Connecticut western news., 1893-03-23


 the Scriptures with 8 more tender enun- citation. She knows more of God. Twill put it plainly and say she prays better. Oh, these mothers decide almost every thingl Neros mother was murderess. Lord Byron's mother was naughty and impious. You might have guessed that from their children.
 Walter Scott's mother was fond of poetry. Washington's mother was patri- ~otic. Samuel Budgets mother was thor ough Christian. St. Bernard's mother was noble minded. So you might have guessed from their children. Good men always have good mothers. There may once in 10 or 20 years be an exception to the rule, but it is only an exception. Ben- jamin Vests mother kissed him after she had seen his first wonderful sketch with the pencil. Benjamin West after ward said, That kiss made me painter"
 A young man received a furlough to return from the army to his fathers house. Afterward he took the furlough back to the officer, saying, Il would like to postpone my visit for two weeks" At the end of the two weeks he came and got the furlough. He was asked why he waited. Well" he replied, when I left home told my mother I would be a Christian in the army, and was resolved not to go home until could answer her first question" Oh, the almost omnipo- tent power of the motherl But if both the father and the mother be right, then the children are almost sure to be right. The young people may make wide curve from the straight path, but they are almost sure to come back to the right road. It may not be until the death of one of the parents.
 How often it is that we hear some one say, ..Oh, he was wild young man, but since his fathers death he has been diff ferentr' The fact is that the fathers coffin or the mothers coffin is often the altar of repentance for the child. Oh, that was stupendous day, the day of fathers burial. 1t was not the officiat- ing clergyman who made the chief inn precision, nor the sylnpathizing mourn CTS. It was the father asleep in the cas- ket.
 The hands that had toiled for that household SO long, folded. The brain cooled off after 20 or 40 years of anxiety about how to put that family in right position. The lips closed after so many years of good advice. There are more tears falling in mothers grave than in fathers grave, but over the fathers tomb think there is kind of awe. It is at that marble pillar many young man has been revolutionized.
 ANCESTRAL RELIGION
 Oh, young man with cheek flushed with dissipation! how long is it since you have been out to your fathers gravei Will you not go this week? Perhaps the storms of the last few days may have bent the headstone until it leans far over. You had better go out and sec whether the lettering has been defaced. You had better go out and see whether the gate of the lot is closed. You had better go and see if you cannot find a sermon in the springing grass. Oh, young man, go out this week and see your fa- ther's grave!
 Religion did so much for our Christian ancestry, are we not ready this morning to be willing to receive it into our own households? If we do receive it, let it come through the front door, not through the back door. In other words, do not let us smuggle it in. There are great many families who want to be religious, but they do not want anybody outside to know it. They would be mortified to death if you caught them at family pray CTS. They would not sing in the wor- ship for fear the neighbors would hear them. They do not have prayers when they have company.
 They do not know much about the nobility of the western trapper. A trav- eler going along was overtaken by night and a storm, and he entered . cabin. There were firearms hung up around the cabin. He was alarmed. He had . large amount of money with him, but he did not dare to venture on into the night in the storm. He did not like the looks of the household. After awhile the father, the western trapper, came in, gun on shoulder, and when the traveller looked at him he was still more alright ed
 After awhile the family were whisper ing together in 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 upto him and said: Sir, we are rough peo- pie; we get our living by hunting, and we are very tired when the night comes; but before going to bed we always have habit of reading little out of the Bi- ble and having prayers, and l think we will have our usual custom tonight, and if you don't believe in that kind of thing if you will just step outside the door for a little while I will be much obliged to you"
 Ohl there are many Christian parents who have not half the courage of that western trapper. They do not want their religion projecting too conspicuous ly. They would like to have 1t near by so as to call on it in case of funeral, but as to having it dominant in the household from the 1st of January, 2 o'clock a. rn., to the 31st 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, "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 so inaccurately put forth that now give you the true incident. My grandfather and grand mother, living at Somerville, N. J., went to Bashngridge to witnessa revival un- der 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 grandmother 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, I want you to remember, while you are