Eaton weekly Democrat. [volume] (Eaton, Ohio) 1866-1875, 1871-05-04
=" SHE HAS OUTLINED HER USE.
sssfa FULNESS.o

"SHR HAS OUTLINED HER USE
sf-sta!7 FULNESS.o
Not long since good-loolzing man in
middle life came to our door asking for
the minister. When informed that
he was out of town he seemed disap-
pointed and anxious. On being ques-
toned as to his business, he replied, 81
have lost my mother, and as this place
used to be her home, and my father
lies here, we have come to lay her be-
side him.
Our heart rose in sympathy, and
we said, you have met with a great
lossTa.ila .-Ys7-,-l s-rs.,s,
"Well-yes," replied the strong man,
with come hesitancy, g a mother is a
s5gfeat loss nsgeneral; but our mother
n p lad ontliYed her usefulness. She was
60 was grown as weak as her body, SO that
siS she was no comfort to herself and was a
81 burden to everybody. There, were
Sac seven of JUS sons and daughters and as
= iiwescould not find any one who would
= !. board her, we agreed to keep her
among us year about. But I have
had more than my share of her, for she
was too feeble to be moved about when
my time was out, and that was more
than three months before her death.
-, But then she was good mother in her
day, and toiled very hard to bring us
:. Esup.' -,
t,rsi.s Without looking at the face of the
heartless man we directed him to the
asef house of neighboring pastor and re-
turned to the nursery. We gaZed on
.ros the merry little faces which smiled or
grew sad in imitation of ours those
little ones to whose ear no word in our
language is half so sweet as " mother
and we wondered if that day could ever
come when they would say of us, " She
has. outlived her usefuln ness-she is no
comfort to herself and7oa burden to
$50 everybody elsei'' apd we hoped that be-
FORE such daysNould dawn WE might
q r-be taken to our rest. God forbid that
AVE should soutlive the love of our chill
dren Rather let us die while our
Is hearts are q part of their own, that our
. grave may be watered with their tears
il.Ssands our love linked with their hopes of
ssssheaven.sf - affsIs d gf tE-isEz s5fs-srs
When the bell to1led for the mothers
burial we went to the sanctuary to
pay our only token of respect to
the aged stranger: for we felt that we
~ could give her memory a tear, even
.~y esthough her own children had none to
.'s,n shed. 7,-s ssgi1
~ ,sHs She was a good mother in her day,
: - and toiled hard to bring us all up-she
was no comfort to herself and a burden
to everybody else p These cruel,
heartless words rung in our we
saw the coffin borne up the aisle. The
,s,i bell tolled long and loud, until its iron
yasI tongue had ehronicled the years of the
toil-worn mother One-two-three =
s4ssfour-fve. How clearly and almost
nerrily each stroke told of cher once
u 4 peaceful gslufaber in her mothers bo-
som, and of her seat at nightfall on her
weary fathers knees. Six-seven-
ne=ten---rang)e out the tale
of her sports upon the greensward, in
the meadow and beside The brook.
Do Eleven : twelve = thirteen - fourteen
. - spoke more gragely of schoordays and
- little household joys, and cares. Six
teen - seventeen ghteen - sounded
Zoaout the enraptured Visions of maiden
hood and the dream of early love.
Nineteen, brought before us the happy
"a = bride. Twenty, spoke of the young
sqi mother, whose heart was full to burst
.ssgs ing with the new strong love which God
- had awakened in her bosom. And then
- stroke after stroke told of her early wo-
a., :manhood-of the loves, and cares, and
hopes, and fears, and tolls through
& which she passed during these long
e.-.. years, till fifty rang out harsh and loud
a e From that to sixty, each stroke told of
=. - the warnn-hearted mother and grand
mother, living over again her own joys
49,. /, and scrrows in those of her children and
children's children.
Every family of all the group wanted
grandmother then, and the only strife
WAS WHO sSAOuluf SEIZURE Gn0 prize DuG,
S7fe7' 'hark, the bell tolls on Seventy-sev-
.,,s- enty-one-two-thre She be-
gins to grow feeble, requires some care,
is not always perfectly patient or salts
fed she goes from one child's house to
'9a another, SO that no one place seems like
y, home. She murmurs in plaintiye tones,
and after all her toll and weaFiness, it is
hard she cannot be allowed a home to
j. die in that she must be sent rather than
invited from house to house. Eighty
eighty-one-two-three All, she
- lis now a second child-now e. she has
r@' outlived her usefulness; she has now
ceased to be comfort to herself or any.
body !" that is, she has ceased to be pro-
htable to her earth and money
grasplng children.
NOW sounds out, ,reverberating through
our lovely forest, and echoing back from
our hill of the dead,'. eighty-nine
There she lies now in the coffin, cold
and stlll-she makes no trouble now,
demands no love, no soft words. no ten.
der little offices. A look of patient en-.
durance-we fancied also an expression
OF grief for unrequited love-sat on her
marble features. Her. children were
there clad in weeds of woe. and il
irony we remembered the strong man!
day.
When the bell ceased 'tolling the
strange minister rose in the pulpit. Hi
form was very erect, and his voice
strong, but his hair was silvery white
He read several passages of Scripture
expressive of Gods compassion to feeble