The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-03-23


or, Who is Your Neighbour
Does God our mother, want to set forth what
foolish thing 1T is to 60 away from the right
and how glad divine mercy is to take back the
wanderer? How is it donei By picture A
good father. Large farm with fat sheep and
oxen. Fine house with exquisite wardrobe
DISCONTINUED boy Goes away. Sharpers fleece
MIN. Feeds hogs. Gets homesick. Starts
back. Sees an old man running 1t is father!
The hand, torn Of the husks, gets ring. The
foot. infiamed aud bleeding, gets 8 sandal The
bare shoulder, showing through the tatsers, gets
robe. Tho stomach. gnawing itself with
hunger, gets full platter smoking with meat
The father cannot eat for looking at the re-
turned adventurer. Tears running down the
face until they come to smile--the night dew
melting into the morning. No work on the
farm that day; for when a bad boy repents and
comes back, promising TO do better, God knows
that's enough for one day. And they began
to be merry Picture-Prodigal Son returned
from the wilderness
So God, our mother, teaches US everything by
pictures. The sinner is lost sheep: Jesus is
the bridegroom; the useless man, a barren fig
tree; the gospel is great SUPPER Satan. a sower
could not have understood in that abstract state
ment, God, our mother, presents to us in this
Bible album OF pictures, God engraved is not
the divine maternity ever thus teaching usi
THE FAvoRrTIsM OF GOD.
remark again that God has mothers favor
tism; father sometime shows sort of favor
itism- Here is a boy--strong WELL of high fore
head and quick intellect The father says, Il
will take that boy into my firm yet or, II will
give him the very best possible education. !"
There are instances where, for the culture of the
one boy, all the others have been robbed. A sad
favoritism; but that is not the mothers favorite
will tell you her favorite. There is child,
who, at two years Of age, had fall. He has
never got over it. The scarlet fever muffied his
hearing. He is not what he once was That child
caused the mother more anxious nights than all
the other children. The last thing she does
when going out of the house is to give charge
in regard to him. The first thing coming in
Is to ask in regard to him. Why, the children
of the family all know that he is the favorite.
and say: Mother. you let him do just as he
pleases, and you give him great many things
which you do not give us. He is your favorite.'
The mother smiles. She knows it is So So he
ought to be; for if there is anyone in the world
who needs sympathy more than another, it is an
invalid child, weary on the first mile of lifes
journey; carrying an aching head, a weak side,
an irritated lung. So the mother ought to make
him favorite God our Mother, has favorites
Whom the Lord loveth He chasteIeth.' That
is, one whom He especially Loves He chasteneth.
God loves us ALL but is there one weak and
sick, and sore, and wounded, and suffering and
faintf That is the one who lies nearest and
more perpetually on the great loving heart of
God. Why. it never coughs but our Mother,
God, knows it. 1t never stir3 weary limb in
the bed but our Mother, God, knows fit. There
Is no such watcher as God. The best nurse
may be overborne by fatigue and fall asleep in
the chair; but God, our Mother, after being up
year of nights with a suffering child, never
slumbers nor sleeps
"Oh," says one, II cannot understand all that
about affection" A refner of silver once ex-
planned it to a Christian lady: II put the silver
In the fire and keep refining it, and trying it,
TIL l can soc my face in it, and /
than take it out" Just so it is that
God keeps his dear children in the furnace
Til the divine image may be seen in them; then
they are taken out of the fire. well" says
some one. ''if that is the way that God treats
his favorites, do not want to be favorte"
There is barren field on an autumn day, just
wanting to be let alone. There is bang at the
The field says: What is the farmer going to do
with me know2" The farmer puts the plow in
the ground, shouts to the horses, the coulter
goes tearing through the sod and the furrow
bang at the bars and a rattle of whif1e trees
again The field says: Il wonder what the
farmer is going to do now9" The farmer
bitches the horses to the harrow, and it
goes bounding aud tearing across the field.
Next day there is a rattle at the bars again, and
the field says ''What is the farmer going to do
now?' He walks heavily across the field, scatter
ing seed as he walks. After while cloud
comes. The field says: What, more troubled"
1t begins to rain. After while the wind changes
to the northeast and it begins to snow Says the
field: lis it not enough that have been torn,
and trampled upon, and drowned2 Must now
be showed under~ After while spring comes
out of the gates of the south. and warmth and
the cash of the wheat field, and the July morn
ing drops a crown of gold on the head of the
grain. ''Oh," says the field, "now know the
use of the pillow, of the harrow, of the heavy
r. - -. e 80
well enough to be trodden, and trampled and
drowned, and showed under, if in the end can
yield such a elorious harvest" HE that goeth
forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall
doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing
his sheaves with him."
GOOD OUT OF ADVERSELY
When see God especially busy in troubling
and trying Christian know that out Of that
Christians character there is to come some es-
pecial good. A quarryman goes down into the
excavation, and with strongbanded machinery
bores into the rock The rock says: "What do
you do that fort" He puts powder in; he lights
a fuse. There is laundering crash. The rock
says: why, the whole mountain Is going to
pieces The crowbar is plunged; the rock is
dragged out After q while it is taken into the
artists studio 1t says: well. now have got
to good warm, comfortable place at last" But
the sculptor takes the chisel and mallet, and he
digs for the eyes, and he cuts for the mouth, and
he bores for the ear, and he rubs it with sand
paper. until the rock says "When will this
torture be endedr A sheet is thrown over it.
1t stands in darkness. After while it is taken
out. The covering is removed. It stands in the
sunlight in the presence of ten thousand applaud
ing people, as they greet the statue of the poet
or the prince, or the conqueror "Ah," says the
stone. ''now understand it,. am a great deal
better off now, standing as a statue of
conqueror, than / would have
been down in the quarry So God finds man
down in the quarry of ignorance and SIM How
to get him up2 He must be bored, and blasted,
aud chiseled. and secured and stand sometimes
in the darkness But after while the mantle
of affection will fall off. and his soul will be
greeted by the one hundred and forty four
thousand and the thousands of thousands as
more than conqueror. 0. my friends, God, our
mother, is just as kind in our Affections as in our