Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1898-10-26
SERMONS OF THE DAY

Subject: "The dmothers"-Tho Inhu-
ence of Heredity-A Rich Legacy Left
Us by . Glorious Race OF Cody Wom-
en-value Of Their Example.
TEXT: "The unfeigned faith that Is in
thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother
Lois."-II Tim. L., 5.
In this pastoral letter which Paul, the
old minister, is writing to Timothy, the
young minister, the family record Is
brought out. Paul practically says: "Tim.
othy. what a good grandmother you had!
You ought to be better than most folks, be-
cause not only was your mother good, but
your grandmother was good also. Two
preceding generations OF pfety ought to
give you a mighty push In the right direc-
tion." The fact was that Timothy needed
encouragement. He was In poor health.
peptic, and Paul prescribed for him q
tonic, ga little wine for thy stomach's
sake''-not much wine; but a little wine
and only as medicine. And II the wine
then had been as much adulterated with
lOgwood and rtrychnine as our modern
wines, he would not have prescribed any.
But Timothy, not strong physically. Is
encouraged spiritually by the recital OF
grandmotherly excellence, Paul limiting to
him, rs I hint this day to you, that God
sometimes gathers up as in a reservoir,
away back Of the active generations Of to-
.
sponse to prayer lets down the power upon
children and grandchildren and great
grandchildren. The world Is woefully In
want OF a table of statistics In regard to
what is the protractedness and immensity
OF influence OF one good woman In the
how much evil has been wrought by a
woman who lived nearly a hundred years
ago, and Of how many criminals her de-
scendants furnished for the penitentiary
and the gallows, and how many hundreds
of thousands OF dollars they cost our coun-
try In their arraignment and prison sup
port, as well rs in the property they bur-
glarized and destroyed. But will not some
one come out with brain comprehensive
enough, and heart warm enough, and pen
keen enough to give US the facts in regard
to some good woman Of a hundred years
ago, and let us know how many Christian
men and women and reformers and useful
people have been found among her de-
scendants, and how many asyiums aud
colleges and churches they built, and how
many millions of dollars they contributed
for humanitarian and Christian purposes2
The good women whose tombstOne5 were
planted in the eighteenth century are more
alive for good in the nineteenth century
than they were before, as the good women
OF the nineteenth century will be more alive
for good in the twentieth century than
now. Mark you, have no idea that the
granddaughters. You cannot get very old
people to talk much about how things were
when they were boys and girls. They have
reticence and Il non committalism which
makes me think that they feel themselves
to be the custodians of the reputation Of
their early comrades. While our dear
old folks are rehearsing the follies of the
present, II we put them on witness-stand
and cross-examine them as to how things
were seventy years ago the silence becomes
oppressive.
The celebrated Frenchmen, volney visited
this country In 1876, and he says Of wom-
ans diet in those times: "If a premium
was offered for regimen most destructive
to health, none could be devised more ell
cacious for these ends than that in use
among these people," That eclipses our lob
ster salad at midnight. Everybody talks
about the dissipation OF m odern society and
how womanly health goes down under II,
but 1t was worse hundred years ago, for
the chaplein Of French regiment In our
Revolutionary War wrote In 1882, in his
Book OF American Women, )" saying: ''rhey
are tall and well-proportioned, their fea-
lures are generally regular, their complex
ions are generally fair and without color.
At twenty years of age the women have no
longer the freshness OF youth. At thirty or
forty they are decrepit. In lsl2 foreign
consul wrote book entitled, "a Sketch of
the United States at the Commencement of
women of those times: Sat the age OF thir
ty all their charms have disappeared" One
glance at the portraits OF the women hun
dred years ago and their style OF dress
makes us wonder how they ever got their
breath. All this makes me think that the
express rail train is no more an improve
ment 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 the women Of the
last century.
But still, notwithstanding that those
times we're so much worse than ours. there
was glorious race of godly women, sew
enty and hundred wears ago, who held
the world back from sin and lifted 1t to-
ward virtue, and without their exalted and
sanctified influence before this the last good
fnfiuence wouId have Derished from the
earth. Indeed. all over this land there are
seated to-day-not so much in churches.
for mapy of them are too feeble to come-a
great manv aged prandmothers They
sometimes feel that the world has gone
mast them and thew have an idea that thew
are of little account. Their head some
times gets aching from the racket of the
Grandchildren down-stairs or in the next
room. Thsy steady Themselves nv the
hanisters as thew 90 nm and down When
fhev Oct a cold n hangs on them lonoar
than Il used to. They cannot bear to hay.
the grandchildren punished even when
thew deserve IT, and have so relaxed
their ideas of family discinIine that they
would spoil all the Youngsters of the house.
hold by too great leniency. These old
folks are the resort when great troubles
come. and there is a calming and soothing
power in the touch of an aged hand that is
almost supernatural. They feel they are
almost through with the tourney of life
and read the old Book more than they used
to. hardly knowing which most they enioy.
the Old Testament or the New, and often
stop and dwell tearfuily over the family
record halfway petween. We hail them
to-day, whether iu the house OF God or ut
the homestead. Blessed Is that household
that has in 1t a grandm OF her Lois. Where
she is angels are hovering round.
Ts II NOT time that Won md I do two