Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1885-03-23
1.-THE MOTHER OF US ALL"
A Sermon by DR.. Talmase After
!, His Two Weeks Absence.
THE INFINITE TENDERNESS OF GOD.
"As One Whom His Mother ComfOrteth
So Will Comfort
You"
RESEMBLANCE OF GOD TO ANOTHER

Of two weeks, during which time he spoke
in some thirteen cities Of the West DR..
Talmage returned to his pulpit in the Brook
lyn Tabernacle to day. Before the sermon
he expounded some consOlatory passages OF
Scripture. The opening hymn was:
"Come ye disconsolats, whsre'er ye langqish,
a:S rGQas io.shs mercy seat, tervsnsly knseL"
The subject of the sermon was The
Mother Of US al" and the text was from
Isaiah Xvi, 3d. "As one whom his mother
comfortsth, so will l comfort you" DR..
Talmsge said:
The Bible is a warm letter of affection
from parent to child, and yet there are
many who see chiefly the severer passages.
As there may be fifty or sixty nights of gen.
tie dew in one summer, that will not create
as much remark as one hailstorm of half an
hour. So there are those who are more
struck by these passages of the Bible that
announce the indignation OF God than by
those that announce his affection. There
may come to household twenty or fifty let
tiers of affection during the year, and they
will not make as much excitement in that
home as one sheriff writ; and so there are
people who are more attentive to those pass.
ages which announce the wrath of Gsd than
to those which announce His mercy
and His favor. God is a
lion, John says in the Book Of
Revelation. God is a breaker, Micah an
nouuced in his prophecy. God is a rock.
God is a king. Bot hear also that God is
love. A father and his child are walking
out in field on q summers day aud there
comes up thunder storm, and there IS a
flash of lightning that startles the child and
the father says: MY dear, that is Gods
eye" Now comes peal of thunder and
the father says: my dear, that is Gods
voice" But the clouds 60 off the sky and
the storm is gone, and the light floods the
heavens and floods the landscapes, and the
father forgets to say: That is Gods smile.
The text bends with great gentleuess and
love over all who are PROSTATE in sin and
trouble. 1t lights up with compassion. 1t
melts with tenderness. 1t breaths upon US
the hush of an eternal lullaby, for it an-
nounces that God is our mother. "As one
whom his mother comforteth, so will COM
fort you.
remark in the first place that God has
A Mothers Simplicity
Of instruction. A father doesn't know how
10 teach child the A, B, C. Men are not
skillful in the primary department, but q
mother has so much patience that she will
tell a child for the huDdredth time the dit.
ference between F and G, and between |
and J. Sometimes it is by blocks; some
times by the worsted-work; sometimes by
the slate; sometimes by the book. She thus
teaches the child and has no awkwardness
of condescension in 80 doing. So God, our
mother, stoops down to our infantile minds.
Though we are told q thing thousand
times and we do not understand 1t, our
heavenly mother goes on, line upon line
precept upon precept here q little and there
a little. God has been teaching some OF
us 80 years and some of US go years, one
word of one syllable, and we do not know II
yet-faith, faith. When we come to that
word we stumble, we halt, we lose our
place, we pronounce it wrong. Still, God
patience is not exhausted. God, our
mother, puts US in the school OF pros
perity and the letters are in sunshine
and we cannot spell them. God
puts us in the school Of adversely and the
letters are black and we cannot spell them
If God were merely King, he woald pun.
ish u.s. If he were simply father he would
whip u.s. but God is mother and so we are
borne with and helped all the way through.
A mother teaches her child chiefly by pic,
lures. If she wants to set forth to her child
the hideousness OF a quarrelsome spirit, In
stead of giving lecture upon that subject
she turns over a leaf and shows the child two
BOYS in a wrangle and says: "Does moi
that look horriblep If she wants to teach
| her child the aWfGlness Of war, she turns
over ~. picture book and shows the Wal
Charger the hesssdless trunks OF butchereG
men the wild, agonizing, bloodshot eye Of
battle rolling under lids of taE,H. ana sn' @
says: That is war The child u~"eF
stands it. In great many books the best
part are the pictures. The style may be in
sipid, the type poor, but q picture always
attracts a childs attention. Now God, Our
mother, teaches us almost everything
BY Pictures.
Is the. divine goodness to be. set forth
How does God, our mother, teach US? By
an autumnal picture. The barns are full.
The wheat stacks are rounded. The cattle
are chewing the cud lazily in the sun. The
orchards are dropping the ripe piPpins INTO
the lap of The farmer. The natural world
that has been busy all summer, seems now
to be resting in great abundance. We look
at the picture and say: Thou crownest the
year with Thy goodness and Thy paths drop
fatness." Our family comes around the
breakfast tables. 1t has been very cold
night, but the children are all bright be,
cause they slept under thick cOverlids and
they are now in the warm blast of the open
register and their appetites make luxuries
out Of the plainest fare, and we look at the
picture and say, BLESS the Lord, 0 my
soulI
the Judgment the good will be divided from
the wicked. How is it done? By picture
9 parable, a fishing scene. a group o.
handy men, long-bearded; gesred for stand
ing TO the waist in water; sleeves rolled up;
sun.gilt; boat battered as though 1t hsd
been the playmate of the storm; q full net
humping about with the fish which have
lust discovered their csptiyity-the worth
less moss-buukers and the useful hounderI
all in the same net; the fisherman puts his
hand down amid the squirming fms, take:
out the moss-bunkers and throws them intC
the water, and gathers the good fish into tht
pail. So, says Christ, it shall be at the enc
, of the world. The bad he will cast away
and the good he will keep. Another pic
i ture:
God. our mother, wanted to set forth the
duty of neighborly love, and it is done bl
a picture. A heap Of wounds on the ros'
! TO get rich. A traveller has been fighting
/ robber. The robber stabbed him an
/ Knocked him down. Two ministers cam
/ along. They look at the poor fellow but d
not help him. A traveller comes along
| Samaritan. he says who's" to the bess
! be is riding, aud dismounts. He examine
the wounds: he takes out some wine, an
with it washed the wounds, and then h
takes some oil and puts that in to make th
wounds stop smarting, and then be tears ot
a piece Of his own garment for bandsg'