The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1893-03-21


right. The young people may make vide
curve from the straight path, but they
are almost sure to come back TO the
right road. 1t may not be until the death of
one Of the parents How often it is that
we hear some one say, ooh! he was a
wild young man. but since his fathers
death he has been different" The fact is
that the fathers coffin. or the mothers cof-
fin, is often the altar of repentance for the
child. Oh! that was stupendous day,
the day of fathers burial. 1t was not the
officiating clergyman who made the chief
impression, nor the sympathizing mourners;
it was the father asleep i'll the casket. The
hands that had tOiled for the household so
long, folded. The brain cooled off after
twenty or forty years of anxiety about how
to put that family in right position. The
lips closed after many years OF good ad-
vice There are more tears falling in
mothers grave than in fathers grave: but
over the fathers tomb / think there is
kind of ave. 1t is at that marble pillar
many young man has been revolution
led
o Young man with cheek flushed with dis
sipation. how long is it since you have been
out to your fathers grave? Will you not
so this week? Perhaps the storms of the
last few days may have bent the headstone
until it leans far over. You had peter go
out and see whether the lettering has been
defaced. You had better go out and see
whether the gate of she lot is closed You
had better 60 out and see if you cannot find
a sermon in the springing grass. " young
man! go out this week and see your father
grave Religion did so much for our
Christian ancestry. are we not ready ms
our own households? If we do re-
ceive it, let it come through the front door,
not through the back door. In other
words, do not let us smuggle 1t IN. mere
are a great many families who want TO ne
H.. Il ,1f
outside to know it. They would be NOR
tilted to death if you caught them at fam
w PRAYERS. They would not sing III the
worship for fear their neishbors would
hear them. They do not have prayers
when they have company!
They do not know much about. the nobil'
ity of the western trapper. a traveller
going along was overtaken by night and
a storm, and he entered a cabin. There
were firearms hung up around the cabin.
He was ALARMED. He had a large amount
of money with him, but he did not dare to
venture out into the night IN the storm.
He did not like the looks of the house
hold. After II while the father, the west
ern trapper, came in, gun on shoulder, and
when the traveller looked at him he was stlll
more affrighted. After awhile the family
were whispering together III one corner
of the room, and the traveller Thought TO
himself, "Oh, now my time has come; !
wish | was out in the storm and in the
night rather than here" But the swarthy
man came up to him and said: Slr we
are a rough people; we get our living by
hunting and are very tired when the
night comes; but before going to bed we
always have a habit of reading little out
of the Bible and having prayers, and l
think we will have our usual custom to-
night and if you don't believe in that kind
of thing. if you will just step outside the
door for a little while will be much obllg-
ed to you.
Oh. there are many Christian parents
who have not half the courage of that
western trapper. They do not want their
religion projecting too consplcuously. Iney
would like to have it near by so as to call
on it in case of funeral; but as to having
it dominant in the household from the LIST
Of January, 7 o'clock a. H., to the 3lst OF
DECEMBER, 10 o'clock p. M, they do not
want it, They would rather. die and
have their families perish with them than
to cry out in the bold words of the soldier
in my text: LAS for me and my house,
we will serve the Lord"
ueqqllt so strangely Impressive that it seS.ns
more like romance than reality. 1t lias
sometimes been so inaccurately put forth
that | now give you the true incident. My
grandfather and grandmother. living at
Somervile, n. j.. went to Baskingridge
10 witness a revival under the ministry of
the Rev. DR.. Finley. They came home
so impressed with what they had seen
that they resolved on the salvation of their
children.
The young people of the house were to
go off for an evening party and my grand
mother said:
Now when you are all ready for the
party come to my room, for | have some
thing very important to tell YOU" All
ready for departure they came to her room
and she said to them: Now, ] want
you to remember, while you are away this
+I,,t III ~
room praying for your salvation, and |
shall not cease praying until you get back"
The young people went to the party, but
amid the loudest hlarities Of the nigh,
they could not forget that their mother was
praying for them. The evening passed
The next day my grandparents heard an
cutlery in an adjoining room and they went
in and found their daughter implOring the
salvation of the gospel. The daughter told
them that her brothers were at the barn
and at the wagon house under powerful con
victiOn of sin. They went to the barn. They
found my uncle Jehah, who afterwards
became a minister of the gospel, crying to
God for mercy. They went to the wagon
house. They found their son David, who
afterwards became my father, imploring
Gods pardon and mercy. Before Il great
while the whole family We're saved, and
David went and told the story to a young
woman to whom he was atiianced. who, as
IL
and from her own lips-my mothers-I have
received the incident.
The story of that converted household
ran through all the neighborhood from fam
lily to family until the whole region was
whelmed with religious awakening and at
the next communion in the village church
at Somervile 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 was resolved upon the sal
walton of her children and for many
years every week she met three other Chris
tan mothers to pray for the salvation of
their families. | think that all the mem
bers of those families We're saved-myself
the youngest and the last
There We're twelve of us children. I
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 be-
fore the throne of God surrounded by her
childen. In the presence of the Christian
church today. l make this record of ances-
trail piety. Oh there is a beauty and
tenderness and a sublimity in family re-
ligion.
There are but four or five pictures in the
old family Bible that 1 inherited. but Dore
tl, ie,