Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1880-04-14
r, ne Mothers Privilege.

..itI
The I'M 'elligent mother can make her
cb;la in m any respects, livery nearly
what she wishes it to be. This state
meut should By no means reflect upon
any for doing what they could not tavoid,
or for not doing what they did not
know how to do. Very few mothers
have any adequate idea Of the degree in
which they can form the physical, men,
tai and moral characterlsts of the child.
let us draw lesson from the sacred
word. opening the Bible to the hrst
chapter of the first Samuel and reading
the story of Hannah.
She was devout woman, and she
,elieyed, as all Jewish matrons did;
that it was honor to be a mother. That
honor had been denied her. Depressed
and annoyed, she yet pursued the wis.,
est possible course, in taking her sorrow
to the Lord. With continued prayer
she became more and more devour,
until she devoted the desired gift to the
Lord, to be Nazarite from his birth.
Compare the eleventh verse with the
sixth chapter Of Number.) She may
also have taken this VOW upon herself
for the time being; for though she had
iust risen from the feast, she answered
the accusation of Eli, by saying, Il
have drank neither wine nor strong
drink (see Judges xiii: A. This and
her devout frame OF mind we're ploba-
bly, maintained throughout, for we find
her afterward diligently carrying out all
the conditions of her VOW, and crown
ing the whole with hymn of thanks
giving worthy Of a place in the divine
record.
And what was tie result? The child
Samuel became one Of the most pure
aud beautiful characters of whom we
have any account in the Bible. Be-
ginning in childhood, all his life long
the Lord talked with him as with a
friend, directed his ways, established
his goings, made him useful, loved and
respected in life, al i greatly lamented
at his death. The names Of the other
chll dren Of Hannah are not mentioned;
but this one whom she dedicated to the
Lord, with the use Of the physical
means to keep him pure, and Of the
spiritual means to keep her own mind
in devour frame, will carry down her
name as a model mother, to the end OF
time.
The woman of this land haYe hardly
yet begun to suspect the power that
God has through such means, placed in
their hands for the regeneration OF the
race. Parents allow their daughters to
marry men, after whose early life they
would not have the children copy, for
any consideration and they neglect to
INQUIRE into the habits Of ancestors, OF
whose poisoned blood and shattered
ncryes the children must become the
legatees. Mothers and attendants
poison the earliest beginnings OF the
child's life, with gin, brandy, or cordlals,
taken with or without the prescriptions
of a physician. They lntoxicate the
child with beer imbibed with its
mothers milk, or dose it with alcohol
syrups, to still the cries that might
have been prevented, without suppos-
ing that they are laying the foundations
of abnormal appetites, or OF serious
weakness, or even suspecting the exis-
tence of the secret OF nature, OF which
we have most merclful intimation IN
this narrative of Sacred Writ.
One difficulty is. that most women
do not know enough about the laws OF
their own being, to induce them to seek
for this intelligence. They will end
much to help them in the study OF
and in Story on Alcohol
aud Edmunds on 'Stimulants for Wo.
men and Nursing Mothers while the
first principles can be found still more
clearly laid down IN other books.
If our Christian women will, from
the frat, lntelllgently dedicate them
selves and thelr,, children to the Lord,
and set them sSsnple of holy living
aflerward, race Of Samuels, pure IN
heart aud IN life, will arse to illustrate
the blessed and holy Office of the devout
and intelligent mother, and there viii
be better geaeratlon 10 aid in building
up the kingdom of our Lord and bis
Christ upon the earth
At dinner she had doctor on either
hand, one of whom remarked thai they