The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1896-08-06

lneuoTleS VI your heart Wni!e make the
impassioned interrogatory in regard to your
pedigree, "Whoso son art thou, thou young
MANI"
First accost all those who are descended
| of Christian ancestry. I do not ask il your
parents were perfect. There are no perfect
| people now. and do not suppose there were
| any perfect people then. Perhaps there was
sometimes too much blood in their eye when
they chastised you. But, from what 1 know
| Of you, you got no more than you deserved,
| and perhaps little more chastsement
| willing to acknowledge, think. that they
| wanted to do right. From what you over
| heard in conversations and from what YOU
saw at the family altar and at neighborhood
obse4uies you know that they had invited
| God into their heart and their life. There
was something that sustained those old
people supernaturally. You have no doubt
about their destiny. You expect you ever get
to heaven to meet them as you expect to meet
| the Lord Jesus Christ.
| That early association has been charm
for you. There was time when you got
| right up from house Of iniquity and walked
| out into the fresh air because you thought
your mother was looking at you. You have
never been very happy in sin because of Il
sweet old face that would present itself
Tremulous voices from the past accOsted you
until they were seemingly audible, and you
looked around to see who spoke. There was
! an estate not mentioned In the last will and
| testament, a vast estate of prayer and holy
| example and christian entreaty and glorious
memory. The survivors of the family gath
cred to hear the will read and this was to
be kept and that was to be sold, aud it was
''share and share alike" But there was an
unwritten will that read something like this:
| I'm the name OF God. amen, being Of sound
mind, bequeath to my children all my pray
ers for their salvation; bequeath to them
all the results Of lifetime's toll, bequeath
to them the Christian religion, which has
been so much comfortto me, and hope may
be solace for them; bequeath to them Il
hope OF reunion when the partings Of life are
over. Share and share alike may they in
herit eternal riches bequeath to them the
wish that they may avoid my errors and
| copy anything that may have been worthy
In the name of God who made me. and the
| Christ who redeemed me, and the Holy
Ghost who sacrifices me. make this my last
will and testament. Witness all you hosts
! of heaven. Witness time, witness eternity
| Signed, sealed and delivered in this our
| dying hour, Father and Mother" You did
not get that will proved at the surrogates
| office, but take it out to-day and I read it
| to you. take it out of the alcoves of your
heart. shake the dust off it, T ask if you
| will accept that inheritance, or will you
| break the will?
o ye Of Christian ancestry, you have a
responsibility vast beyond all measurement.
God will not let you of with just being as
good as ordinary people when you had such
| extraordinary advantage. Ought not a
| flower planted In dollhouse be more thrifty
| than a flower planted outside III a storm?
| Ought not factory turned by the Housa-
tonic do more work than factory turned by
a thin and shallow mountain stream2 Ought
not you of great early opportunity be better
| than those who had cradle unblessed? A
father sets his son up in business. He
| keeps an account Of all the expenditures, SO
much for store fixture. 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 advan-
| tages OF pious ancestry-so many prayers,
| so much Christian example, so many kind
| entreaties-all these gracious influences. one
tremendous aggregate, and he asks you tor
an account of it. Ought not you to be better
than those who had no such advantage? Bet
! ter have been a founding picked up off the
| city commons than with such magnificent
| Inheritance of conservation to turn out in
| differently. Ought not you, my brother, to
be better, having had Christian nuture. than
the man who can truly say this morning:
''The first word remember my father speak
! Ing to me was an oath; the first time I re-
member my father taking hold of me was in
wrath; I never saw Bible till was ten
| years of age, and then I was told it was a
pack of lies. The first twenty years of my
life was associated with thevicious. seemed
| to be walled in by sin and death"
Now, my brother, ought you not-I leave
it as a matter of fairness with you-ought you
not to be better than those who had no early
Christian influence? Standing as you do be-
tween the generation 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 ancestral line,
and are you going to augment 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 possible
| that you are going to take such a position as
| that. You are very careful about life insur-
ances, and careful about the deeds, and
careful about the mortgage. and careful
about the title of your property. because
when you step, OF the stage you want your
children to get it all. Are you making no
provision that they shall get grandfather
or grandmother's religion? Oh, what last
| will and testament you are making, my
| brother! "In the name of God, amen. l,
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 I disinherit them. rob them OF
the ancestral grace and the Christian in
iuence that inherited. have squandered
that on my own wor.dliness. Share and
share alike must they in the misfortune and
the everlasting outrage. Signed. sealed and
delivered in the presence of God and mer
and angels and devils and all the genera
tions of earth and heaven and hell, July
1895"
Dye of highly favored ancestry, wake VI
this morning to sense of your opportunity
and responsibility. l think there must be AZ
old cradle or fragment of a cradle some
where that could tell a story of midnigh
supplication in your behalf. Where is thu
old rocking chair in which you were sung t;
sleep with the holy nursery rhyme? Whert
is the old clock that licked away the mo
ments of that sickness on that awful nigh
when there were but three of you awake
you and God and mother? Is there not al
old staff in some closet2 We beg yout to turf
over u new leaf this very day.
Oh. the power of ancestral piety. we'll il
Illustrated by q young man of New York who
attended prayer meeting one night anC
asked for prayers and then went home AM
wrote down these words: twenty-five year
ago tonight my mother went to heaven, m.
beautiful, blessed mother, and I have beel
al me. tossed up and down upon the billow