The Monitor-register., 1896-07-31


York who attended prayer meeting
one night and asked for prayer and then
went home and wrote down these
words: Twenty-Five years ago tonight
my mother went to heaven, my beauti-
full, blessed mother, and / have been
alone, tossed up and down upon the bill
lows of life's tempestuous ocean, Shall
1 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 l might meet her in heaven.
wonder if / ever shall? My mothers
prayers-oh, my sweet. blessed mothers
prayersl Did ever boy have such
mother as had? For % years have
not heard her pray until tonight have
heard all her prayers over again. They
have had, in fact, terrible resurrection.
Oh, how she was wont to prayI She
prayed as they prayed tonight, so ear
nest, so importunate, so believing. Shall
ever be Christian? She was Chris
tlan. Oh. how bright and pure and hap
py was her life! She was cheerful and
happy Christian.
There is my mothers Bible. have
not opened it for years. Did she believe
l could ever neglect her precious Bible?
She surely Thought would read it
much and often. How often has she
read it to mel How did she cause me to
kneel by my little bed and put my little
hands up in the attitude of prayerl How
has she knelt by me and over me, and
have felt her warm tears raining down
upon my hands and face! Blessed
mother, did you pray in vain for your
boy? 1t shall not be in vain. All, no,
no. it shall not be in vain. will pray
for myself Who has sinned against so
much instruction as have? Against SO
many precious prayers put up to heaven
for me by one of the most lovely, tender,
pious, confiding, trusting of mothers in
her Heavenly Fathers care and grace?
She never doubted; she believed. She
always prayed as If she did. My Bible,
my mothers Bible and my conscience
teach what am and what have made
myself. Oh, the bitter pangs of an ac-
cusing consciencel I need Saviour
mighty to save. I must seek him. l
will. l am on the sea Of existence, and
can never get off from it. am af1oat.
No anchor, no rudder, no compass, no
book Of instructions, for I have put
them all away from me. Saviour of the
perishing, save, or I perish" Do you
wonder that the next day he arose in
prayer meeting and said: My brethren,
stand before you a monument of Gods
amazing mercy and goodness, forever
blessed be his holy name. All have and
all / am I consecrate to Jesus, my
Saviour and my God?" Oh, the power
of ancestral prayer Hear it'll Hear it'll
An Inheritance.
But 1 turn for moment to those
who had evil parentage, and / want to
tell you that the highest thrones in
heaven and the mightiest triumphs and
the brightest crowns will be for those
who had evil parentage, but who by the
grace of God conquered - conquered.
AS good, as useful, as splendid gentle
man as I ever knew had for father a
man who died disappearing God until
the neighbors had to put their fingers in
their ears to shut out the horror. One
of the most consecrated and useful
Christian ministers Of today was the
son of a drunken horse jockey Tide of
evil tremendous in some familiesl 1t is
like Niagara rapids, and yet men have
clung to rock and been rescued. There
is family in New York, whose wealth
has rolled up into many millions, that
was founded by man who. after he
had vast estates, sent back paper of
tacks because they were cents more
than he expected. Grip and grind and
gouge In the fourth generation-I sup
pose it will be grip and grind and gouge
in the twentieth generation. The thirst
of intoxicants has burned down through
the arteries of a hundred and fifty years.
Pugnacity OF combativeness character
izes other families Sometimes one form
of evil, sometimes another form of evil.
But il may be resisted; it has been re-
sisted. If the family frailty be avarice,
cultivate unselfshness and charity and
teach your children never to eat an ap-
pie without Offering somebody else half
Of 1t. is the family frailty combative-
ness, keep out of the company of quick
tempered people and never answer an
impertinent question until you have
counted a hundred both ways, and after
you have written an angry letter keep
| it q week before you send it, and then
burn 1t up.
Is the family frailty timidity and
cowardice, cultivate backbone; read the
biography of brave men like. Joshua or
Paul and see if you cannot get little
iron in your blood. Find out what the
family frailty is and set body, mind
and soul in battle array. Conquer you
will I think the genealogical table was
put In The first chapter Of the New Tes-
lament not only to show our Lords ped
igree, but to show that a man may rise
up in an ancestral line and beat back
successfully all the influences of bad
heredity. See in that genealogical table
that good King Asa was born of vile
King Abba. See In that genealogical
table that Joseph and Mary and the
most illustrious Being that ever touched
our world or ever will touch it had in
their ancestral line scandalous Reho-
boam and Rahab and Thamar and Bath
sheba. If this world is ever to be Eden
ized-and it will be-all the infected
families of the earth are to be regener-
ated, and there will some one arise in
each family line and open new genea-
logical table. There will be some Joseph
to arise in the line and reverse the evil
influence Of Rehoboam, and there will
be some Mary to arise in the line and
reverse the evil influence of Bathsheba.
Perhaps the star Of hope may point
/ down to your manger. Perhaps you are
to be the hero or the heroine that is to
put down the brakes and stop that long
line of genealogical tendencies and
switch it off on another track from that
on which 1t has been running for q cen
tury. You do that, and will promise
You as fine palace as the architects of
heaven can build, the archway inscribed
with the words, more than conquer
Or" But, whatever your heredity, let
me say you may be sons and daughters
Of the Lord God Almighty.
Estranged children from the home
stead. come back through the open gate
of adoption. There is royal blood in our
veins; there are crowns on our escutch-
con; our father is king; our brother is