The Baltimore County union., 1883-01-06
A MODERN SERMON.

re-reading very well:
Brethren, the words OF my text are
"0Id Mother Hubbard, she wen, to the cupboard,
To get her poor dog bone;
But when she got there the cupboard was bare,
And 50 the poor dog had none
These beautiful words, dear friends,
carry with them a solemn lesson.
Ipropose this evening to analyze their
meaning, and to attempt to apply it,
lofty as it may be, TO our everyday life.
"0id Mother Hubbard. she wen, to the cupboard,
To sc; her poor dog bone
Mother Hubbard, you see, was old I;
there being no mention of others, VIC
may presume she was alone; widow
"a friendless, 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 cupboard. And here observe that
she vent 20 ihe cupboard. She did no,
hop, or skip, or run, or jump. or use
any other peripatetic artifice; she sole
ly and merely went TO the cupboard.
We have seen that she was old and
lonely, and We now further see that she
was poor. For, mark, the words are
"thc cupboard.
Not zone OF the cupboards," or the
"right.hand cupboard" or the cleft
hand cupboard" or the one above. or
the one below, or the one under the
stair, but just the cupboard. The one
little humble cupboard the poor widow
possessed. And why did she go to the
cupboard? Was it to bring forth gol-
den goblets, or glittering precious stones.
or costly apparel, or feasts, or any other
attributes OF wealth? II was TO get her
poor dog a bone. Not only was the
widow poor, but her dog, the sole prop
Of her age, was poor too.
We can imagine the scene. The poor
dog crouching in the corner, looking
wistfully at the solitary cupboard, and
The widow going to that cupboard-in
hope, in expectation may be-to open
il, although we are not distinctly told
that il was not half open or ajar, to open
j, for that poor dog.
"But when she got there the cupboard was bare.
And 80 the poor dog had none
"when she got there u You see,
dear brethren what perseverance is.
You see the beauty Of persistence in
doing right. She got there.
There are no turnings and twistings,
no slippings and slidings, no leaning TO
the right, or falterings to the left.
With glorious simplicity We are told
she got there.
And how was her noble effort re-
wardcd?
"The cupboard was bare" II was
bare There were to he found neither
oranges, nor cheese-cakes, nor penny
buns, nor gingerbread, nor crackers,
nor nuts, nor lucifer matches.
The cupboard was bare
There was but one, only one solitary
cupboard in the whole of that cottage,
and ,ha, 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. fillet oi
veal, even an ice from Guntcr's the case
would have been different, the inciden,
would have been otherwise.
Many Of you will probably say, with
all the pride Of worldly sophistry, "The
widow, no doubt, went Cut, and bought
dog biscuit"
All, mol Far removed from these
earthly ideas, these mundane desires,
poor Mother Hubbard, the widow,
whom many thoughtless worldlings
would despise, in that she only owned
one cupboard, perceived-or | might
even say at once the relentless logic
Of the situation, and yielded to it with
all the heroism Of that nature 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 moi
try, like the so-called men Of science,
TO explain what she did not understand.
She did nothing. "The poor dog had
none I" And then, at this point, our
information ceases.
But do we not know sufficient? ArS
We not cognizant Of enoughl
Who would dare to pierce the veil
that shrouds the ulterior fate Of old
Mother Hubbard, the poor dog, the
cupboard, or the bone that was moi
there.
Must We imagine here still standing
at the open cupboard door-depict &c
ourselves the dog still dropping his dis
appointed tail upon the floor, the sought
| for hone still remaining somewhere else