Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1898-10-14

at the homestead Blessed is that house
| hold that has in ii Grandmother Lois
Where she is angels are lowering round,
and God is in the room. May her last
days be like those lovely autumnal days
that we call Indian summerl
Is it not time that you and | do two
things-swing open picture gallery OF
the wrinkled faces and stopped shoul-
ders of the past and call down from
their heavenly thrones the godly grand
mothers, to give them our thanks, and
/ then to persuade the mothers of today
that they are living for all time and
that against the sides of every cradle in
which a child is rocked beat the two
eternities?
Cradles Across All Time.
Here we have an untried, undscussed
and unexplored subject. You often hear
about your influence upon your own
children. am not talking about that.
What about your influence upon the
twentieth century, upon the thirtieth
century, upon the fortieth century, up
on the year 1000, upon the year 1000,
if the world lasts so longi The world
stood 4, 600 years before Christ came.
1t is not unreasonable to suppose that
it may stand 4, 600 years after his ar
rival Four thousand years the world
swung off in sin, 1000 years it may be
swinging back into Righteousness. By
the ordinary rate Of multiplication Of
the worlds population IN a century
your descendants will be over 300, and
by two centuries over so, 600, and upon
every one of them you, the mother Of
today, will have an influence for good
or evil. And if in four centuries your
! descendants shall have with their names
filled a scroll Of hundreds of thousands
will some angel from heaven, to whom
is given the capacity to calculate the
number Of the stars Of heaven and the
sands of the seashore, step down and
tell us how many descendants you Will
have in the four thousandth year OF the
worlds possible continuance: Do not
let the grandmothers any longer think
that they are Sssired and sit clear back
out Of sight from the world, feeling that
they have no relation to it. The moth
ers Of the last century are today, in the
person Of their descendants, in the SEN
ates, the parliaments, the palaces, the
pulpits, the banking houses, the protes-
sional chairs, the prisons the aims
houses, the company Of midnight brig
ands the cellars, the bitches OF this
century. You have been thinking about
the Importance of having the right in
auence upon one nursery. You have
been thinking Of the Importance OF get
ting those two little feet on the right
path. You have been thinking OF your
child's destiny for the next so years II
it should pass on to be an ootogenarlan.
That is well, but my subject sweeps
thousand years, a million years,
quadrillion Of years. l cannot stop al
one cradle; | am looking at the cradles
that reach all around the world anc
across all time. am not talking o.
Mother Eunice. lam talking Of Grand
mother Lois. The only way you can tel
the force Of current is by sailing NJ
stream. or the force of an ocean wave
bv running the ship against it. Running
along with it we cannot appreciate th'
force.
In estimating maternal influence w
generally run along with 1t down tn
stream of time, and so we don't under
stand the full force. Let us come up t
it from the eternity side, after it ha
been working on for centuries, and SCI
all the good it has done and all the evi
it has accomplished multiplied IN mag
nifcent or appalling compound interest
The difference between that mother
influence on her children now and tn
influence when it has been multlphe
in hundreds Of thousands Of lives Is IN
difference between the Mississippi rive
away up at the top Of the continen
starting from the little Lake ltasca
seven miles long and one wide and II
mouth at the gulf Of Mexico, where ma
vieS might ride Between the birth
i that river and its b1rial in the sea th
Missouri pcurs in, and the ONO pour
in. and the Arkansas pours III, ana th
Red and White and the Nazoo uvei
pour in. and all the states and terrific
ries between the Allegheny and Rock
. mountains make contribution. Now, !
order to test the power CT a mother
Influence we need to come IN OF IL
> ocean Of eternity and sail up towaI
: the one cradle, and we will find lO'O
y tributaries Of influence pouring III al
I, pouring down. But it is, after all. OF
great river Of power rolling on and rol
9 ing forever. Who can fathom 1t: WI
u can bridge it? Who can stop II. ha
not mothers better be intenslfying the
Il prayers? Had they not better be eleva
: ing their example? Had they not bett
u he rousing themselves with the consl
u GRAFTON that by their faithfolness
i neglect they are starting an inhuen
o which will be stupendous after the Ia
. mountain Of earth is fiat, and the Ia
Is sea has dried up, and the last fake
J. the ashes of consumed world sha
! have been blown away, and all the tel
scopes OF OtneI Noliuo NAANNNNN ~ -
B. track around which our world OIL
10 swung shall discover not so much as
II cinder Of the burned down and swe
'e off planet In Ceylon there is a gram
column 36 square feet in size, which
thought by the natives to decide u
Sc worlds continuance An angel WI
s. robe spun from zephyrs Is once ce
d turv TO descend and sweep the hem
le that robe across the granite, and VIII
I'd by that attrition the column is wo
I'd away they say time will end. But
- " that process that granite column wou
- be worn out of existence before mot
~ ers' influence will begin to give way.
III on the Great Divide.
q famother tell child if he is not go'
u some bugaboO will come and catch hii
~ the fear excited may make the child
y coward, and the fact that he finds tn
- there is no bugaboo may make MIN
y liar, and the echo Of that false alan
81 81 may be heard after 10 generations ha
" been born and have expired. II mot
"S er promises a child reward for go
!" behavior and after the good behayi
l6 foroats tn give the reward the che