Grandmother's scrap-book, or, The way to do good. Designed to encourage the highest religious attainments within the power of man .. online

The Bible in Turkey. — The British and
American agents for the diffusion of the Word
of God at Constantinople, have great success in
their work. French and EngHsh officers en-
courage the enterprise. In a single month,
two thousand seven hundred and fifty Italian
Testaments were distributed among the Sardin-
ian troops, two thousand French Testaments
among the Savoyards, one hundred and sixty
to the English, and a large number to the
Russian prisoners. The Mohammedans, in
considerable numbers, are purchasing the
Bible. Several Turks, as colporteurs, are
selling it.

It is better to have a good conscience and be
censured, than to have a bad one and be flat-
tered.



300 grandmother's scrap-book;



THE OLD FAMILY BIBLE.

How painfully pleasing the fond recollection

Of youthful emotion and innocent joy,
When blessed with parental advice and affection,

Surrounded with mercies, with peace from on high !
I still view the chair of ray sire and my mother.

The seats of their offspring as ranged on each hand,
And that richest book which excels every other,

That family Bible which lay on the stand :
The old-fashioned Bible, the dear, blessed Bible,

The family Bible that lay on the stand.

That Bible, the volume of God's inspiration.

At morn and at even could yield us delight ;
The prayer of our sire was a sweet invocation

For mercy by day and safety through night.
Our hymns of thanksgiving with harmony swelling,

All warm from the heart of a family band.
Half raised us from earth to that rapturous dwelling

Described in the Bible that lay on the stand :
The old-fashioned Bible, the dear, blessed Bible,

The family Bible that lay on the stand.

Ye scenes of tranquillity, long have we parted.
My hopes almost gone and my parents no more ;

In sorrow and sadness I live broken-hearted, .
And wander unknown on a far-distant shore.



OR, THE WAY TO DO GOOD. 301

Yet how can I doubt a dear Saviour's protection ;

Forgetful of gifts from his bountiful hand ;
O, let me with patience receive his correction,

And think of the Bible that lay on the stand :
The old-fashioned Bible, the dear, blessed Bible,

The family Bible that lay on the stand.



Believe. — Dr. Johnson could not find the
primary meaning, nor the origin of the word
believe. It was formed from the Gothic Be-
lifian, which is something by which a person
lives. When a man believes any thing, he
adapts his life to it. Hence the great signifi-
cance of this word. When a man professes to
believe Christianity, and fails to conform his
life to it, he thereby shows that he does not
believe what he professes. There are many
such persons, to whom Plato's use of the word
opinion may be correctly applied. Plato said
that " opinion is the half-way house between
ignorance and knowledge ; " and a great many
opinions take their final lounge in the domin-
ion of ignorance.



302 grandmother's scrap-book;



THE BIBLE AND ITS INFLUENCE.

All Scripture is given by inspiration of
God ; and is profitable for doctrine, for re-
proof, for correction, for instruction in right-
eousness. — 2 Tim, iii. 16.

Hast thou ever heard
Of such a book ? The author, God himself ;
The subject, God and man, salvation, life
And death, — eternal life — eternal death.

- Pollok.

The Bible is a window in this prison of
hope, through which we look into eternity. —
Dwight.

O ! 'tis pleasant, 'tis reviving.

To our hearts, to hear each day.
Joyful news from far arriving,
How the Gospel wins its way !

Those enlightening.
Who in death and darkness lay.

Kelly.



OR, THE WAY TO DO GOOD. 303

The word of God must be nearer to us than
our friends ; dearer to us than our lives ;
sweeter to us than our liberty, and pleasanter
to us than all earthly comforts. — J. Mason.

O ! let thy word of grace

My warmest thoughts employ ;
Be this, through all my following days,

My treasure and my joy. Fawcett.

In studying the word of God, digest it under
these two heads : either as removing some
obstructions that keep God and thee asunder,
or as supplying some uniting power to bring
God and thee together. — Cecil.

Within this ample volume lies
The mystery of mysteries ;
Happiest they, of human race,
To whom their God has given grace,
To read, to fear, to hope, to pray.
To lift the latch, to force the way ;
And better had they ne'er been born,
That read to doubt, or read to scorn.

Sir Walter Scott.



304 grandmother's scrap-book ;

"We account the Scriptures of God to be the
most sublime philosophy. — Sir Isaac Newton,

What glory gilds the sacred page !

