cen
tury,n and no says of tho women of those
times: sat the ago of 80 oil their charms
have Disappeared One glance at tho por-
traits of tho women hundred years ago and
their style of dress makes US wonder how
they over rot their breath. All this makes
mo think that the express rail train is no
moro en- Improvement on tho old canal boat,
or the telegraph 10 moro Oh improvement on
tho old timo saddle bags, than tic women Of
our day arc On Improvement on tho women
Of tho last century.
But still, notwithstanding that those times
were so much worse than ours, thcro was
glorious race of godly women, seventy and
hundred years ago, who held the world back
from sin and lifted it toward virtue, and
without their. exalted and sanctified in1u-
enco before this the last good influence would
have persisted from tho earth. Indeed, all
over this land there are seated today-not so
much in churches, for many of them are too
feeble to come-a great many aged grand
mothers. They sometimes feel that the world
has gone past them, and they have an idea
they ore Of little account. Their head some
times gets aching from the racket OF the
grandchildren down stairs or in the noxt
room. They steady themselves by the banis-
tiers as they go up and down. When they
get cold it hangs on to them longer thanit
used to. They cannot bear to have the grand
children punished, even when they deserve
it, and have so relaxed their ideas of family
discipline that they would spoil all the
Youngsters of the household by 700 great
lcniency. These old folks are tho resort when
great troubles come, and there is calming
and soothing power in tho touch of an aged
hand that is almost supernatural. They feel
they arc almost through with the journey OF
life and read. the old book more than they
used to, hardly knowing which most they en-
joy, the Old Testament or the New, and often