During a series of revival meetings in a town in Ohio a very
earnest and intelligent little boy was converted. Several nights
after he brought his mother to the meeting, and was solicitous
for her conversion. He spoke to one of the workers and asked
that his mother might be invited to seek the Lord. The woman was
approached, but said emphatically that she had been converted.
The little fellow was informed of his mother’s answer, that she
was converted, when with an astonished expression, he said:
“First I’d knowed about it.” Certainly if that mother had given
any evidence that she was a Christian her little boy would have
found it out. What a low conception of Christianity some people
have, and how poorly they exemplify it before their children and
neighbors. They are so far beneath the Bible standard, as well
as beneath the privilege, that no one even suspects that they
make a profession of Christianity.
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A great many people say there is nothing in the Christian
discipline of a household. Let us see. In New Hampshire, there
were two neighborhoods--the one of six families, the other of
five families. The six families disregarded the Sabbath. In
time, five of these families were broken up by the separation
of husbands and wives; the other, by the father becoming a
thief. Eight or nine of the parents became drunkards, one
committed suicide, and all came to penury. Of some forty or
fifty descendants, about twenty are known to be drunkards and
gamblers and dissolute. Four or five have been in state-prison.
One fell in a duel. Some are in the almshouse. Only one became
a Christian, and he after having been outrageously dissipated.
The other five families, that regarded the Sabbath, were all
prospered. Eight or ten of the children are consistent members
of the church. Some of them became officers in the church; one
is a minister of the gospel; one is a missionary in China. No
poverty among them. The homestead is now in the hands of the
third generation. Those who have died have died in the peace of
the gospel. (Text.)--T. DE WITT TALMAGE.
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