Majestic like the sun ; • '

It gives a light to every age,

It gives, but borrows none. Cotoper.

The Scriptures contain, independently of a
divine origin, more true sublimity, more ex-
quisite beauty, purer morality, more important
history, and finer strains both of poetry and
eloquence, than could be collected within the
same compass from all other books that were
ever composed in any age or in any idiom. —
Sir W. Jones.

Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I
might not sin against thee. — Psalm cxix. 11.



OR, THE WAY TO DO GOOD. 305

WHY I ATTEND CHURCH ON RAINY
SABBATHS.

1. Because God has blessed the Sabbath
day and hallowed it, making no exceptions for
rainy Sabbaths.

2. Because I expect my minister to be there ;
I should be surprised if he were to stay at
home for the weather.

3. Because, if his hands fall through weak-
ness, I shall have great reason to blame myself,
unless I sustain him by my prayers and by my
presence.

4. Because, by staying away, I may lose the
sermon that would^have done me great good,
and the prayers which bring God's blessing.

5. Because my presence is more needed
on Sabbaths when there are few, than on those
days when the church is crowded.

6. Because, whatever station I hold in the
church, my example must influence others: if
I stay away, why may not they ?

20 4



306 grandmother's scrap-book;

7. Because, on my important business, bad
weather does not keep me at home ; and
church attendance is, in God's sight, very im-
portant. (See Heb. x. 25.)

8. Because, among the crowds of pleasure-
seekers, I see that no bad weather keeps the
delicate female from the ball, the party, or the
concert.

9. Because, among other blessings, such
weather will show me on what foundation my
faith is built. It will prove how much I love
Christ : true love rarely fails to meet an ap-
pointment.

10. Because those who stay from church
because it is too warm, or too cold, or too
rainy, frequently absent themselves on fair
Sabbaths.

11. Because, thougli my excuses satisfy my-
self, they still must undergo God's scrutiny ;
and they must be well grounded to bear that.
(Luke xiv. 18.)

12. Because there is a special promise that
where two or three meet together in God's
name, he will be in the midst of them.



OR, THE WAY TO DO GOOD. 307

13. Because an avoidable absence from
church is an infallible evidence of spiritual
decay. Disciples first follow Christ at a dis-
tance, and then, like Peter, do not know
him.

14. Because my faith is to be known by my
self-denying Christian life, and not by the rise
or fall of the thermometer.

15. Because such yiel-ding to surmountable
difiiculties prepares for yielding to tliose merely
imaginary, until thousands never enter a
church, and yet think they have good reasons
for such neglect.

16. Because, by a suitable arrangement on
Saturday, I shall be able to attend church
without exhaustion ; otherwise my late work
on Saturday night will be as great a sin as
though I worked on the Sabbath itself.

17. Because I know not how many more
Sabbaths God may give me ; and it would be a
poor preparation for my first Sabbath in heaven
to have slighted my last Sabbath on earth.



308 grandmother's scrap-book ;



MEDICINE FOR THE DISCONSOLATE.

A clergyman called on a rich parishioner
and found him sad. " Sir, I feel as though
God and all mankind had forsaken me."

" I think I can prescribe for you a remedy.
Go and relieve some poor family in distress."

He found it was the medicine he needed, for
while we are doing good to others we forget
our own troubles, and we receive a heavenly
frame of mind which fits and prepares us for
every day's duty. " Do good unto all men as
you have opportunity." A child of seven years
says, ' " Mother, I am a going to be always
happy, for I am a going to forget myself, and
try to make others happy." This is the spirit
in which we should live.

Speak evil of no man, " for the measure we
mete to others shall be measured to us again."
God's eye is upon us ; he knows it all. Take
no man's word for the Bible. " Search it as



OR, THE WAY TO DO GOOD. 309

for your life, for out of it are the issues of
eternal life." Cherish pure thoughts, and
make them known by word or writing. Let
the Bible be your principal reading.



Profanity. — The famous Dr. Johnson never
suffered an oath to go unrebuked in his pres-
ence. When a libertine, but a man of some
note, was once talking before him, and inter-
larding his stories with oaths, Johnson said,
" Sir, all this swearing will do nothing for our
story ; I beg you will not swear." The nar-
rator went on a swearing. Johnson said, " I
must again entreat you not to swear." The
gentleman swore again, and Johnson indig-
nantly quitted the room.

