The Jackson standard. [volume] (Jackson C.H., Ohio) 1847-1888, 1881-04-28
chronological Journal.1
Our Mothers MeditatiOnS.


The ways and customs of the young
of to-day are so different from what
they were twenty years ago, that in
voluntarily we sigh for the good old
days when maidenly modesty was a
greater recommendation for young
lady than banged hair and pannier
skirts, and when the highest ambition
Of the masculine mind was to prove
himself worthy of the good mother
who bore him, instead of indulging in
all the fashionable vices so common
with the young men of to-day. To-
night, as [ sit by my freside, and rock
my little one to sleep, | wonder what
future years will bring to him. Will
my boy develop into an intellectual
and noble man? Will every good
thought and pure desire and noble
aspiration that animated my own
youthful bosom, and made me ambi-
tious to carve out for myself happy
and useful future, be transmitted from
mother to son, and bring forth an
hundredfold of fruit? May live
with the blessed hope that niy boy
will not forget his mothers early
training, but that may see fulfilled
in him my highest conceptions Of a
perfect man! | want to make him a
man of principle and honor, one who
will never stoop to do mean act be-
cause the world would never know it,
| want him to be so much above the
common herd of humanity that he
will fear no greater punishment for a
misdeed than his own reproving con-
science, and expect no higher COM
mendation for well-doing than con-
sciousness of having done his duty.
But will it be possible for him to
live and move in a world so corrupted
and polluted with sin and vice, and
not become tainted with it himself?
As he grows older and goes out into
the world to mingle with its people,
will my boy return to me in the even
ing as pure as when he left me in the
morning? Oh, God! | know that it
can not be. When | think that in
faw years the baby lips that kiss so
often, and deem so pure, will perhaps
learn to profane the name of the God
[ have tried to teach HIM to worship,
and the little hands that now know
nothing but playful innocence may
learn to shuttle the cards at the gaming
table, or WELD the cue in the billiard
saloon, and the little feet that | have
covered with kisses, and that have
never gone astray, may wander away
into dangerous and forbidden paths,
and perhaps keep time to low and
sensual music! when | think of the
thousand temptations to which my
child will be exposed-the tempting
wine-cup, that has drawn so many
down to ruin; the thirst for riches,
which may lead him into dishonest
speculations; the destinations of the
many houses of ill-repute-when |
think of all these things, and remem-
Der that he is but human, is it strange
l would rather almost my child We're
tonight in his death-shroud, and his
soul among the angels above, where
no harm could ever come to him?
But perhaps some one will say, You
must teach him while young to shun
all forms of sin, and by living a
strictly upright and virtuous life
yourself, instill into his young mind a
love for the true and good; and so |
must, and my daily prayer is for di0ine
assistance to help me make my own
life as pure and good as 1 would have
my child's. Yet | know there is
many a good mothers son who has
ended his career in the felon's cell, or
in the drunkard's grave. A true
mothers life is one Of care and re-
sponsibility and trouble, that shall
only end when the Angel of Death
sewers the slender thread Of life.
w nj