Mother Must Have Been Right
(Walter E. Isenhour, in Union
Republican)
We have selected the following
excellent article from the Church
of Christ Advocate, published at
Circlevllle, Ohio, written by A. S.
London, which we hope will prove
a great blessing to our readers
throughout the land. Please read
and pass it cm to others:
My mother was not a highly
educated woman In the scholastic
sense, but she had a lot of good
native ability, vision and common
sense. She said that "birds of a
feather will flock together," and
if you rub up against a pot you
will get black. Now that is com
mon sense. She * also said that
you could tell what a boy or girl
is by the kind of company they
keep. There is a lot of sense in
that statement.
My mother said, she had rather
I would marry a bad girl out of
a good family, a Christian fam-
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lly, than marry a good girl out
of a bad family, or a family who
were not Christians. I could not
understand that for many years.
She said that when a boy mar
ries, he does not just marry the
girl, but that he marries the
father and mother, grandfather
and grandmother; that one mar
ries Into a family of blood traits,
rather than just an individual.
She said, "Blood will tell."
Well, down through the years I
have tried to keep my eyes and
ears open, and beyond the shad
ow of a doubt my mother was
right. She left an imprint on my
life that will last as long as time
lasts and eternity goes on.
The Bible has many illustra
tions to prove the statements my
mother made. David sinned with
one character. Twenty-five years
later he saw his own seed-sowing
come to a harvest* In the lives of
his own children, Absalom, Tamar
and Amnon broke the heart of
their father long after he had re
pented of his own wrong-doings.
Yes, the sins of the fathers are
visited upon the children to the
third and fourth generations;
and someone has said the reason
they are not visited upon the
fifth and sixth generations is
perhaps that the blood relation
runs out.
"Be not deceived, God is not
mocked: for whatsoever a man
soweth, that shall he also reap."
That is just as true as God lives.
It is true in every walk of life r It
is certainly true in the natural
world, and just as true in the
spiritual and moral realm. It is
a crime for a young boy or girl to
go wrong. Those unborn will
THE ELKIN TRIBUNE, ELKIN, NORTH CAROLINA
have to suffer as the result of
waywardness in the lives of those
who have sinned twenty years be
fore.
Blood traits follow from one
generation to another. Hannah
was a good mother. She produced
a good child, Samuel. Yes, a most
wonderful child. Manasseh had
his fling, sowed his wild oats,
opened the doors of his court to
all kinds of wickedness; and
though he repented in later years,
his own son came to the throne
and started his reign In the same
way his father did fifty years and
more before. And the record says
the kingdom of Jerusalem would
be destroyed and wiped out "as a
man wipeth a dish." This was a
pretty bitter pill for a good man
to have to swallow—but getting
religion does not stop the harvest
from the seed-sowing of years
before.
I heard Gov. Dickinson, of
Michigan, a few days ago. He is
now past eighty years of age, and
has the attention of the nation.
He is bitterly opposed by the
liquor interests, the tobacco
trusts, and gambling groups. He
is a Christian gentleman, and de
clares that no man has a right to
use tobacco who is on Govern
ment relief, and no one has a
God-given right to use it at all.
He told a story I can never for
get. It is the story that gave
thought to the title of this ar
ticle.
He said that many years ago a
wild, reckless boy and girl were
married—permit me to say this is
a tragedy. A son was born to
this union, and grew to young
teenage manhood. One day he
walked into the place where his
father was working and demand
ed that the father send him away
to an institution, as he was so
cially diseased, and that if the
father would not send him away,
he would take his own life. The
father sent him away. The lad
stayed for about a year, returned
home, and was soon married. He
thought he was cured of his phy
sical trouble, but, as usual he was
not cured. In his blood stream
was a disease that places the
curse of God upon unclean liv
ing!
To the union of this son and
his bride also came a son. At the
time of his birth the mother gave
up her life, and the father went
and committed suicide. That
left a boy that was half-damned
before birth in a world that is
mighty cold and hard on such a
character.
The boy grew to manhood, and
one day stood in a line a mile
long in order to have the oppor
tunity of shaking hands with the
President of the United States.
In one hand was a revolver, cov
ered with a bandage. As he ap
proached the place where he
could shake the hand of the
President, he shook with the
hand that was not wrapped, and
pulled the trigger of the revolver
with the other, and took the life
of the great William McKinley,
one of the best, noblest Presidents
the United States has ever had.