Emblem of Friendship. — Trees with double
flowers are too often the emblem of friend-
ship — there is plenty of blossoms, but no
fruit



BiJ) gra.ndmother's scrap-book;

ADULTERATED LIQUORS.

Dr. Hiram Cox, the Cincinnati inspector,
has published many deeply interesting facts of
his experience in testing liquors sold in that
city. In seven hundred inspections of stores
and lots of liquor of every variety, he found
that ninety per cent, were impregnated with the
most pernicious and poisonous ingredients.
Nineteen young men, all sons of respectable
citizens, were killed outright by only three
months' drinking of these poisoned liquors.
Many older men, who were only moderate
drinkers, died within the same period of the de-
lirium tremens, brought on in one quarter the
time usual, even with confirmed drunkards, by
drinking the same poison. Of four hundred
insane patients, he found that two thirds had
lost their reason from the same cause. Many
of them were boys under age. One boy of
seventeen was made insane by the poison from
being drunk only once. Seeing two men



OR, THE WAY TO DO GOOD. 311

drinking in ia grog-shop, and that the whiskey
was SO strong that it actually caused tears to
flow from the eyes of one of them, the doctor
obtained some of it and applied the tests. He
found it to contain only seventeen per cent, of
alcohol, when it should have had forty, and
that the difference was supj^lied by sulphuric
acid, red pepper, caustic, potassa, and strych-
nine. A pint of this liquor contained enough
poison to kill the strongest man. The man
who had manufactured it had grown wealthy
by producing it.



Tears soften the heart and produce repent-
ance. A father correcting his son with a rod,
seeing he did not yield, he wept aloud. Father,
I cannot endure your tears. I acknowledge
my wrong, and ask your forgiveness. The rod
hardens the heart, tears soften. Let a father
take his wayward son into a retired room, with
penitent tears for his own sins. " Come, let us
reason together," saith the Bible.



312 grandmother's scrap-book;



SCENE IN A GROG-SHOP.

A WELL-KNOWN colporteur in a Southern
city, who labors faithfully among all classes,
thus graphically sketches a scene in which he
was an actor. " Went into a drinking-house
where were thirteen men. ' Well, gentlemen,
any books for you this morning ? ' ' No,' was
the reply ; ' I'll buy no books from a man that
won't drink with us.' ' Why, gentlemen,' said
I, ' there is not a man here but would be as
sorry to see me drink, as to see me rode on a
rail.' ' That's a fact, old gentleman ; I would
not sell you a glass of liquor for five dollars,
no, not for ten dollars, for I believe you are
trying to do good ; and if you have any good
book there that you think I need, I'll buy it.
Come, men,' said he, ' come up, and let's buy
the whole lot, and help along.' Here in the
grog-shop, among decanters, and demijohns,
and barrels, I sold an armful of books, gave
each man a temperance tract, and left all in
good humor."



313



A VISIT TO THE TOMBS, COURT SQUARE.

From a gentleman that accompanied Father
Mason to the Tombs, we gather the following.
On his way to the chapel prayer-meeting he
meets the Rev. Mr. Mason.

" Will you go to the prayer-meeting with
me?"

" Sir, I would gladly go with you, but at this
hour every morning I go to the Tombs to en-
courage the prisoners to lead a better life.
Please go with me."

In coming up to the first tomb, occupied by
a woman about thirty, we hear the following : —

" What are you here for ? "

" I have been taking a drop."

" I guess you have, a good many. Plead
guilty ; perhaps they will let you off with a
fine."

In the next tomb, we found it occupied by
two girls about twenty.

" What are you here for ? "



314 grandmother's scrap-book ;

" We have been taking a little too much."

" I guess you have been taking a good deal
too much. Plead guilty, and when you get
home, do you take off those turbans, and never
wear them again."

We next came to a tomb occupied by a man
about thirty-five.

" What are you here for ? "

" I got a little tight. Can you speak a word
for me ? "

" Yours is a doubtful case, you had better
plead guilty."

Passing several tombs in this way, we soon
came to one occupied by five boys, ranging
from six to nine.

" What are you here for ? "

" We have been breaking into a building and
stealing."

If any of their mothers read this, let their first
business be to find a Sabbath-school teacher.
The mission that this apostle started in North
Street still prospers. He has gone to his rest,
to reap his reward. May God send another to
make his place good.



