I remember hearing a few years ago of a rich family in the blue grass regions of Kentucky, who attended revival meetings, in which many were converted. One day the mother said to her son, “If you get religion, it will sweep away the pleasures before you, and you will have to give up society and the world. You cannot afford to do that, and we cannot afford to have you attend those meetings any longer, because it means too much. You can join another church and have a good time, and still get to heaven.” From that time God’s displeasure was on the family, and several of the children were taken out of the world. The boy was sent to college, and as vacation time drew near he received a letter from his father, saying:—
“Dear George,—Your vacation is coming soon, and the races are coming on, and I want you to come home and train the horses.”
He spoke of four or five fine horses that he had in training. The son came home, and began to train the horses. Day after day he rode around on the sulky; but one day he was thrown out, and picked up bruised and bleeding, and carried into the house unconscious. The mother wrung her hands and poured out her soul in grief, and said: “My boy is gone! He was going to finish school; but now he is gone! What shall I do? What shall I do?” A number of physicians were called for consultation; but they said nothing could be done to save him. “His brain is injured, and he will die in a few hours.” While the mother was in awful agony, the boy looked at her scornfully and said, “Mother, it’s no use to send for a preacher. My doom was sealed during the revival meetings, when you and father kept me from going to the penitent form, and I am a lost man.” Then, in a tone of anger, he exclaimed:
“Mother, I Hate You! I Hate You!”
Turning to his father he said, “I want you to bury me by the race-track, and every time you train horses for the races remember that your son is dead and in hell fire because you took him out of a revival meeting and told him to reject salvation”; and he died saying, “I hate you!”
Think of the meeting again of those parents and son in hell! How he will curse them throughout eternity for turning his feet from the path of eternal life! Truly, a man’s foes are they of his own household. Think, too, of the remorse of this young man, who, if he had chosen rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, might have been the means of saving the entire family. Let all who read these lines beware, lest they share a similar fate.—(From a sermon by Rev. C. W. Bridwell.)