Czolgosz was a murderer. The
law soon had him in hand, and
he was executed. His father had
committed suicide; his mother
had died of an unnamable dis
ease; his grandparents were
wicked. What could be expected
of this lad who took the life of a
good man? Would one expect
him to turn out to be an honest,
upright citizen with such a back
ground?
Seventy-five per cent, of our
forty-three million criminals are
from broken homes, and broken
homes are generally unchristian.
The mills of the gods grind slow
ly, but surely. Chickens will come
home to roost. And whatsoever
one sows in his early life, he will
reap in later years!
My mother must have been
right. She taught exactly as Gov.
Dickinson. Her teachings were
in perfect harmony with the
Bible. She guided my footsteps
through the formative years; and
through her influence, and an
early conversion, I can look back
and say by God's grace and the
effect of the Sunday school, I
have been kept clean from the
day of my birth.
My mother must have been
right. A grandmother attended
our services. She was sixty-five
years old. At one tiihe her life
had been very questionable. She
was half-blind and half-idiotic.
Ten years before Mie had been
saved. This was unusual, as only
one person in a million is saved
after the age of forty-five. This
woman was the mother of ten
children.
I was anxious to know about
her family. Four of her Children
were killed in a drunken brawl;
two had gone to the insane asy
lum; two were incarcerated be
hind prison bars for murder; one
had died a premature death; and
one daughter, forty-five years of
age, sat beside this mother in our
meetings. She, too, was half
blind and half-idiotic, and known
|as a public outcast on the streets
lof the city where our meetings
were held.
The fact that this grandmother
had got saved ten years before
had nothing to do with the seed
sowing of forty years before. The
harvest was reaped in the lives
of her children. The state had
to bear the expense; taxpayers
paid the bills. A lack of Chris
tian education and Christian ex
perience in the formative years is
a costly experience. My mother
must have been right.—A. S.
London.
It pays to live right for the
sake of future generations as
well as for ourselves. Absolutely.
If we live s nful, wicked, unclean
lives it curses our offspring, even
to the third and fourth genera
tions. We can't poison ourselves
without poisoning our children,
for they are blood of our blood and
bone of our bone. Therefore we
ought to positively abstain from
all nicotine, alcoholism, dopes
and poisons of all kinds, and ev
erything that would injure our
health, and live physically, mor
ally, socially and spiritually clean
and upright before God and man.
This is never regretted. It makes
life noble and sublime. We bless
our country and the world in
stead of cursing it. Why not so
live? It is indeed worth while.
No one ever regrets living upright
before God and man. However,
millions regret living in sin and
wickedness, thus cursing them
selves, their posterity and the
world. Why not take the safe
road in life and shun the road
that leads wrong? If no one re
grets traveling the right road, but
millions and billions regret trav
eling the wrong road, then why
go the way that multitudes re
gret? Better listen to God. Bet
ter heed the warning given by
God's ministers, God's servants,
and the people who warn you
against the wrong.
Back of criminals, thieves, rob
bers, liars, murderers, depraved
men and women, and those who
miserably fail in life and curse
the world in the meantime, is
usually a background of wicked
ancestors. And back of those who
live noble lives of godliness, and
bless the world, are generally
good, noble, godly, righteous an
cestors. Godly living pays above
EVERYTHING ELSE.
WALTER E. ISENHOUR,
Hiddenite, N. C.
Last Rites Held
For Wint Sparks
Funeral services for Wint
Sparks, 55, of Cycle, who died
Wednesday, August 28, at his
home following successive strokes
of paralysis, were conducted
Thursday afternoon at Oak Grove
Baptist churJh of which he was
a member, in Yadkin county.
Burial was in the church ceme
tery.
Sparks was a member of the
W. O. W. fraternity and had been
a lifelong resident of the com
munity.
Surviving are the widow, Mrs.
Florence Swaim Spark, several
children, among whom are two
sons and two daughters, Reece
and Hugh, Misses Lucy and Win
nie Sparks; also three grandchil
dren.
President Theodore Roosevelt
gave the slogan used by Maxwell
House Coffee—"Good to the Last
Drop" after drinking a second
cup at a famous hotel in Tenn
essee.
Fifty-six permanent public lo
cal employment offices, 10 of
them for colored workers, are op
erated in 46 larger towns and
cities of North Carolina.
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Thursday, September 5, 1940