815



These criminals work for the government
nearly half of their time without pay. Can
they afford it ? Is it not too heavy a tax for
them ? We spend thousands of dollars in
punishing crime, swelling our tax bills to an
enormous size, and what ai-e we doing to pre-
vent crime ? If we do not want our city to
become as Sodom, we must do something soon.
A judge asked a criminal, who had been to the
House of Correction two or three times, why he
could not learn to keep away. " I cannot resist
the temptation of the liquor bottles I see in the
windows. Take away the liquor shops aild I
shall be all right." Let there be a thorough
organized missionary enterprise. You can
conquer a. man with kindness, but you cannot
by driving. Furnish your missionaries with
•five hundred New Testaments. Place in each a
circular, enclose each Testament in a wrapper,
with the shopkeeper's address. Offer a pre-
miutn for the best circular, showing a mother's
tears over her starving children and drunken
husband. And the liquor shop, the parent of



316 grandmother's scrap-book;

all crime, closing with this promise, — Good
business shall be furnished to all that will give
up their shop." As the missionary presents the
Testament to tlie proprietor, let him set forth
the object of his mission. Small Testaments
can be bought for six or eight cents. Perhaps
the Bible Society will make us a donation. A
few dollars spent in this way is better than
thousands in punishing crime.

Some of these shopkeepers are well-educated
young men from the best of families. All they
want, is a kind hand, and they will return, as
the prodigal returned. Let this mission be
started forthwith. Without God's blessing it
will amount to nothing. I have perfect faith
in prayer. Let the whole church of Christ,
set apart a week for this object. And may the
Great Head of the Church crown this mission
with his blessing.



317



INCREASE OF CRIME, AND ITS REMEDY.

Sooner or later the public mind will be
more effectually turned to this subject. Crim-
inals, both imported and of native growth, are
fearfully increasing among us. If there were
no emigrations of foreigners hither, there are
in the quickened action of all causes that form
character, whether good or bad, reasons why
we should expect that the more depraved
among our native population would more rap-
idly advance in crimes against society than
formerly. Then, in addition to this source of
increase, the jails and poor-houses of Europe
are discharging their contents among us to
such an extent that only a small fraction of
the tenants of our prisons are of American
birth. Speaking of the growth of crime in
New York, the Journal of Commerce says, —

" We have in this city nine cases of murder
and attempts to kill, on hand. Two men have
recently been executed, and two more are to



318 grandmother's scrap-book;

share the same fate. Two policemen have
recently been killed, and several more are
dangerously wounded. The knife is used
frequently and fearfully. Rowdyism is in-
creasing all over the city. Look at the nu-
merous gambling houses, brothels, grog-shops,
and. other hot-beds of vice. What is to be
done ? What can be done ? The world is
vomiting its tens of thousands upon us every
year, and too many of them come surcharged
with infidelity or superstition, and not a few
are adepts in crime."

" What is to be done ? " is the question. No
radical changes in our criminal laws will reach
the case. And little more can be hoped from
a more rigid and severe system of administer-
ing the laws. Judge Parsons, of Pennsylvania,
who has had much experience in the adminis-
tration of criminal laws, says, —

" If the city and county of Philadelphia
could appropriate the sum of fifty thousand
dollars annually for five years for missionary
purposes, more than that amount would be



OR, THE WAY TO DO GOOD. 319

saved to the people in the sustenance of
paupers, the administration of law, and the*
pay of police officers."

This suggests the nature of the effectual
remedy, though under an impossible supposi-
tion of its being applied by the civil govern-
ment. It accords with the genius of our
institutions to bring religious and moral influ-
ence to bear only through voluntary organiza-
tions. And if we were to depart from this
principle, and establish a State religion, we
should, as all experience proves, thereby cor-
rupt religion, and diminish instead of increas-
ing its reforming powers.

It comes, then, to this, that there is a true
and effectual remedy ; but it is one which civil
officers, as such, cannot use — one whose ex-
pense cannot be borne from the State treasury.
It is now in use to a limited but inadequate
extent, because a great portion of those who
have lives and property to be protected stand
wholly aloof from our Christian institutions.
And many who bear some connection with



320 grandmother's scrap-book ;

them, fail of contributing their share to a
thorough evangelizing of the masses around
them. Now the course of events is forcing
upon our attention the necessity of some ade-
quate means of home evangelizing — of bring-
ing the masses of the people, especially in our
own cities and larger towns, under the influ-
ence of the gospel. God is driving us into a
corner, where we shall be compelled to do it,
as our only means of escape from destruction.
And it is time, not for the church only, but for
all who desire protection of life and property
under wholesome laws, to consider what is
their interest and duty to do in the premises.

