The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1898-10-22
THE FAMILY RECORD.
The Effect of Parental Influence on
Generations to Come.
asv. Dr. Tsimsge Declares that the Seed
Planted In the Child WIN Terminate
aud bear Fruit In Coming
GenerAtionA

Dewitt Talmage pictures parental IN
fiuence and its effect on children's
children. The text is: The unfeigned
faith that is in thee, which dwelt first
in thy grandmother Lois.-ll. Tim
9th, L., s.
In this pastoral letter which Paul,
the old minister, is writing to limo
thy, the young minister, the family
record is brought out. Paul practical
Nv says: Timothy, what good
grandmother you had! You ought to
be better than most folks, because not
only was your mother good, but your
grandmother was also good. Two pre-
ccding generations Of piety ought to
give you mighty push in the right
direction THE fact was that limo
thy needed encouragement. He was
in poor health, having weak stom-
ach, and was dyspeptic. and Paul
prescribed for him a tonic, "a little
wine for thy stomach's sake"-not
much wine; but little wine, and only
as medicine. And il the Wine then
had been as much adulterated with
logwood and strychnine as our modern
wines, he would not have prescribed
any.
but Timothy, not strong physically,
Is encouraged spiritually by the re-
cital of grandmotherly excellence,
Paul limiting TO him, MS hint this day
10 you, that God sometimes gathers up
as in reservoir, away back OF the
active generations of to-day, goodly
influence, and then, in response to
prayer, let's down the Cpower upon
children and grandchildren and
great-grandchldren The world is
woefully in want Of table of Stats
tics in regard TO what is the protract-
,edness and immensely of influence OF
one good woman in the church and
world. We have accounts of how
much evil has been wrought by a
woman who lived nearly 100 years ago,
and of how many criminals her de-
sccndants furnished the penitentlary
and the gallows, and how many hun
.dreds of thousands of dollars they cost
our country in their arrangement and
prison support, as well as in the prop
xrty they burglarized and destroyed,
will not some one come out with brain
comprehensive enough, and heart
warm enough, and pen keen enough
so give US the facts in regard to some
good woman of 100 years ago, and let
us know how many Christian men and
women and reformers and useful peo-
pile have been found among her de-
,scendants, and how many asylums
and colleges and churches they built,
and how many millions of dollars they
contributed for humanitarian and
Christian purposes?
The good women whose tombstones
were planted in the eighteenth CEN
fury are more alive for good in the
nineteenth century than they were be-
fore, as the good women OF this nine
tccnth century will be more alive for
good in the twentieth century than
now. Mark you, | have no idea that
the grandmothcrs were any better
than their granddaughters. You can
not get very old people to talk much
about how things were when they
were boys and girls. They have a re-
eiccncc and non-committalism which
makes me think they feel themselves
TO be the custodians of the reputation
of their early comrades. While our
dear old folks are rehearsing the fol-
lies of the present, If we put them on
the witness stand and cross-cXaminc
them MS to how things were 20 years
ago. the silence becomes oppressive.
The celebrated Frcnchman, Volney,
visited this country in 1906 and he says
of woman's diet in those times: IF n
premium was offered for regimen
most destructive to health, none could
DC devised more etlicacious for these
ends than that in use among these peo-
pie. "That eclipses our lobster salad at
midnight. Everybody talks about tho
dissipation OF modern society and how
womanly health goes down under it,
but it was worse 100 years ago, for the
chaplain of French regiment in our
revolutionary War wrote in 1852, in his
"Book of American Women" saying;
'They are tall and well proportioncd
their features are generally regular
their complications are generally fair
and without color. AT 20 years of age
the women have no longer the fresh.
ness of youth. At 30 or 40 theey are
decrepit." In 1912 foreign consul
wrote "a book entitled, "A Sketch of the
United States at the Commencement oil
the Present Century and he says oil
the women of those times: "At tn,
age of 80 all their charms have disap-
pcared." One glance at the portraits
of the women 100 years ago and Their
style of dress makes us wonder how
they ever got their breath. All this
snakes me think that the express raj
train is no more of an improvement
on the old canal boat, or the telegraph
no more an improvement on the old
time saddle-bags, than the women OF
our day are an Improvement on tn,
women of the last century.
But still, Notwithstanding that thos,
times were so much worse than ours
there was glorious race of good,
women, 20 and 100 years ago, wht
held the world back from sin and lift
ed it toward virtue, and without theil
exnlted and sanc.ified influence before
this tho last good influence woult
have persisted froi~ the earth. Indeed
all over this land there are seated to
dav-not so much in churches fol