Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1885-07-22
A Sermon by Talmage.
ga FIRsT-RATE MOTHER.

ga FIRST-RATE MOTHER"
Text, I. Samuel, ii. 10: '.Moreover his
mother made him a little coat and brought
| 1t to him from year to year, when she came
up with Der husband to offer the yearly sac
rifice''
The story of Deborah and Abigail is very
| apt to discourage a woman's soul. She
says within herself: s1t is impossible that
ever achieve any such grandeur of charac-
ter, and | don't mean to try" as though
child should refuse to play the eight notes
because he cannot execute a "William
Tell" This Hannah of the text differs
from the persons I just now named. She
was an ordinary woman, with ordinary in
tellectual capacity, placed in ordinary cir
cumstances, and yet, by extraordinary pi
ETY. standing out before all the ages to come,
the model Christian mother. Hannah was
the wife of Elkanah, who was a person
very much like herself-unromanto and
plain, never having fought battle or been
the subject of a marvellous escape. Neither
of these would have been called genius
just what you and I might be, that was
Elkanah and Hannah. The brightest time
in all the history of that family was the
birth of Samuel. Although no star ran
along the heavens pointing down to his
birthplace, think the angels of God stoop-
ed at the coming of so wonderful prophet.
AS Samuel had been given in answer to
prayer, Elkanah and all his family save
Hannah, started up to Shiloh to offer sacri-
| fees of thanksgiving. The cradle where the
child slept was altar enough for Hannah's
grateful heart; but when the boy was old
enough she took him to Shiloh, and took
three bullocks and an ephah of flour and
bottle of wine, and made offering of sacri-
flee unto the Lord; and there, according to
previous VOW, she left him; for there he
was to stay all the days of his life and min
lister in the temple. Years rolled on, and
every year Hannah made with her own
hand garment for Samuel, and took it
over to him. The lad would have got along
well without that garment, for suppose he
was well clad by the ministry of the tenn
pie; but Hannah could not be contented un-
less she was all the time doing something
for her darling boy. 'Moreover, his moth
er made him a little coat and brought it to
him from year to year, when she came up
with her husband to offer the yearly sacri-
fice."
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 that he was the son of Jeroham, the son
Of Elihu, the son Of Tohn, the son of Zuph.
s'Who were they?" you say. lido not know;
but they were distinguished 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, if there had been any to read; but
when l see her making that garment and
taking it over to Samuel, know she is in
dustrious from principle as well as from
pleasure. God would not have a mother be-
come drudge or slave. He would have
her employ all the help possible in this day
in the rearing of her children. But Han
nah ought never to be ashamed to be found
making coat for Samuel. Most mothers
need no counsel in this direction. The
wrinkles on their brows, the pallor on their
cheeks, the thimble-mark on their fingers 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 in
dustry of motherhood. But there is hea-
| thenish idea getting abroad in some of the
families of Americans; there are mothers
who Danish themselves from the home cir
Gle. For three-feurths of their maternal
u.
They are ignorant of what their children
wear and what their children eat and what
their children read. They intrust to ire
sponsible 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 the awkward cut of Sam
uel's coat you know his mother Hannah did
not make it. Out from under flaming chan
deliers and off from imported carpets and
down the granite stairs there is come great
crowd of children in this day, unrestrained,
saucy, incompetent for all practical duties
of life, ready to be taught in the first whirl
of crime and sensuality. Indolent and un-
faithful mothers will make indolent and un-
faithful children. You cannot expect neat
ness and order in any house where the
daughters see nothing but slatterness and
observation-disclosures in their parents.
Let Hannah be idle and most certainly
Samuel will grow up idle. Who are the in
dustrious men in all our occupations and
professions? Who are they managing the
merchandise of the world, building the
walls, timing the roofs, weaving the car
pets, making the laws, governing the ma
tions, making the earth to quake and heave
and roar and rattle with the tread of gigan-
tic enterprises? Who are they? For the
most part they descend from Industrious
mothers, who in the old homestead used to
spin their own yarn and weave their own
carpets and plait their own door-mats and
flag their own chairs and do their own work.
The stalwart men and the influential wo-
men of this day, ninety-nine out of bum
dred of them, came from such an illustrious
ancestry of hard knocks and homespun.-
And who are these people in society, light
as froth, blown on every wind of tempta
ton and fashion-the peddlers of filthy sto-
ries, the dancing-ja of political parties,
the scum of society, the tavern-lounging,
the store-infesting, the men of low wink and
filthy chuckle and brass breast-pin and rot
ten associations! For the most part they
came from mothers idle and disgusting
the scandal-mongers of society, going from
house to house attending to everybody's
business but their own; believing in witches
and ghos S and horse-shoes to keep the dev-
il out of the churn, and by a goddess life
setting their children on the very verge of
hell. The mothers of Samuel johnson and
of Alfred the Great and of Isaac Newton
and of Saint Augustine and of Richard Ce-
Gil and of President Edwards, for the most
part we're industrious, hard-working moth
ers. Now, while l congratulate all Chris
tian mothers upon the wealth and the mod
ern science which may afford them all
kinds of help, let me say that every mother
ought to be observant of her children's
walk, her children's behavior. her children's
food her children's books, her children's
companionships. However much help Han
nah may have, think she ought every year,
at least, make one garment for Samuel. The
Lord have mercy on the man who is so un-
fortunate as to have a lazy mother!
Again, Hannah stands before us as 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 used to be so wise and we'll
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 out into activity
This child is forward and must be held
back and tanned down into modesty and po-
likeness. Rewards for one, punishments for
another; that which will make George will
ruin John. The rod is necessary in one case,
while frown of displeasure is more than