The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1893-03-24
went and told tbs story 10 a Young WON.

| went and told the story TO young woni-
an to whom he was affianced, who as
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 neighborhood from
family to family until the whole region
was whelmed with religious awakening,
and at the next communion in the village
church at Somerville over 300 souls stood
up to profess the faith Of the gospel.
My mother, carrying the memory of this
scene from early womanhood into fur
ther 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 line of mercy back to that
hour when my Christian grandmoth-
or sat in her room imploring 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 beauty, and ten
derness, and sublimity in family re-
| ligion!
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. Throughit can
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 irradiated. Old,
old book, the hands that held thee are
ashes, the eyes that perused thee are
closed, What pillow thou wouldst make
for dying head. | salute all the men,
cries of the past when l 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 a
whole Bible in large type, with the fam
lily record Of marriages and births and
deaths. What if the curious should turn
| ba 1aoypc 10 hnt,y n1l o,.aS
| 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 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 wenot
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
rocialities, 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: Eyes! 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, dnn'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 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 pious bring
ing up, but who as yet have disappointed
the expectations excited in regard tt
them. l said that children brought W
in Christian households, though they
might make wide curve, were very APP
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?
EARLY CHRISTIAN TRAINING.
"Oh," you say, 'they were too rigid.
Well now, my brother, think you hav.
a pretty good character considering
what you say your parents were. d.
not boast too much about the style il
which your parents brought you up
Might 1t not be possible that you woulf
be an exception to the general rule lait
down, and that you. might spend you
eternity in different world from tina
in which your parents are spending
theirs?
l feel anxious about you; you feel anx
ious about yourself. Oh, cross over int,
the right path. If your parents prayed
for you twice day, each Of them twic
day for 20 years, that would make 20,
900 prayers for you. Think of theml
By the memory of the cradle in whicl
your childhood was rocked with the foo
that long ago ceased to move, by tn
crib in which your own children slumbe
night by night under Gods protecting
care, by the two graves in which slee]
those two old hearts that beat with low
SO long for your welfare, and by the tw,
graves in which you, now the Twin;
father and mother, will find your las
repose, urge you to the discharge o
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 iron
the skies today and give new emphasi
to what you told us on earth with man,
tears and anxieties Keep aplace for u