Milford chronicle. [volume] (Milford, Del.) 1878-1974, 1896-07-31
Responsibility.

Oh, ye Of Christian ancestry You have
responsibility vast beyond all measure
ment. God will not let you off with just
being as good ms ordinary people when you
had such extraordinary advantage. Ought
not flower planted in a dollhouse be more
thrifty than IA flower planted outside in
the storm? Ought not "A factory turned by
the HOusatonic do more work than Il fac
tory turned by thin and shallow noun
tain stream Ought not you of great early
opportunity be better than those who had
q cradle unblessed? A father sets his son
up in business He keeps an account of all
the expenditures-sO much for store fix
lures so much for rent, so much for this,
so much for that, and all the items aggre-
gated-and the father expects the son to
give an account. Your heavenly Father
charges against you all the advantage of "A
piOus ancestry so many prayers, so much
Christian example, so many kind en-
trcaties-all these gracious influences, one
tremendous aggregate, and he asks you
for an account of it. Ought not you to be
better than those who had no such adyan-
tageg Better have been a founding picked
up off the city commons than, with such
magnificent inheritance of consecration, to
turn out inditcrently.
Ought not you, my brother, to be better,
having had Christian nurture, than the
man who can truly say this morning,
1.-THE first word l remember my father
speaking to me was an oath; the first time
remember my father taking hold Of me
was in wrath; l never saw Bible till
was 10 years Of age, and then was told it
was a pack of lies; the first 20 years Of
my life / was associated with the vicious;
1 seemed to be walled in by sin and death?'
Now, my brother, ought you mott leave
it as n 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 generation that is past and
tho 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 Iiety in
that ancestral line and are you going to
augment or sqGandcr that solemn trust
fund? Are you going to disinherit your
sons and daughters of the heirloom which
your parents left your All, that cannot be
possible--it cannot be possible that you
are going to take such position rs that!
You are very careful about the life insrr-
ance, 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's
Dr. grandmOther's religiOnl Oh, what "a
last will and testament you are making,
my hrotherl In the name Of God, amen.
I, being of sound mind, make this my last
will and testament l bequeath to my
children all the money ever made and all
The houses own, but disinherit them,
rob them of the ancestral grace and the
Christian influence that / inherited. / have
squandered that on my own worldliness
Share and share alike must they in the
misfortune and the everlasting outrage.
Signed, sealed and delivered in the presence
# God and men and angels and devils, and
III the generations of earth and heaven and
iell, July, 1896 :"
The blessed Mother.
Oh, ye of highly favored ancestry, wake
ID this morning to a sense of your oppOr-
unity and responsibility i think there
must be an old cradle or a fragment OF n
,radle somewhere that could tell story of
supplication in your behalf
Who're is the Old rocking chair in which
7ou were sung to sleep with the holy
nursery rhymeY Where is the old clock
hat licked away the moments of that sick
less on that awful night when there were
tut three of you awake--you and God and
nothers Is there not an old staff in sglne
ilosets We beg you to turn over aew
eaf this very day.