The weekly Union times. [volume] (Union C.H., South Carolina) 1871-1894, 1880-01-09
Written for the Times
A MOTHER'S INFLUENCE.

in your circumscribcd sphere Of life ? Did it
ever occur to you, tired mother that the thought
less and impatient word which escaped your
lips but u moment since sank deep into the heart
and mind of that blue eyed little daughter Sit
ting ut your feet and will bear fruit after awhile?
You may have forgotten it, but mark me she will
not, and when least You think Of it that same
ugly word will be Iispei by her rosy lips. You
will doubtless chide her for it, when perhaps,
shc will look up with grave wonder in her in
noccnt face and say, "why, mama, you said thai
naughty word only yesterday, your very self ''
How shocked how self rcbukcd you must then
feel. But the Dords we speak, though they may
shock us and astonish our little ones, are not
potent for evil as our actions, for they spread
far out from our homes and WELD o power aud
an influence separate and distinct.
1t is true that the character Of the mother,
and the power of her influence, moulds the char
ncter Of her offspring, but do VIC take in the full
scope Of woman's influence upon oH the relations
of society? Do we realize how thoroughly,
taste, morals intellect, politics and religion are
moulded by our forming hand? All if we but
did, if this mighty thought, the knowledge Of
this responsibility, would ever abide uppermost
in our thoughts, how humble and yet how ex
aled it should make us feel Hun,Jts in tha
we must feel our unworthincss; cral,ed that we
arc called of God to so high destiny! 1t has
been said that the moral status of n community
is judged by its women; and while l cannot en-.
tirely subscribe to this belief / know that We
are 40 bc ccnsurcl for great deal that is wror e.
We should frown down upon wrong doing wher
ever we may see it, regardless of tho wealth or
high social position of the guilty one. But there
is gentle way to do even this-a way that
ries with il an influence for good that frowns
and bitter words must, in the nature of things
fail to do. We should not draw aside our skirts
with the look and feeling which say, 81 an more
hoty than Mou-SiaDG thou aside" No, a tn GUS
and times no but so to the guilty ones, pleni
with them, kneeL anil pray with them if necess;..
ry, and in tho sanctity of our homes, in the
quiet solitude Of our Closets think them then,
ask God to turn them from the error of their
ways. Cease not to pray wh them and for the.u
until we feel that our prayers have been heard.
There Is no person on earth, however humllc
their position in life may be, who does not wiell
an influence somewhere and somehow, either
for good or bad We cannot, we must not shirk
this thought! Om influence, though silent AMI
unfelt, perhaps, by ourselves, is like pebble
thrown upon the bosom of some fair lake the
little waves widen and circle, grows broader ana
longer until they reach out, far ou. from tl.,
source from which they spring. Just so with
our influence, it reaches, in time. far away from
the sphere of our homes, and sometimes is for the
veal or woe of more than we dream of now.
Our little children feel the powers of ihis IN
hucncc every day, every hour. YES. every mo-
ment of their existence, and some dav they will
be better mcu or better women inst os tho ~.
turc Of that influence las been.
/ am dsposcd to think that girls tbouyb very
much are n no so entirely influenced he tboir moth
ers as the bows. The future husband couc,
in to modify the yet plastic lines of her charac
ter and to improve or dctcroIate. according rs il
may chance to l., but a mans opinion of avo
man, in the abstract, or his character in th
MAN, is seldom touched by his wife, though un.
alterably moulded by the character of his moth
cr, and the nature of the influence she has ex
erted over him from infancy up TO manhood.
If when grown up, he marries n woman of n luv
m:ral type, and his mother has been rs coo,i
and pure as this one is irnoble and lebascd u
looks back on the grandcr nature rs somcthip..
that was as good and true as this one is false
and through the blessed influence of ,hat COOL
pure mother can recognise the loyelincss OF wo.
man kind in general, whatever his iuliyiduol
experience may have been But if the wife am,
mother are both bad. talns! that this is some
times, but not Oft. IN, tho casc) how can we wonder
if he refuse TO believe in the worth or tLc soy