St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-06-29
SERMON FOR MOTHERS.
Those Who Danish Themselves From the
Home Circle and Neglect Their
0hildren's Training.
What is Accomplished by the Grander
Dignity, Usefulness and Industry
of Motherhood.
No Parent Excusable in Being Igno-
rant ofthe Best Mode ofRear-
ing Infants.
How Every Christian Mother Gets
Ful1Pay For All Her Prayers
and Tears.
DR.. Talmage's Sermon.

DIR. Talmage,s Sermon.
Subject: A First-Rate Mother.
Text: 1. Samuel, ii. 10: ''MOree>1er, his
mother made him little coat and brought
it to him from year to year, when she came
up with her husband to offer the yearly
sacrifice"
The story of Deborah and Abigail is very
apt to discourage woman'S soul. She
says within herself: sit is impossible that
ever achieve any such grandeur OF char
acter and don't mean to try" AS though a
child should refuse to play the eight notes
because he cannot execute a William Tell"
This Hannah of the text differs from the
persons just now named. She was an Or
dinary woman, with ordinary intellectual
capacity, placed in ordinary circumstances,
and yet, by extraordinary piety, standing
out before all the ages to come the model
Christian mother. Hannah was the
wife of Elkanah, who was a per-
son very much like herself -unrOmantic
and plain, never having foughtaa battle OF
been the subject of marvellous escape.
Neither of them would have been called
genius. just what you and l might be,
that was Elkanah and Hannah. The bright
est time in all the history of that family
was the birth of Samuel. Hannah stands
before us then in the first place as
AN INDUSTRIOUS MOTHER.
There was no need for her to work.
Elkanah, her husband, was far from poor.
He belonged to distinguished family; for
the Bible tells us he was the son OF .Jero-
ham, the son of Elihu, the son of TOhn,
oH i,
say. do not know; but they were distin-
guished people, no doubt, or their names
would not have been mentioned. Hannah
might have seated herself in her family, and
with folded arms and disheveled hair
read novels from year to year. it there had
been any to read; but when I see her max
ing that garment and taking it over to Sam
uel, l know she is industrious from princi-
would not have a mother become a
drudge or a slave; He would have
her employ all the helps possible in this day
in the rearing of her children. But Han
nah ought never to be ashamed to be found
making a coat for Samuel. Most mothers
need no counsel in this direction. The
wrinkles on their brow, the pallor on their
cheek, the thimble-mark on their finger at
test that they are faithful in their maternal
duties. The bloom and the brightness and
the vivacity of girlhood have given place for
the grander dignity and usefulness and
INDUSTRY OF MOTHERHOOD.
But there is heathenish idea getting
abroad in some Of the families of Ameri-
cans. There are mothers who Danish them
selves from the home circle. For three
fourths of their maternal duties they prove
themselves incompetent They are igno-
rant of what their children wear and what
their children eat and what their children
read. They entrust to irresponsible persons
these young immOrtals and allow them to
be under influences which may cripple
their bodies or taint their purity or spoil
their manners or destroy their souls. From
know his mother Hannah did not make
it. Out from under the flaming chandeliers
and off from imported carpets and down the
granite stairs there is come great crowd
of children in this day, unframed, saucy,
incompetent for all practical duties of life,
ready to be caught in the first whirl of crime
and sensuality. Indolent and unfaithful
mothers will make indolent and unfaithful
children. You cannot expect neatness and
order in any house where the daughters see
nothing but slatternness and upsidedOwna
tiveness in their parents Let Hannah be
idle, and most certainly Samuel will grow
up idle. Who are the
INDUSTRIOUS MEN
in all our occupations and professions?
Who are they managing the merchandise of
the world, building the walls timing the
roofs, weaving the carpets, making the
laws, governing the nations, making the
earth to quake and heave and roar and rat
tie with the tread of gigantic enterprises?
Who are they? For the most part they de-
scend from Industrious mothers who, in the
old homestead, used to spin their own
yarn and weave their own carpets, plait
their own door mats and flag their own
chairs and do their own work. The stall
wart man and the influential woman of this
day, ninety-nine out of hundred of them,
came from such an illustrious ancestry of
hard knuckles and homespun. And who
are those people in society, light as froth,
blown every whittier of temptation and
fashion?-the peddlers of filthy stories, the
dancing jacks Of political parties, the scum
of society, the tavern-lOunging, the store
infesting, theSmen of low wink and filthy
chuckle and brass breastpin and rotten as
sociations? For the most part they came
from mothers idle and disgusting scan
dal-mongers of society, going from house to
house attending to everybody's business but
their own; believing in witches and ghosts,
churn, and by Goddess life setting their
children on the
VERY VERGE OF HE'LL.
Again, Hannah stands before us an
intelligent mother from the way in which
she talked in this chapter, and from
the way she managed this boy you know
she was intelligent There are no persons
in community who need to be so wise and
well-informed as mothers. Oh, this work
of culturing children for this world and the
next. This child is timid and it must be
reused up and pushed into activity. This
child is forward and 1t must be held back
and tanned down into modesty and polite
ness Rewards for one, punishments for
another. That which will make George
will ruin John. The rod is necessary in
one case, while a frown Of displeasure is
more than enough in another. Whipping
and dark closet do not exhaust all the
rounds of domestic discipline. There have
been children who have grown up and gone
to glory without ever having had their ears
boxed Oh. how much care and intelli-
gence is necessary in the
REARING OF CHILDREN!
But in this day, when there are so many
books on this subject. no parent is excusa.
BILE in being ignorant of the best mode of
bringing up child. If parents knew more
of dietetics there would not be so many
dyspeptic stomachs and weak nerves and
inactive livers among children. If parents
knew more OF physiology there would not
be so many curved spines, cramped chests,
inflamed throats and diseased lungs as there
are among children.
Again, Hannah stands before us as a
Christian mother. From her prayers and
from the way she consecrated her boy to
God know she was good. A mother may
have thn finest cult,lre. the most brilliant