San Andreas independent., 1857-03-07
The Good Mother.

man feeling, that they hear unmoved the
mention of mothers name. The first
kind glance that falls upon our infancy,
beams from a mothers eye, the first sweet
smile that moves the fountain of Joy in the
infant soul comes from mothers face,
and the first gentle accents that soothc our
pains and claim our fears, fall from a
mothers lips. And as we pass from in
fancy to childhood, the name of mother is
the first that trembles in lisping accents
on the tongue. In all the joys that strew
with flowers the pathway of our early years,
it is the mothers heart that rejoices in our
happiness. In all our sorrows it is to her
that we turn for consolation, and we are
sure to find it. Her loving hand wipes
the tears from the eye, and her voice of
kindness drives sorrow from the troubled
breast, and bids us look upon the bright
world around us and be happy. Disease
may seize upon the frame, and the sunken
eye and pallid cheek proclaim its inroads,
but the mother, as ministering angel,
hoyers round the couch of pain through
days of suffering, unweared and untired,
Watching the stars out by the bed of pain
With pale cheek and yet brow inspired"
Her voice stills the angry passions that
ruffie the calm surface Of the soul, and
speaks peace to it's troubled waters. Her
counsels guide us in the way Of truth, and
her teachings SOW the seeds of virtue in
the soil of the youthful heart. If the
voice Of conscience has been unheeded,
and we have turned astray from the path
of duty, how subduing are the mild words
Of reproof that fall from mothers lips,
and warn us of the dangerous path in which
we have wandered When we have
chosen the right way and disregarded the
alluremcnts that would draw us away,
whose approving smiles and words of
praise do we value like a mothers?
As we advance in years, and the foun-
tains Of knowledge are unlocked that we
may drink of their flowing streams, it is
the mothers heart that delights in each
new acquisition, and watches with eager
ness the unfolding Of intellect. Tempta-
tions thicken around us, and vice spreads
forth her snares to entrap the unwary, but
mothers voice of warning sounds in our
ears nd for her sake we turn from the
tempter's call and break the net that would
prove our destruction. And when the
hand Of death has fallen upon that beloved
mother, how deep is the grief, how dark
the gloom that falls upon our stricken
hearts Desolation spreads over the
bn, Il ~ 1,,~b& IF. -
love is quenched, and we seek in vain for
one to fill her place How the sweet rec
elections of her love and her kindness
come over the spirit then; and if we have
ever spoken an ungentle word, or cherished
harsh thought of her, these remeln-
brances fill our souls with bitterness and
haunt us like tormenting spirits. How
often, when sorrow has blighted, and sin
hardened the heart, does the thought of a
mother arrest the wanderer in the road Of
guilt, and carry him back to the days Of
innocence, when he listened to his mother s
voice; when her smile of love checred him,
and her words of wisdom checked the
follies of his youth. The strong heart is
melted and he resolves to turn from his
career of crime into the Path Of virtue
How often has the remembrance of days
of childhood come over the mind amid
temptations wiles = the time when he
knelt at mothers knee and her lips
taught him the words of prayer, and then
he has burst the fatal spell that bound
him.
Who can estimate mothers influence
who can tell mothers value who
can fathom the depths of mothers worth
till they have seen her laid in the tomb,
and felt that she was taken from their
sight for ever And while | write, my
thoughts wander to the hallowed sod under
which, in a distant land, slumbers the
form of my own loved mother: | was
but child, yet it seems but yesterday that
| saw her laid in that resting gplace. She
had been an invalid for years, and we had
been taught to expect her death at any
moment; yet when they told me she must
die | was all rnprepared to part with her.
| stood by her dying bed, and received her
last words of counsel, and her last kiss of
love- and when all was over, felt that
she was indeed gone, such sense of DESC
lation came over me that | wished in the
bitterness of my heart that | too might
die.
Years have passed, yet her memory re-
mains linked with the records of my hap
Ply childhood, and / think of her not as
lying in the cold grave but as happy
and glorifed spirit in heaven, striking a
golden harp, and tuning that voice, SO
sweet on earth, in sweeter strains above.
Though | mourn that she is not here to
guide my wayward steps, yet | would not
call her back to world Of suffering and
sorrow, and I bless God that her example
is before me, and that he gave me such a
IL