The Pickens sentinel. [volume] (Pickens, S.C.) 1871-1903, 1893-03-30

until you get back" The young peo-
pie went to the party, but amid the |
oudest hilarit1es of the night they |
could not forget that their mother was |
praying for them. The evening passed,
md the night passed.
The Lext day my grandparents heard
IN outcry in an adjoining room, and
hey went i'll ard found their daughter
mplOring the salvation of the gospel
The daughter told them that her
brothers were Mt the barn and at the |
wagon hou.e urder powerful convic- |
lou OF sin. They went to the barn.
Ihey found my uncle Jehiah, who af-
Lerward became minister Of the gos-
pei, crying to God for mercy. They
went to the wagon house. They found
their son David, who afterward be.
came my father, imploring Gods par
don and mercy. Before great while
the whole family were saved, and Da-
Vid went and told the story to 4 Young
woman to whom he was ailianced, who,
as result Of the story, became Chris.
tlan. and from her own lips-my moth
er'3-l have received the incident.
The story OF that converted house
hold ran through all the nelghborhood,
from family TO family, until the whole
region was Whelmed with religious
awakening, and at the next communion
In the VilllagC church at SOmeryille
over POO souls stood up to profess the
faith OF the gospel. My mother, carry
ing the memory Of this scene from early
Womanhood into further life in after
years was resolved upon the salvation
of her children, and for many years
every week she met three oLher Chris.
tlan mothers to pray for the salvation
or their families. l think that all the
members OF those families were saved
myself, tho youngest aud the last.
There were II of us children. trace
the whole line of mercy back to that
hour when my Christian grandmother
sat in her room imploring the blessing
of God upon her children. Nine Of her
descendants became preachers of the
gospel. Many of her descendants are
in heaven, many Of them still in the
Christian conflict. Did it pay for her
to spend the whole evening In PRAYER
for her household? Ask her before the
throne of God surrounded by her Chill
dren. In the presence of the Christian
church today l make this record of an
ccstral pieCy. On, there is a beauty
and a tenderness and a sublimiCy 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 illustrated to my eyes.
Through it | can see into marriages
and burials, joys and sorrows, meetings
and partings, Thanksgiving davs and
Christmas festivals, cradles and death
beds: Old, old book!speak out and tell
or the sorrows comforted and of the
dying hours irradiated. Old, old book!
the hands that held thee are ashes, the
eyes that perused thee are closed.
What a pillow thou wouldst make for
Il dying headl salute all tho memoir
les OF the past when l press it to my
heart and when | press it to my lips.
On, that family Bible! The New
Testament in small type is not worthy
OF belng called by that name. Have a
whole Bible in large type, with the
family record of marriages and births
and deaths. What if the curious
should turn over the leaves to see how
old you are? You are younger LOW
than you will ever be again. The cur
louS will find out from those with
whom you have played in your child
hood how old you are. Have family
Bible. 1t will go down from genera
tlon to generation full Of holy memor-
les. a hundred years after you are
dead it will be benedlction to those
who come after you. Other books worn
out or fallen apart will be flung to the
garret or the cellar, but this will be in
violate, and il VIII be your protest for
centuries against iniquity and in be.
half of righteousness.
on. when we see what family reliR-
ion did FOR our fathers household, do
we not want it to come into the dining
room to break the break, into the nurs-
cry to bless the young, into the parlor
to purify the socialities, into the libra
ry to control the reading, into the bed
room to hallOw tire slumbor, into the
hall to watch our going out and our
corning in? Aye, there are hundreds
of voices in this house ready to cry
out: "l es! Yes! AS for me and my
house, we will serve the Lord"
There are two arms to this subject.
The one arm puts its hand on all par
ents. 1t says to them: "Don't inter-
fere with your children's welfare.
Don't interfere with their eternal
happiness. Don't you bJ anything you
do put out your foot and trip them in
to ruin. Start them under the shelter,
the insurance, the everlasting help of
olii PulOlOttSC' w III
not save them, though catechisms are
good. The rod will not save them,
though the rod may be necessary. Les.
sons of virtue will not save them
though they are very important. Be
coming through and through, up and
down, out and out Christian yourself
will make them Christians"
The other arm of this subject put.
its hand upon those who had a pious
bringing up, but who as yet have dis
appointed the expectations excited II
regard to them. l said that children
brought up in Christian households
though they might make wide curve
were very apt to come back to thi
straight path. Have you not beer
curving out longe nough, and Is it no
most time for you to begin to curve in
"Oh," you say, they were too rigid
Well now, my brother, l think you hav,
a pretty good character considerin,
what you say your parents were. Dt
not boast too much about the style ir
which your parents brought you UP
Might 1T not be possible that you woult
be an exception to the general rule lai(
down, and that you might spend you,
eternity in a different world from that