Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1893-03-31

There were Il of Us chiliren trace the
Whole iine OF mercy CacS u taat hour when
NV Christian grandmother SIT IN ner room
Imploring the blessing Of Col upon her
children. Nlne OF he descau iants Dec ms
preachers OF the gospel. Many o. her &C.
scendants ale In neaver. many OF them still
IN the Caristian confIct. Di pay for ner
to spend the whole evening in prayer Tor
her household? Ask her before the throne
OF Goa, surrounded by her children. In the
presence OF the Christian church to- uay /
make this record OF ancestral piety. On,
there is beauty, AMI a tenderness, and a
suOlimity in family religion.
There are but four or five pictures in the
OLD family Bible that [ inherited, but Dore
never illustrated a Bible as that book is IL
Illustrated TO my eyes. Through it l can
into marriages and bur1ais, joys and sor-
rows, meetings and partings. Thanksgiving
days and Christian festivals. cradles ana
deathbeds. Old old book, speak out and tell
OF the sorrows comforted and OF the dying
hours irradiated. Old, old book, the hands
that held thee are ashes. the eyes that per-
sued thee are closed. What a pillar thou
wouldst make for dying head. l salute
all the memories of the past when l press it
to my heart and when press it to my lips.
Oh, that family Bible! The New Testa-
ment in small type is not worthy of being
called by that name Have a whole Bible in
large type, with the family record of mar
riages and births and deaths. What if the
curious should turn over the leaves to see
how old you are? You are younger now
than you will ever be again. The curious
will find out from those with whom you
have played in your childhood how old you
are. Have a family Bible. 1t will go down
from generation to generation, full of holy
memories A hundred years after you are
dead it will be benedictioa to those who
come after you. Other books worn out or
fallen apart will be flung to the garnet or
+ho h,,ft will hn
will be your protest for centuries against
iniquity and in behalf OF Righteousness.
Oh when we see what family religion did
for our fathers household, do we not want
it to come into the dining-room to break the
bread, into the nursery to bless the young,
into the parlor to purify the socialities into
the library to control the reading. into the
bedroom to hallow the slumber, into the hall
to watch our going out and our coming IN?
Aye, there are hundreds of voices III this
house ready to CRY out: Eyes! Yes! AS
for me and my house, we will serve the
Lord"
There are two arms to this subject. TIE
one arm puts its hand on all parents. 1t
says to them: Don't interfere with your
children's welfare, don't interfere with their
eternal happiness don't you by anything
you do put out your foot aud trip them into
ruin. Start them under the shelter. the in
surance, the everlasting help of Christian
parentage. Catechisms will not have them,
though catechisms are good. The rod will
not save them, though the rod may be neces-
sarY. Lessons of virtue will not save them,
though they are very important. Becoming
4 through and through, up and down, out
and out Christian yourself will make them
Christians"
The other arm of this subject puts its
hand upon those who had pious bringing
up, but who as yet have disappointed the
expectations excited in regard to them.
said that children brought up in Christian
hon 1irYhf mo. q q
wide curve, were very apt to come back to
the straight path. Have you not been
curving out long enough, and is it not most
time for you to begin to curve in?
Oh" you say, they were too rigid"
Well now, my brother, think you have
pretty good character considering what you
say your parents were. Do not boast too
much about the style in which your parents
brought you up. Might it not be possible
that you would be exception to the gen
spend your eternity in a different world
from that in which your parents are spend
ing theirs?
feel anxious about you; you feel anxious
about yourself. Oh, cross over into the right
path. Ii your parents prayed for you twice
a day each of them twice cay for 20 years,
that would make 80, 900 prayers for you.
Think of theml
By the memory of the cradle in which
your childhood was rocked with the foot
which your own children s!umber night by
night under Gods protecting care, by the
two graves in which sleep those two old
hearts that beat with love so long for your
welfare, and by the two graves in which
you, now the living father and mother, will
find your last repose, 1 urge you to the dis
charge of your duty.
Though parents may in covenant be
And have their heaven in view,
They not happy till they see
Their children happy too.
Oh. you departed Christian ancestry,
fathers and mothers in glory, bend from the
skies to-day and give new emphasis to what
you told us on earth with many tears and
anxieties! Keep place for us by your
blisstul side, for to-day. in the presence of
earth and heaven and hell, and by the help
of the cross and amid overwhelming and
gracious memories, we resolve, each one for
himself, Gas for me and my house We will
serve the Lord"