The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1898-11-17


have perished from the earth. Indeed,
all over this land there are seated to-
day-nOt SO much in churches, for
many of them are too feeble to come
great many aged grandmothers.
They sometimes feel that the world
has gone past them, and they have an
idea that they are of little account.
Their heads sometimes get 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 it
used to. They can not bear to have
the grandchildren punished 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 leniancy.
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 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. Nav
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
thlngs-swing open picture gallery
OF the wrinkled faces and stopped
shoulders of the past, and call down
from their Heavenly thrones the god
~ 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; l 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 century, your descend
ants will be over 300, and by two CEN
turies 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 little
feet on the right path. You have been
thinking of your child's destiny for
the next eighty years, if it should pass
ol " Dc dl oCtos.tHdIlttil. Hat Is
well, but my subject sweeps thou
sand years, a million years, quadril-
lion of years. / can not stop at one
cradle, | am looking at the cradles
that reach all around the world and
across all time. ] am not talking of
mother Eunice. | am talking of
grandmother Lois. The only way yo,,
can tell the force of current is by
sailing up stream; or the force of an
ocean wave, by running the ship
against it. Running along with it we
can not appreciate the force.
In estimating maternal influence we
generally run along with it down the
stream Of time, and SO we don't under
stand the full force. Let us come uE
to it from the eternity side. after it
has been working on for centuries
and see all the good it has done and al
the evil it has accomplished multiplied
in magnificent or appalling compound
interest. The difference between thar
mothers influence on her children
now and the influence when it ha:
been multiplied in hundreds of thou
sands of lives, is the difference be
tvex the Mississippi river away up a