God has put into our hands an instrument
by wliich the people can be made obedient to
law, and crimes be diminished. The respon-
sibility as to its use rests with individuals, and
not with civil authorities. It cannot be applied
by constables paid by the city, but by ministers
of tlie gospel and their helpers, fed by vohin-
tary means. This is a fact wliich especially
deserves the consideration of men of wealth



OR, THE WAY TO DO GOOD. 321

ill our cities. They consent to be heavily
taxed to pay the police expenses of the city, the
costs of criminal prosecution, and the support
of pauperism, resulting from vice and crime,
and little think that a liberal support of evan-
gelizing agencies would save tliem a great
share of this taxation.

The great obstacle to a proper appreciation
of this subject by such men, is, that having
little experience of the gospel themselves, they
have little faith in it. They do not readily
realize the fitness of the instrument to the
result. This fact raises the question, whether
some special means might not be used with
profit, to produce a broader public conviction
that the gospel is the power of God to do this
work, and induce many who have been indifier-
ent to it, to give a generous support to our
systems of home evJmgelizing. Besides appeal-
ing to the public through the ordinary chan-
nels for the support of missions, home and
foieign, for the support of Bible societies and
tract societies and their colporteurs, might not
21



322 grandmother's scrap-book ;

an effective appeal be made out on general
grounds, through public conventions an*d the
press, to this class of people, compelling them
to see that their security of life and property,
and their share in the public safety, require
their cooperation in home evangelizing, — not
through this or that agency or sect, but through
some agency, leaving each to choose for him-
self. The thing to be demonstrated, to the
conviction of the hitherto indifferent, is that the
application of gospel power can and will do this
work and that nothing else will. The effectual
tending of this simple truth to all who have an
interest in the prevention of crime, would be-
come a moral revolution. Whe have a high
vantage ground from which to inculcate it —
in a world of facts that are incontrovertible,
and in the strong interest which all have in
finding a remedy. Let tlte energies of our
most powerful minds be employed, to set in
array these facts and arguments addressed to
the interest of individuals. Let there be a
concentration of mental power upon this single



323



theme, and much might be done. But, be it
this or that, something must be done over and
above any tiling now in progress. For crime, ii>
its worst forms, is increasing out of all propor
tion to what is done to prevent it.



True to his Pledge. — Mr. J. W. Good^
rich, of Worcester, through whose efforts John
B. Gough was induced to give up drinking,
recently died. Previous to his death he in-
sisted on being removed from the place where
he was sick, because, when insensible and sup-
posed to be dying, rum was administered to
him. " Be sure and keep the pledge," were
among his last words to one whom he had been
the means of reforming.

Riches do not so often produce criminals as
incite accusers.



324 grandmother's scrap-book ;

THE LITTLE ONES AT PRAYEE.

A LITTLE child knelt near the broken lattice.
Casting a glance at the sleeping form of her
father, she clasped her wan hands and mur-
mured, —

" God, make father leave his evil ways ;
make him my own dear father once again !
Make mother's sad looks go away, and make
her old smile come back ; but thy way will be
done."

Just then the mother entered the room ; and
taking her husband by the arm, she said, —

" Hearken to ^Minnie ; she is praying."

" God, make father love me, as once he
did ; and make him forsake his bad ways,"
murmured the little one again.

"0 Paul — husband!" cried the mother;
*' by our past joys and sorrows, by our mar-
riage vows, our wedded love, bliglit not the
life of our little one ! 0, let us all be happy



OR, THE WAY TO DO GOOD. 325

The conscience-stricken man bowed his head
and wept. Then, clasping his hands, he
said, —

" With God's help, you will never be made
to sorrow on my account again."

And he kept his vow.



Observance of the Sabbath. — The sheriff
of London repeats an old maxim of a Puritan
divine, that " if the Sabbath is well hemmed,
it will not ravel out during all the week." He
has learned from the confessions of most of the
prisoners, that their crimes originated in Sab-
bath-breaking.

Thin Shoes. — A tombstone somewhere in
New Jersey bears the following significant
epitaph : " Died of thin shoes, January, 1839."
If the truth were always spoken, there would
be many epitaphs of that description.



326 grandmother's scrap-book ;



FAITH IN GOD.

Have faith in God. Faith will be staggered