The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1896-08-13


imtassioned interrogatory in regard to your
pedigree, "Whose son art thou, thou young
man?"
first accost all those who are descended
of a Christian ancestry. 1 do not ask II your
parents we're perfect. There are no perfect
people now. and do not suppose there wsrs
any perfect people then. Perhaps there was
sometimes too much blood in their eye when
they chas,ised you. But, from what knoT
OF you, you got no more than you deserved,
and perhaps little more ebastsemeht
would have been salutary. BUT you are
willing to acknowledge, think, that they
wanted 10 do right. From what you over
heard In conversations and ftofh what you
saw At the family altar and at heghbofhoodi
obseduies vob know that they had invited
God into their heart and their life; Ihere
was something that sustained those o,u
people systematically. You have no uoupt
about theiE destiny. YOU expeeti fyou ever get
70 heaven 10 meet them as you eSpeett TO meet
the Ford JESUS Christ 80,
That early association Inns been charm
| for YOU. There vas time when you got
| right - from house OF iniquity ana walked
| ont into the fresh air because you thought
your mother was looking at you. Yon nave
never been very happy in sin because OF
| sweet old face that would present ltseii'
Tremulous voices from the past accosted you
| looked around to see who spoke. There was
an estate not mentioned in the last Will ana
| testament, u vast estate OF prayer ana noly
example and Christian entreaty and glorious
| memory The survivors OF the family gath
| cred to hear the will read, and this was 10
! be kept and that was to be sold, ana IL WAS
''share and share alike. But there was an
unwritten will that read something Ike TINS:
"In the name OF God. amen being OF SOUND
mind, bequeath TO my children all my pray
ers for their salvation, hequeath to thom
ali the results Of lifetime's toll, beuueath
TO them the Christian religion, which has
been 80 much conlfortto ME, and hope may
be solaGe for them; bequeath to them
hope OF reunion when the pariings OF Ire 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 nnme of God who made me, and the
| Christ who redeemed me, aud 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 ana
not get that will proved at the surrogate 8
Office, but take it out to-day and read II
to vol. take it out of the alcoves OF your
heart, shake the dust off it. | ask ii you
will accept that inheritance, or will you
break the will?
| O We Of Christian ancestry, you have q
| responsibility vast beyond all measurement.
God will not let you off with just being as
good rs ordinary people when you had sucn
| extraordinary advantage. Ought not d
Cover planted in a dollhouse be more thrifty
than d flower planted outside III Storm
OUGHT not a factory turned by the Housa-
tonic do more work than factory turned by
u thin and shallow mountain stream? Ought
not you of great early opportunity be better
than those who had a cradle unblessed2 A
father sets his son up in business. He
keeps an account OF all the expenditures, so
much for store fixture. SO much Tor rent, SO
much for this, SO much for that, and all the
Ytems aggregated, and the father expects the
kou to give an account. Your Heavenly
dFather charges against you all the adVan-
| tages of pious aucestry-SS many prayers,
so much Christian example, so many kind
| entreatirS-all these gracious influences. one
tremendous aggregate, and he asks you 1oi
an account of it. Ought not you to be better
than those who had no such advantage! Bet
ter have been founding picked up off the
city commons than with such magnificen,
| 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
| "rhe first word remember my father speak
ing to me was an OATH the first time re-
member my father taking hold of me was in
wrath; [ never saw Bible till l was ten
years of age. and then | was told 1t was a
pack of lies. The first twenty years of my
! life [ was associated with the vicious. seemed
to be walled in by sin and death
| 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 be-
fnnt tp Oh ~
generation that is to come, are you going to
pass tho blessing on, or are you going to
have your life the gulf in which that tide oil
blessing shall drop out of sight forever? You
are the trustee of pety in that ancestral line,
and are you going to augment or squauder
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 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, berause
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
or grandmother's religion2 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. bequeath to my children
all the money ever made aud all the houses
| own. but disinherit them. rob them OF
the ancestral grace and the Christian in
| fluence that inherited. have squandered
that on my own woridliness. 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 genera
tions of earth and heaven and hell, July,
1896"
Dye of highly favored ancestry, wake up
this morning 10 sense Of your opportunity
and responsibility. think there must be an
old cradle or a fragment of cradle some
where that could tell story Of midnight
supplication 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 licked away the mo.
ments of that sickness 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 youto turn
over new leaf this very day.
Oh. the power of ancestral piety, well il
lustrated by a young man of New York who
attended prayer meeting one night and
asked for prayers and then went home and
wrote down these words: TWENTY-FIVE years
ago tonight my mother went to heaven, my
beautiful, blessed mother, and have been
al one. tossed up and down upon the pillows
OF LIES tempestuous ocean. Shall ever so
to heaven? She told me / must meet her in
heaven. When she took nv hand in hers and