Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1878-10-16
Mother and Son,

A good mother never grows old to n
good son nor does his love for her. Their
relations to each other are not changed by
the passing years. She is TO the last his
mother. and, whatever he is to others, to
her he is her boy. Biography is rich with
illustrations of this truth. although the
man whose mother is still spared to him
need not go beyond his own experience to
recognize its force. Here, for example, is
gruff old DIR. johnson. bearish and boorish
in many things. When he is fifty years
old. and his mother is ninety, he writes to
her in tenderness: You Rave been the
best mother. and, l believe, the best wo-
man in the world. | thank you for your
indulgence to me. and beg forgiveness of
all that have done i'll, and Of all that
have omitted to do we'll" How many
men there are whom the world little
thinks Of rs child.like. who could make
these words their own, and set their hands
to them with Johnson's closing assurance:
" am. dear, dear mother. your dutiful
son." And the lion hearted Luther. who
seems better suited to thunder defiance at
spiritual opposers than to speak words of
trustfnl affection to Il kind. hearted wo-
man, turns from his religious warfare To-
write to his aged and dying mother: 1"
am deeply Sol rowful that cannot be will
you in flesh, as fain would be-" al
your children pray for you" John Quincy
Adams mother lived to BIZ seventy four;
but he had not outgrown his sense of de
pendence upon her when she was taken
away. my mother was an angel upon
the earth." he wrote ">he was the re,I
personification of female virtue, of piety
of chari y. of ever active and never-inter
hitting benevolence. o God! could ST,
have been spared yet little longer!' 81
have enjoyed hut for short periods. and p
long, distant intervals. the happiness oI
her society, yet she has been to me more
than mother. She has been u spirit from
above watching over me for good. and
contributing. by mere consciousness oil
her existence, to the comfort of my life
That consciousness has gone, and wlhou
her the world feels to me like solitude y
When President Mott Of Union College
WAS more than ninety years old, and hao
been for half Il century college president. |
rs strength and sense failed him in his dy- |
ing hours. the memoyy of his mothers
love was fresh and potent and he could b.
huShed to needed sleep by patting him
gently on the shoulder, and singing to him
the familiar lullabes of long ago, afel
I he fashion of that mother who he f,ncied
was still at hand to care for him. An en-.
try in the diary of the gallant young
General Bartlett, while he was II prisoner
of war, severely wounded, in Virginia,
reads: If could only live to get in our
lines, or to fillmore, | would die con
tented. Mother would be there" Thus |
always. Mother, your work is hard one
but it pays 1t coss something to be II
good mother; it costs time and devoted
ness and selt-s ,crilice; but no love on
earth is like that which faithful mother
wins and holds from faithful son. That
love is accumul .ting for you with every |
breath of generous Christian fidelity to
the interests of your boy. Every birthday
finds you richer than ever in this priceless
rossesSion. IN SchOOL Times,