Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1885-07-22

uTeu COuliuS OuG III luc WOiiu WioiA cOOA 90.
proclivities. If parents knew more OF Christ
and practiced more of His religion, there
would not be SO many little feet already
starting on the wrong road, and all around
us voices of riot and blasphemy would not
come up with such ecstacy OF internal TIL
umph. The eaglets in the eyrie have 20
advantages over the eaglets thousand
years ago; the kids have no superior way of
climbing up the rocks than the old goats
taught hundred years ago; the whelps
know no more now than did the whelps of
ages ago-they are taught no more by the
lions of the desert; but it is a shame that in
this day, when there are so many opportu-
mites of improving ourselves in the best
manner OF culturing children, that so often
there is no more advancement in this re-
spect than there has been among the kids
and the eaglets and the whelps.
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 the finest culture, the most brilliant
surroundings, but she is not fit for her du-
ties unless she be Christian mother. There
may be well-read libraries in the house, and
exquisite music in the parlor, and the can
vas OF the best artists adorning the walls,
and the wardrobe be crowded with tasteful
and the children be wonderful for
their attainments, and make the house ring
with laughter and innocent mirth; but there
is something woeful-looking in that house
if it be not the residence of a Christian
mother. l bless God that there are not
many prayerless mothers-not many of
them. The weight of responsibility is so
great that they feel the need of divine
hand to help and a divine voice to comfort
and divine heart to sympathize. Thou
sands of the others have been led into the
kingdom of God by the hands of their little
children. There are hundreds of mothers
who would not have been Christians had it
not been for the prattle of their little ones.
some day in the nursery
they bethought themselves ''This
child God has given me to raise
for eternity. What is my Influence
upon it? Not being a Christian myself, how
can l ever expect him to become Chris
tian! Lord help mep Oh, there are anx-
ious mothers who know nothing of the in
finite help of religion! Then I commend
to them Hannah, the pious mother of Sam
uel. Do not think that it is absolutely i'm
possible that your children come up iniqui-
tous. Out of just such fair brows and bright
eyes and soft hands and innocent hearts
crime gets its victims extirpating purity
from the heart and rubbing out the smooth
ness from the brow, squelching the lustre
of the eye and shriveling up and poisoning
and putrefying and seething and blasting
and burning with shame and woe. Every
child is bundle of tremendous possibili-
ties; and whether that child shall come forth
in life, its heart attuned to the eternal har-
monies, and after a life of usefulness on
earth go to life of joy in heaven; or wheth-
er across it shall jar eternal discords, and,
after life of wrong doing on earth, it
shall go to house of impenetrable dark
ness and an abyss of immeasurable plunge,
is being decided by nursery song and Sab
bath lesson and evening prayer and walk
and ride and look and frown and SMILE Oh,
how many children in glory, crowding all
the battlements and lifting a million-voiced
hosanna-brought to God through Chris
tian parentage. One hundred and twenty
clergymen were together and they were
telling their experience and their ancestry;
and of the 100 clergymen how many of them
do you suppose assigned as the means of
their conversion. the influence of Chris
tian mother? One hundred out of the 1870!
Philip Doddridge was brought to God by
the scripture lesson on the Dutch tile of the
chimney fireplace. The mother thinks she
is rocking child; but at the same time she
may be rocking the destiny of empires
rocking the fate of natiOns-rocking the
glOries Of heaven. The same maternal pow
er that may lift child up may press a child
down. A daughter came to worldly moth
er and said she was anxious about her sins,
and she had been praying all night. The
mother said: ooh, stop prayingl don't
believe in praying. Get over all those re-
ligious notions, and I'll give you dress
that will cost five hundred dollars, and you
may wear it next week to that party" The
daughter took the dress and she moved in
that night; and sure enough all religious
praying. A few months after she came to
die, and in her closing moments said:-
Mother, wish you would bring me that
dress that cost five hundred dollars" The
mother thought it very strange request;
but she brought it to please the dying child.
'sNow," said the daughter, mother, hang
that dress on the foot of my bed;" and the
dress was hung there on the foot of bed
Then the dying child got up on one elbow
and looked at her mother and then pointed
to the dress and said: ''Mother, that dress
is the price of my soulp' Oh, what mo-
mentous thing it is to be motherp'
Again and lastly, Hannah stands before
us as the rewarded mother. For all the
coats she made for Samuel for all the
prayers she offered for him; for the discip-
line she exerted over him; she got abundant
in the piety and the useful
ness and the popularity of her son Samuel,
and that is true in all ages. Every mother
gets full pay for all the prayers and tears
IN behalf of her children. That man useful
N commercial life; that man prominent in
,he profession; that master mechanically,
every step he takes in life has an echo of
yladness in the old heart that long ago
,aught him to be Christian and heroic, and
The story of what you have writ
,en, of the influence you have exerted, has
zone back to the old homestead there
S some one always ready to carry good IL
lings-and that story makes the needle in
,he old mothers tremulous hand fly quick
sr, and the fail in the fathers hand come
1own on the barn-foor with a more vigor-
JUS thump. Parents love to hear good
news from their children. Do you send
hem good news always? Look out for the
young man who speaks of his father as the
governor the squire or the old cahp
Cook out for the young woman who calls
ler mother her 'smaternal ancestor" or
he 'sold woman" "The eye that mock
,th at his father and refuseth to obey his
mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick
It out, and the young eagles shall eat it."
God grant that all these parents may have
he great satisfaction of seeing their chill
lren grow up Christians. But OH the
pangs of that mother who, after life of
street. gadding and gossip-retailing, hang
ng on her children the tripperios and follies
If this world, sees those children tossed out
IN the sea of life like foam on the wave or
in world where only brawny
md stalwart character can stand the shock!
But blessed be the mother who looks upon
ler children as sons and daughters of the
Lord Almighty Oh, the satisfaction of
Hannah in seeing Samuel serving at the al
Jar; of mother Eunice in seeing her Timo-
,hy learned in the scriptures. That is the
mothers recomponse, to see children com
ng up useful in the world, reclaiming the
ost, healing the sick, pitying the ignorant,
and useful in every sphere.
There she sits-the old Christian mother
ripe for heaven. Her eyesight is almost
gone, but the splendors of the celestial city
kindle up her vision. The gray light of