The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1893-03-31

funeral; but as TO having lt dOmi-
nant in the household from the 1st OF
January, seven o'clock a. m, to the
sist of December; ten o'clock D. M,
they do not want 1t. They would
rather die and have their families per=
ish with them than to cry out in the
bold words of the soldier in my text:
"As for me and my house, we will
serve the Lord"
There was, in my ancestral line, an
incident so strangely impressive that it
seems more like romance than reality.
It has sometimes been 80 inaccurately
put forth that now give you the true
incident. My grandfather and grand
mother, living at Somerville, N. j.,
went to Baskingridge to witness a re-
vival under the ministry of Rev. DIR.
Finley. They came home SO impressed
with what they had seen that they re-
solved on the salvation of their chill
dren.
The young people of the house were
to go off for an evening party, and my
grandmother said:
Now, when you are all ready for the
party, come to my room, for I have
something very important to tell YOU"
All ready for departure, they came to
her room, and she said to them: Now,
l want you to remember, while you are
away this evening, that / am all the
time in this room praying for your sal
yation, and I shall not cease praying
until you get back. The young people
went to the party, but, amid the loud
est hilarities of the night, they could
- hot fhnS of tha1s YpVsaxZ
ing for them. The evening passed, and
the night passed.
The next day my grandparents heard
an outcry in an adjoining room, and
they went in and found their daugh-
ter imploring the salvation of the Cos
pei. The daughter told them that her
brothers were at the barn and at the
wagon house under powerful convic-
ton of sin. They went to the barn.
They found my uncle Jehiah, who aft
erwards became q minister of the Cos
pei, crying to God for mercy. They
went to the wagon house. They found
their son David, who afterwards be-
came my father, deploring Gods par
don and mercy. Before great while
the whole family were saved, and Da-
vid went and told the story to a young
woman to whom he was affianced, who,
as the result of the story, became a
Christian, and from her own lips-my
mother's-I have received the incident.
The story of that converted house
hold ran through all the neighborhood,
from family to family, until the whole
region was whelmed with religious
awakening, andat the next communion
in the village church at Somerville over
two hundred souls stood up to profess
the faith of the Gospel. My mother,
carrying the memory of this scene from
early womanhood into farther life, in
after years resolved upon the salvation
of her children, and for many years
every week she met three other Chris
tian mothers to pray for the salvation
OF their families. I think that all the
members of those families were saved
myself. the youngest and the last.
There were twelve of us children. I
trace the whole line of mercy back to
that hour when my Christian grand.
mother sat in her room imploring the
blessing of God upon her children.
Nine of her descendants became preach
ers of the Gospel. Many of her de-
scendants 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 children. In the presence of the
Christian church to-day | make this
record of ancestral piety. Oh! there is
beauty and tenderness and sub
Unity in family religion.
There are two arms to this subject.
The one arm puts its hand on all
parents. It says to them: Don't in
terfere with your children's welfare.
Don't interfere with their eternal hap
piness- Don't you by anything you do
put out your foot and trip them into
ruin. Start them under the shelter,
the insurance, the everlasting help of
Christian parentage. Catechisms will
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 themt
| 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 pious
bringing up, but who as yet have dis
appointed the expectations excited in
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 the
straight path Have you not been
curving out long enough? and is it not
most time for you to begin to curve in?
feel anxious about you; you feel
anxious about yourself. Oh! cross over
into the right path. If your parents
prayed for you twice day for twenty
years, that would make twenty-nine
thousand prayers for you. Think of
| themi
By the memory of the cradle in which
your childhood was rocked with the
foot that long ago ceased to move, by
the crib in which your own children
slumber 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 wei.
fare, and by the two graves in which
you, now the living ather and mother,
will find your last repose, urge you to
the discharge of your duty.
Though parents may in covenant be,
And have their Heaven in view,
| They are 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 empha-
sis to what you told us on earth with
many tears and anxieties. Keep place
| for ms nv vour blissful side for to-day