The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1898-12-24
ence before this the last good influence
would have perished from the. earth.
Indeed. all over this land there are

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would have persisted from the. earth.
Indeed, all over this land there are
seated to-day net SO much in
churches, for many OF them are too
feeb' to ctssae great many aged
grandmot theirs. They sometimes feel
that the world has gone past them,
and they have an idea that they are
of little account. Their head some
times gets aching from the racket OF
the grandchildren down stairs or in the
next room. They steady themselves by
the banisters as they go up and down.
When they get a cold 1t hangs on them
longer than 1t used to. They cannot
bear to have the grandchildren pun
1shed even when they deserve it, and
have so relaxed their ideas of family
discipline that they would spoil all the
youngsters Of the household 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 journey OF
life and read the old Book more than
they used to, hardly knowing which
most they enjoy, the Old Testament or
the New, and often stop and, dwell.
tearfully over the family record haff-
way between. We hail them to-day,
whether in the house Of God or at the
homestead. Blessed is that. household
that has in it a grandmother Lois.
Where she is, angels are lowering
round and God is in the room. May
her last days be like those lovely days
that We call Indian summer!
Is it not time that you and I 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
grandmothers, 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? ~ i
Here we have an untried, undis-
cussed, 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, upon the year two thousand,
upon the year four thousand, it the
world lasts so long? The world stood
four thousand years before Christ
came; it is not unreasonable to sup
pose that it may stand four thousand
years after His arrival -Four, thousand
i Years the world swung off in sin, four
thousand years it may be swinging
back into Righteousness. By the ordl-
nary rate of multiplication of the
worlds population in century, your
descendants will be over three hun
dred, and by two centuries over fifty
thousand, 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 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 sthousandth year Of the
worlds possible continuance? Do not
let the grandmothers any longer think
that they are retired, and sit clear back
out Of sight from the world. feeling
that they have no relation to it. The
mothers of the last century are today
in the person of their descendants, in
the senates, the Parliaments, the pal
aces, the pulpits, the banking houses
the professional chairs, the prisons, the
almshouses, the company of midnight
: brigands, the cellars. the bitches o1
: this century. Your have been thinking
about the Importance of having the
right influence upon our nursery. Yor
have been thinking Of the Importance
J of getting those two little feet on thu
fright path. You have been thinking o
Eyour child's destiny for!the next, eighty
years, if it should pass on to be an oc
togenarian. That is well, but my sub
ject sweeps thousand years, mil
lion years, a quadrillion of years.
cannot stop at one cradle, am look.
ing at the cradles that reach all around
b the world and across all time. / am moi
: thinking of mother Eunice. I am talk.
ing Of grandmother Lois. The only
way you can tell the force of a current
& is by sailing up stream; or the force
& of an ocean wave, by running the shiI
against it. Running along with it W.
cannot appreciate the force. yIn esti
mating maternal influence we general
! tsly run along with it down the stream
s of time, and so we don't understand
& the full force. Let us come up to Il
from the eternity side, after 1t has
8 A|been working on for centuries, and SCI
T all the good it has done and all the evi
I it has accomplis ished multi tiplied ii mag
nifcent or appalling compound inter
& est. The difference between that moth
. er's Influence on her children now an6
y the influence when It has been multi
{ piled in hundreds OF thousands Of lives
Q lis the difference between the Mississip.
y pi river away up at the top Of the con
tinent starting from the little LAX,
u Itasca, seven miles long and one wide
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