The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1896-08-05

I y
lug. mg brotherI In the name Of
God, amen |, being OF sound mind,
make this my las! will and testament.
l bequeath to my children all the
money ever made and all the houses
| own. but I disinherit them, l rob
them Of the ancestral grace and the
Christian influence that I inherited.
l 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 of God
and men and angels and devils, and
all the generations of earth and heav-
! en- and hell, July, 1896"
Oh, ye of highly favored ancestry,
wake up this morning to sense of
your opportunity and responsibility
| think there must be an old cradle or
a fragment of cradle somewhere that
could tel story of midnight suppli-
cation in your behalf. Where is the
old rocking chair in which you were
sung to sleep with the holy nursery
rhyme Where is the old clock that
ticked away the moments OF that sick
ness ON that awful night when there
were 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 new leaf this very day.
Oh, the power OF ancestral piety,
well illustrated by 2 young man of
New York who attended pray er
meeting one night and asked for pray
er and then went home and wrote
down these words: twenty-five
years ago tonight my mother went to
heaven, my beautiful, blessed mother,
and l have been alone, tossed up and
down upon the pillows of life's tenn
peituous ocean. Shall I ever go to
heaven2 She told me I 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 | might meet her IN
heaven. I wonderif [ ever shall2 My
mothers prayers! Oh, my sweet,
blessed mothers prayers Did ever
boy have such mother at had2 For
25 years I have not heard her pray un-
til tonight. l have heard all her
prayers over again. They have had,
in fact, a terrible resurrection. Oh,
how she was wont to pray! She
prayed as they prayed tonight-so
earnest, so importunate, so believing.
Shall ever be Christian? She was
Christian. Oh, how bright and pure
and happy was her lifel She was
cheerful and happy Christian. There
is my mothers Bible. l have not
opened it for years. Did she believe
l could ever neglect her precious
Bible2 She surely thought l would
read it much and often. How often
has she read it to me! How did she
cause me to kneel by my little bed
and put my little hands up in the atti-
tude of prayer How has she knelt
by me and over me, and | have felt
her warm tears raining down upon
my hands and facel
BLESSED mother, did you pray in
vain for your boy2 Il shall not be in
vain. All no, no; it shall not be in
vain! I will pray for myself. Who
has sinned against so much instruc-
ton as l have-against so many
precious prayers put up to heaven for
me by one OF the most lovely, tender,
pious, confding, trusting OF mothers
in her heavenly Fathers care and
grace? She never doubted. She be-
lieved. She always prayed as if she
did. Ny Bible, my mothers Bible
and my conscience teach what | am
and what have made myself. On,
| the bitter pangs OF an accusing con-
science! I need Saviour mighty to
save. must seek him. will, arn on
the sea of existence, and can never
get off from It. [ am atioat. No an
chor, no rudder, no compass, no book
of instructions, for | have put them
all away from me. Saviour OF the
perishing, save or perish !" DO you
wonder that the next day he arose in
prayer meeting and said: "My breth.
rem. stand before you a monument
of Gods amazing mercy and goodness.
Forever blessed be his holy namel
All have and all I am l consecrate
to Jesus, my Saviour and my God" "
Oh, the power of ancestral prayerl
Hear it, Hear it,
But I turn for a moment to those
who had evil parentage, and l 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-con-
ouered. As good, as useful, as spler-
did a gentleman as | ever knew had
for father man who died blasphem-
ing God until the neighbors had 10
put their fingers in their ears to shut
out the horror. One Of the most con-
secrated and useful Christian ministers
Of today was the son OF a drunken
horse Jockey. Tide of evil is tremen.
dous in some families. It is like Nj
agara rapids, and yet men have clung
to a rock and been rescued.
There is family in New York,
whose wealth has rolled up into many
millions, that was founded by a man
who, after he had vast estate, sent back
paper of tacks because they were 3
cents more than he expected. Grip
and grind and gouge in the fourth
generation, suppose it will be grip
and grind and gouge in the twentieth
generation. The thirst of intoxlcants
has burned down through the arteries
ola hundred and fifty years. Pag-
nacity or combativeness characterlzss
other families. Sometimes one form
of evil, sometimes another form OF
evil. Butt may be resisted; 1t has
been resisted. If the family frailty be
avarice, cultivate unsel6shness and
charity and teach your children never
to eat an apple without offering some
body else half of it. Is the family
fraiIty com bativeness, keep out OF the
COMPANY of quick tempered people