Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1896-07-27


flower nlanted outside in the storm?
Ought not factory turned by the
Housatoni., do more work than a factory
turned by a thin and shallow mountain
stream? Ought not you of great early
opportunity be better than those who
had a cradle unblessed? A father sets
his son up in business. He keeps an ac-
count of all the expenditures, SO much
for store fixtures SO much for rent, so
much for this, SO much for that, and all
the items aggregated, and the father
expects the son to give an account.
Your Heavenly Father charges against
you all the advantages Of a pious ances-
try-so many prayers, SO much Christian
example, SO many kind entreaties-all
these gracious influences, one tremen-
dous aggregate, and he asks you for an
account of it. Ought not you to be bet
ter than those who had no such advan-
tage? Better have been a founding
picked up off the city commons than
with such magnificent inheritance of
conservation to turn out indifferently.
Ought not you, my brother, to be better,
having had Christian nurture, than the
man who can truly say this morning:
'sThe first word remember my father
speaking to me was an oath; the first
time remember my father taking hold
of me was in wrath never saw Bible
till I was 10 years of age, aSsd then I
was told it was pack of lies. The first
20 years of my life I was associated
with the vicious. I seemed to be walled
in by sin and death. =
Question of Responsibility.
Now, my brother, ought you mott
leave it as matter of fairness with you
ought you not to be better than those
who had no early Christian influence?
Standing as you do between the genera
ton that is past and the generation that
is to come, are you going to pass the
blessing on, Or are you going to have
your life the gulf in which that tide of
blessing shall drop out Of sight forever?
You are the trustee of piety in that an
cestral line, and are you going to aug
ment or squander that solemn trust
fund? Are you going to disinherit your
sons and daughters of the heirloom
which your parents left you? All, that
cannot be possible-it cannot be pos
sible that you are going to take such
position as that. You are very careful
about the life assurances, and careful
about the deeds, and careful about the
mortgage, and careful about the title of
your property, because when you step
off the stage you want your children to
get it all. Are you making no provision
that they shall get grandfather or
grandmother religion? Oh, what last
will and testament you sre making, my
brother! "In the name of God, amen.
/, being of sound mind, make this my
last Will and testament. | bequeath to
my children all the money | ever made
and all the houses I own, but I disin-
herit them, rob them of the ancestral
grace and the Christian influence that I
inherited. I have squandered that on
my own worldliness. Share and share
alike must they i'll the misfortune and
the everlasting outrage Signed, sealed
and delivered in the presence of God
and men and angels and devils and
all the generations of earth and heaven
and hell. July, 1896. !"
o ye of highly favored ancestry,
wake up this morning to a sense of your
and responsibility. I think
there must be an old cradle or frag
ment Of cradle somewhere that could
tell story OF midnight supplication in
your behalf. Where is the old rocking
chair III which you were sung to sleep
with the holy nursery rhyme? Where
is the old clock that licked away the
Of that sickness on that awful
night when there We're but three of you
awake-you and God and mother? Is
there not an old staff in some closet?
We beg you to turn over a new leaf this
very day.
a Question of Power.
Oh, the power of ancestral piety, well
illustrated by young man of New
Y FORK who attended prayer meeting
one night and asked for prayer and then
went homo and wrote down these
words: Twenty five years ago tonight
my mother went to heaven, my beauti-
full, blessed mother, and I have been
alone, tossed up and down upon the bill
lows Of life's tempestuous ocean. Shall
ever go to heaven? She told me must
meet her in heaven. When she took my
hand in hers and turned her gentle,
loving eyes on me and gazed earnestly
and long into my face and then lifted
them to heaven in that last prayer, she
prayed that I might meet her in heaven.
[ wonder if I ever shall? My mothers
my sweet. blessed mothers
prayersl Did ever boy have such d
mother as I had? For % years I have
not heard her pray until tonight I have
heard all her prayers over again. They
have had, in fact, terrible resurrection.
f0 I,n
prayed as they prayed tonight, SO ear
nest, so importunate, SO believing. Shall
I ever be Christian? She was Chris
tian. Oh, how bright and pure and hap
py was her life! She was a cheerful and
happy Christian.
ssThere is my mothers Bible. have