The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1898-11-05

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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 leniancy.
These old folks are the resort when
great troubles come, and there is
calming and soothing power in the
touch of an aged hand that is almost
supernatural. They feel they are al
most 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 half
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 grandmother Lois.
Where she is, angels are lowering
round and God is in the rooom. May
her last days be like those lovely au-
tumnal days that we call Indian sum-
mer!
Is it not time that you and do two
things-swing open a picture gallery
of the wrinkled faces and stopped
shoulders of the past, and call down
from their Heavenly thrones the god
ly grandmothers, to give them our
thanks, and then to persuade the
mothers of to-day that they are living
for all time, and that against the sides
of every cradle in which child is
rocked beat the two eternities?
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 influ-
ence upon the twentieth century, upon
the thirtieth century, upon the for
| tieth century, upon the year 1000, upon
| the year 1000, if the world lasts so
long? The world stood 1000 years be-
fore Christ came; it is not unreason-
able to suppose that it may stand 1000
| years after His arrival. Four thou
sand 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 descend
ants will be over 300, and by two CEN
turtles over $4,000, and upon every one
of them, you, the mother of to-day,
will have an influence for good or
evil. And if in four centuries your de-
scendants shall have with their names
filled a scroll of hundreds of thou
sands, with some angel from Heaven,
to whom is given the capacity to cal
culate the number of stars of Heaven
and the sands of the seashore, step
down and tell us how many descend
ants you will have in the four thou.
sandth year of the worlds possible
continuance? Do not let the grand
mothers 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 to-day in the
person of their descendants, in the
senates, the parliaments, the palaces
the pulpits, the banking houses, the
professional chairs, the prisons, the
almshouses, the company of midnight
brigands, the cellars, the bitches Of
this country. You have been think
ing about the Importance of having
the right influence upon one nursery
You have been thinking of the i'm
portance of getting those two littl,
feet on the right path. You have beer
thinking of your child's destiny fol
the next eighty years, if it should pas
on to be an octogenarian. That il
well, but my subject sweeps a thou
sand years, a million years, quadril
lion of years. can not stop at on
cradle, l am looking at the cradles
that reach all around the world ant
across all time. l am not talking o
mother Eunice. / am talking O
grandmother Lois. The only way you
can tell the force of a current is b,
sailing up stream; or the force of al
ocean wave, by running the shil
against it. Running along with it w,
can not appreciate the force.
III estimating maternal influence WI
generally run along with it down thu
stream of time, and so we don't under
stand the full force. Let us come III
to it from the etersity side, after i
has been working on for centuries
and see all the good it has done and al
, the evil it has accomplished multiple,
: in magnificent or appalling compoun,
) interest. The difference between gha
: mothers influence on her children
now and the influence when it ha
, been multiplied il hundreds of thou
tween the Mississippi river away up a
: the top of the continent starting frer
the little Lake Itaska, seven miles lon
and one mile wide, andits mouth at tn
gulf of Mexico, where navies nigh
ride. Between the birth of that rive
and it's budial in the sea the Missoul
pours in, and the Ohio pours il
and the Arkansas pours in, and tn
Red and White and the Yazoo river
pour in, and all the states and terri
tories between the Allegheny an
> Rocky mountains make contribution
l Now, in order to test a mothers inf,
ence, we need to come in off the ocea
4 of eternity and sail up toward the on
: cradle, and we will find 10000 tribl
taries of influence pouring in an
pouring down. But it is after all on
great river of power rolling on an
e rolling forever. Who can fathom il
y Who can bridge it? Who can stop IL
Y uod NOT rpotbars hatt.z ba in+ane;f 9,