Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1896-08-01


conservation to turn out sndi fferently.
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 ! remember my father
speaking to me was an oath the first
time ! remember my father taking hold
of me was in wrath; Ineyer saw Bible
till was 10 years Of age. and then !
was told it was pack of lies. The first
90 years of my life / was associated
with the vicious. ] seemed to bewalled
in by sin and death. .
A Question of Responsibility.
Now, my brother, ought You mott
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 between the genera
ton 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 an
cestral line, and are you going to aug
ment 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 pos
sible that you are going to take such a
position as that. You are very careful
about the life assurances, 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 or
grandmother religion? Oh, what a last
will and testament you are making, my
brotherl I'm the name of God, amen.
|, being of sound mind, make this my
last will and testament / bequeath to
my children all the money ever made
and all the houses own, but / disin-
herit 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 of God
and men and angels and devils and
all the generations of earth and heaven
and hell, July, 1896. I"
o We of highly favored ancestry,
wake up this morning to a sense of your
opportunity and responsibility. l think
there must be an old cradle or frag
ment of a cradle somewhere 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
moments 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 you to turn over new leaf this
very day.
Question of Power.
Oh, the power of ancestral piety, well
illustrated by a young man of New
York who attended a 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 l have been
alone, tossed up and down upon the bill
lows of life's tempestuous ocean. Shall
| ever 60 to heaven? She told me | must
meet her i'll 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.
/ wonder if / ever shall? My mother s
prayers-oh, my sweet. blessed mother
prayers! Did ever boy have such a
mother as had? For 20 years have
not heard her pray until tonight have
heard all her prayers over again. They
have had, IN fact, a terrible resurrection.
On, how she was won't to prayi She
prayed as they prayed tonight, SO ear
nest, so importunate, so believing. Shall
/ ever be Christian? She was Chris
tian. Oh, how bright and pure and hap
py was her lifel She was a cheerful and
happy Christian.
"There is my mothers Bible. have
not opened it for years. Did she believe
] could ever neglect her precious Bible?
She surely thought 1 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 attitude of prayerl How
has she knelt by me and over me, and /
have felt her warm tears raining down
! dc nd
mother, did you pray in vain for your
boy? 1t shall not be III vain. All, no,
no. it shall not be in vain. / will pray
for myself. Who has sinned against so
much instruction as l 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 l am and what / have made
myself. Oh, the bitter pangs of an ac-
cusing conscience | need Saviour
mighty to save. | must seek him. l
will. / am on the sea of existence, and |
can never get off from it. / am afioat
No anchor, no rudder, no compass, nc
book tf 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 brethren,
stand before you monument of God S
amazing mercy and goodness, forever
blessed be his holy name. All have and
all ! am ! consecrate to Jesus, my
Saviour and my God?" Oh, the power
of ancestral prayerl Hear It'll Hear It'll
An Inheritance.
But | turn for 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 - conquered.
As good, as useful, as splendid gentle
man as / 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 eonsecrated 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
chung to rock and been rescued. There
is family in New York, whose wealth