Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1903-05-01

much about your mothers life. l mean
as YOU sit there you have forgotten
exactly how she looked and the tone OF
her voice. She has been dead MANY
years. Then you have forgotten TO .
great extent her words OF advice in ths
home, but you have never forgotten
her letters. Somehow. after you left
home, the words which she wrote Il
you made a far greater impression thar
the words which she spoke. If / should
| 90 into your home aud ask for your
most valuable collection of papers you
would in all probability show me q
/ collection OF Old yellow letters. They
were written by her hand. You have
read them over and over again. Some
OF those letters are stained as though
the children had spattered water upon
them. They are stained with your
tears as well as perhaps with hers
| The gospel advice i'm those letters
| which you were able TO read in the
| quietude OF your own room is today
the sweetest lesson that your mother
] ever taught. What has been true In
reference to your life is also true in
mine. The greatest lesson that my IA.
Their taught me was not by the lip. but
with the pen. Though / had lived
with him for eighteen years he never
so overwhelmingly affected me as or
the day | left for college. He placed
in my hand letter. He told me to
read ii in the train In this letter, OF
one half sheet OF paper. he wrote these
words: "In college you will find two
groups: Group the first, boys who &C
to college because their fathers send
them there. Boys who drink and
smoke and who cheat at their examina.
lions. Failure. Group the second
boys who go to college to prepare fol
life's struggle; boys who study hard
and go to church and the prayer meet
ing. especially the prayer meeting. Sue.
cess. Them that honor me, 1 will hon.
or. And they that despise me shall be
lightly esteemed" That was all he
wrote. but those written words, far
more than any spoken words my father
ever uttered, burned themselves into
my innermost being. That letter of his
illustrated the power of a spiritual pen
welded i'm a Christian home.
But why circumscribe this thought
within the four walls of home? The
spiritual power OF gospel letter writing
Is seen everywhere that il has been
tried To what could Maltbie Bah
cocks wonderful spiritual influence be
mostly attributed? He was without
doubt one of the most successful min
listers in the American pulpit at the
time of his death. To his marvellous
and yet simple eloquence, which sun
day after Sunday crowded the famous
Brick church of New York city ia the
doorsF No. not chiefly. To his sweet
and winsome personality in personal
contact: No. not principally. The
greatest part of his influence was won
by the power OF personal letter writ
ing. One OF his old classmates and
most intimate friends told me that DIR.
BaDcock never let a member of his
congregation get out of his reach. He
kept book filed with dates. On the
birthdays of his boys at college he
would drop them each short letter.
telling them TO improve their oppor-
tunities and how much their parents
and pastor We're thinking and praying
Tor them. ON the sad anniversary OF
the death or children he would drop n
sympathetic note TO the broken hearted
parents, telling them how thankful
they ought TO be that their little ones
have now been able to spend ono or
two years in heaven, telling them how
happy they ought 10 be that the part-
ings would not now be very LONG.
When the anniversary OF a young girls
advent into the church came, he would
drop her letter, hoping that her year
of faith i'm Christ had been a happy
year. In this way DIR. Babcock reached
out everywhere and bound his people
to him with links OF steel BY this sys-
tenn OF simple gospel letter writing the
late pastor OF the Brick church was
able 10 make his Christian influence
felt all over America. My brother and
sister, you and have wasted many n
glorious opportunity for gospel letter
writing. VIII you not here and now
consecrate your pen To do for Jesus
what you can? VIII you not conse-
crate the pen as well as the voice and
the sense of touch? Remember, Paurs
epistles were only Paul's gospel letters,
written TO his absent friends. We by
accomplish on smaller scale what the
tired travelling missionary by his pen
did on hemisphere scale.
influence OF N Gospel Pen.
oh, the infinite influence OF gospe!
pen! Infinite in reference to time!
Some OF us have seen the Assyrian
histories written upon the slabs of
burnt brick by pens thousands upon
thousands OF years ago. We have seen
leaves OF grass upon which the Greeks
used TO engrave their laws, and the
shoulder blades OF dead sleeps skel-
eton upon which the ancient Arabs |
used to write poetry. The sides of the |
Egyptian obelisks are covered with |
hieroglyphics OF the ancients. The |
first pen welded by man was a chisel. |
and the first leaf was a sheet OF solid |
rock. But, though such writings may |
last hundreds and thousands of years. |
yet they will not last as long as the |
gospel words written upon the human
heart by gospel-pen. Such words |
shall last long after this earth is dead /
and our souls have passed cycles of |
eternity in heaven. Infinite in refer
ence TO wonders accomplished! In our
national museums some of us have
seen pens worth It thousand times
more than their weight in gold. They
are the pens that have been held in
the hands of presidents and kings
pens OF peace or of war, pens of liberia
ton or enslavement, pens which decid.
ed the material advancement or re-
tardment OF nations. But the sacred
pen OF gospel letter writing may be
even greater in its farreaching results.
1t may be the means for the liberation
or immortal souls from sin, for their
coronat ton in the heavenly redemption.
Thus, in closing. would impress up
on you all the influence of n consecrat-
ed pen. May you learn to use for God
Alright that pen which as n schooIboy
you once held in your chubby fingers
when it would sputter and twist and
try to squirm out OF your hands. Use
Alright that pen by which as a young
man you used to record the secrets of
your heart when tho old old Storv %