Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1879-06-27
NO. 20.
a Specimen Of Modern EXegesis.


The following hits of pretty fairly the way
in which some discourses are constructed -
Brethren, the words of my text are
odd Mother Hubbard, she went to the cupboard,
To get her poor dog bone;
But VIXEN she got there the cupboard was bare
And 90 the poor dog had none
These beautiful words, dear friends, carry
with them a solemn lesson. l propose this
evening to analyze their meaning and to at
tempt to apply it, lofty as it may be, to our
everyday life -
Old Mother Hubbard, she went TO the cupboard,
To get her poor dog bone
Mother Hubbard, you see, was old there
being no mention of Others we may presume
sho was alonc n widOw-n frendlcss old,
solitary widow. Yet did she despair Did
she sit down and weep, or read novel, or
wiring her hands No, she went to the cub
board. And here observe that she went to
the cupboard. She did not hop, or skip, or
run, or jump, or use any other peripatctic ar
tifice she solely and merely went to the
cupboard.
I'VE have seen that she was old and lonely,
and we further see that she was poor. For,
mark, the words are the cupboard Not
'one of the cupboards or the right hand
cupboard, or the left hand cupboard, or the
one above or the one below, or the one under
the floor, but Just the cupboard. The one
humble little cupboard the poor widow pos
sessed. And why did she so to the cupboard?
Was it to bring forth golden goblets, or gilt
| tering precious stones, or costly apparel, or
feasts, or any other attribute of wealth. 1t
was to get her poor dog bone! Not only
was the widow poor, but her dog, the sole
| prop of her age, was poor too We can inn
| agine the scene. The poor dog crouching in
the corner, looking wistfully at the solitary
cupboard, and the widow going TO that cup
board-in hope, in expectation may be-to
| open it, although We are not distinctly told
that it was not half open or ajar, to open it
for that poor dog -
But when she got there the cupboard bare,
| And 80 the poor dog hadn'ne.
When she got there. You see, dear breth-
ren, what perseverance is You see the beau
| ty of persistence in doing right. She got
there. There were no turnings and twist
| ings, no slippings and slidings, no leaning to
the right or gatherings to the loft. With glo-
rious simplicity we are told she got there.
And how was her noble effort rewarded
1.-The cupboard was bare :" It was bare
There were to be found neither oranges, nor
cheese-cakes, nor penny buns, nor ginger
bread nor crackers, nor nuts, nor lucifcr
matches. The cupboard was bare! There
was but one, only one solitary cupboard in
the whole of that cottage, and that one the
sole hope of the widow, and the glorious
loadstar of the poor dog was bare Had there
| been leg of mutton, a loin of lamb, tillet
| of veal, even an ice from Gunter's the case
would have been different the incident would
have been otherwise. But it was bare, my
brethren, bare as a bald head.
Many of you will probably say, with all the
pride of worldly sophistry- The widow, no
doubt, went out and bought dog biscuit.
All, no! Far removed from earthly ideas,
these mundane desires, poor Mother Hub
bard the widow whom thoughtess worldlings
would despise, in that she only owned a cup
board, perceived, or 1 might even say saw, at
once tile relentless logic of the situation, and
yielded to it with all the heroism of that ma
ture which had enabled her without deviation
to reach the barren cupboard. She did not
attempt, like the stiff-necked scoffers of this
generation, to war against the inevitable she
did not try, like the so-called men of science,
to explain what she did not understand. She
did nothing. The poor dog had none =
And then at this point our information ceas-
es. But do we not know sufficient? Are we
not cognizant of enough?
Who would dare to pierce the veil that
shrouds the ulterior fate of old Mother Hub
bard-the poor dog-the cupboard-or the
bone that was not there? Must we imagine
her still standing at the open cupboard door,
depict to ourselves the dog still dropping his
disappointed tail upon the floor, the sought
for bone still remaining somewhere else
All no, my dear brethren, we are not per
mitted to attempt to read the future Suffice
it for us to CLEAN from this beautiful story its
many lessons; suffice it for us to apply them,
to study them as far as in us lies, and bearing
in mind the natural frailty of our nature, to
avoid being widows; to shun the patronymic
of Hubbard to have, if our means afford it,
more than one cupboard in the house; aud
to keep stores in them ALL And, oh! deaI
friends, keeping in recollection what we have
learned this day, let us avoid keeping dogs
that are fond of bones. But, brethren, if we
do; if fate has ordained that we should dc
any of these things, let us then CO. as Moth
er Hubbard did, straight, without curveting
or prancing, to our cupboard, empty though
it be-let us, like her, accept the inevitable
with calm steadfastness and should we, like
her, ever be left with hungry dog and al
empty cupboard, may future chroniclers be
able to write also of us, in the beautiful
words of our text -
And so the Door dog had none.'"