Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1893-03-25
go OH Tor 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 he1
room, and she said to them, Now,
want you to remember, while you are
away this evening. that am all the time
in this 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 hilarities
of the night they could not forget that
their mother was praying for them. The
evening passed. and the night passed.
The next day my grandparents heard
an outcry i'll '.li adjoining room, and they
went III and found their daughter i'm
ploring the salvation OF the gospel. The
daughter told them that her brothers
were at the barn and at the wagon house
under powerful conviction of sin. They
went to the barn. They found my Uncle
Jehiah, who afterward became minis
ter of the gospel, crying to God for
mercy They went to the wagon house.
They found their son David, who after
ward became my father. imploring Gods
pardonanl mercy. Before Il great while
the whole f;ll!ily were saved, and David
went and told the story to u young wom-
an to whom he WAS affianced, who as a
result of the story became Christian,
and from her own lips-my mothers
have received the incident.
CONVERSION OF THE TALMAGE FAMILY.
The story of that converted household
ran through all the ncighborhood from
family to family until the whole region
was whelmed with religious awakening,
and at the next communion in the village
church at Someryille over 200 souls stood
up to profess the faith of the gospel.
My mother. carrying the memory of this
scene from early womanhood into fur
Their life. in after years was resolved up
on the salvation of her children, and for
many years every week she met three
other Christian mothers to pray for the
salvation of their families think that
all the members of those families were
saved-myself, the youngest and last.
There were 12 Of us children. trace
the whole iue of mercy back to that
hour when my Christian grandmoth
er sat in her room inploring the bless.
ing 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 children. In
the presence of the Christian church to-
day | make this record of ancestral
piety. Oh, there is II beauty, and ten
derness. and a sublimity in family re-
igion!
There are but four or five pictures in
the old family Bible that inherited, but
Dore never illustrated q Bible as that book
is illustrated to my eyes. Thought lean
see into marriages and burials, joys and
sorrows, meetings and partings. Thanks
giving days and Christian festivals, era
dies and deathbeds Old, old book, speak
out and tell of the sorrows comforted
and of the dying hours TRAD hated Old.
sold rod tlfn al1flez eln.lnl-t11rt
closed. What pillow thou wouldst make
for dying head. salute all the mem
cries of the past when press it to my
heart and when press it to my lips.
BIBLE ASSOCIATIONS.
Oh, that family Bible! The New Tes'
lament in small type is not worthy OF
being called by that name. Have
whole Bible in large type, with the fam
lily 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 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 a benediction to
those who come after you. Other books,
worn out or fallen apart, will be flung
to the garnet or the cellar, but this will
be inviolate, and it will be your protest
for centuries against iniquity and in be-
half 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 in this house ready to
CRY out: ayes! 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 interfere
with your children's welfare, don't inter
fere with their eternal happiness, 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 hslp of Christian parentage.
Catechisms will not save them, though
CatechlSmS are SoOu. Lie rou WILL iioo
save them, though the rod may be neces-
sary. Lessons of virtue will not save
them, though they are very important,
Becoming 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 a pious bring
ing up, but who as yet have disappointed
the expectations excited III regard tc
them. I said that children brought VI
in Christian households, though they
might make wide curve, were very apt
to come back tothe straight path. Have
you not been CURING out long enough
and is it not most time for you to beSlr
to curve III?
EARLY CHRISTIAN TRAINING.
"Oh." you say, "they were too rigid.
Well now. my brother, / think you have
a pretty good character considering
what you say your parents were. Dc