Savannah courier. (Savannah, Tenn.) 1885-1979, 1898-11-18


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 1t n 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 n picture gallery
OF the wrlnkled 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 a 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 intlu-
ence upon the twentieth century, upon
the thirtieth century, upon the for
tieth century, upon the year 2OOO 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 ip 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 800, 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
filed 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 ce,irs, 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
on to be an octogenarian. That is
well, but my subject sweeps a thou
sand years, million years, a 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 oil
mother Eunice. am talking oil
grandmother Lois. The only way you
can tell the force of n current is by
sailing up stream; or the force of al
ocean wave, by running the shiI
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 uI
to it from the eternity side, after il
has been working on for centuries
and see all the good il has done and al
the evil ii has accomplished multiplied
in magnificent or appalling compound
interest. The difference between thai
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
tween the Mississippi river away up a
| the top of the continent starting from
the little Lake ltaska, seven miles Ions
and one mile wide, andits mouth at tn,
| gulf of Mexico, where navies nigh
ride. Between the birth of that rive
and its budial in the sea the Missouri
pours in, and the Ohio pours in
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
Now, in order to test mothers influ
ence, we need to come in off the oceai
of eternity and sail up toward the on
cradle, and we will find 10000 tribu
taries of influence pouring in ant
pouring down. But it is after all on
great river of power rolling on ant
rolling forever. Who can fathom it
Who can bridge it? Who can stop it
Had not mothers better be intensity
ing their prayers? Had they not bet
ter be elevating their example? Ha,
they not better be arousing them
selves with the consideration that b.
their faithfulness or neglect they ar
starting an influence which will b
stupendous after the last mountain O
parth is fat. and the last sea is drie
up, and the last of ashes Of con
sumcd world shall have been blow
away, and all the telescopes of othe
worlds directed to the track aroun
which our world once swung shall dis
cover not so much rs cinder of tn
burned down and swept off planet. /
Ceylon there is granite column 3
square feet in size, which is though
by the natives to decide the world
continuance. An angel with rob
e,,,,, from, 1anbyre &c opoa a captur