Savannah morning news., 1885-06-29
A FIRST RATE MOTHER.
DIR. TAI.8IAGE breaches FROM
]. SAMUEL IL. 10.

OF Haunah should Teach the Mothers
To-Day-The Reward Which Crown
ed Her Good Deeds and Row it May
be Obtained.
The following is a sermon by Rev. I.
Dewitt Talmage, D. D., the subject OF
which is "A First Rate Mother " The
text is taken from l. Samuel, H., 10:
SMoreover his mother made him little
coat and brought it to him from year to
year, when she came up with her hus-
band to offer the yearly sacrifice"
The story OF Deborah and Abigail is
very apt 70 discourage a woman's soul.
She says within herself: "It is Impossi-
bic that ever achieve any such grandeur
OF character and don't mean to try" as
though child should refuse
10 play the eight notes be-
cause he cannot execute a "Wil-
liam Tell" THIS Hannah Of the text diff
fers from the persons | Just now named.
She was an ordinary woman. with ordi-
nary Intellectual capacity, placed in ordi-
nary circumstances. and yet, by eXtTaOr-
diu2rv piety standing out before all TIE
ages 10 come, the model Christian mother.
Hannah was the wife Of Elkanah. who
was a person very much ike herselt-un-
romantic and plain, never having fought
lous escape. Neither Of them would have
been called genius. just what
YOU and l might be, that was
Elkanh and Hannah. The bright
est time in all the history of the family
was the birth of Samuel, Although no
star ran along the heavens pointing down
10 his birthplace. ] think the angels of
God stopped at the coming ofso wonderful
a prophet. AS Samuel had been given in
answer TO prayer, Elkanah and all his
family save Hannah, started up to shiloh
10 offer sacrifices Of thanksgiving. The
cradle where the cnild slept was altar
enough for Hannahs grateful heart, but
when the boy was old enough she took
HIM 10 Shiloh and took three bullOcks and
an ephah of -four and a bottle OF wine and
made Offering of sacrifice unto the Lord,
aud there, according to previous vow,
she left him; for there be was 10 stay all
the days Of his life and minister in the tenn
pie. Years rolled on and every year
Hannah made with her own hand a gar
ment for Samuel and took it over TO him.
The lad would have got along well with
out that garment, for ! suppose he was
we'll clad by the ministry OF the temple;
Dut Hannah could not be contented unless
she was all the time doing something for
her darling boy. Moreover 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"
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 DOOR
He belonged to a distinguished family;
for the Bible tells us that be was the son
of JerOham, the son Of Elihu, the son of
TOhu, the son of Zuph. ''WhO were
theyW yOI say. | do not know, but they
were distinguished people no doubt or
their names would not have been mem
toned. Hannah might have sea ted her
self in her family and, with folded arms
and dishevelled hair, read novels from
year to year, If there had been any to
read; but when | see her making that
garment and taking it over to Samuel /
know she is industrious from principle as
well as from pleasure. God would
not have mother become a
drudge or slave; He would have
her employ all the helps possible in this
day in the rearing of her children. But
Hannah 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 attest that they are faithful in their
maternal duties. The bloom and the
brightness and the viYacity of girlhoOd
have given place for the grander dignity
and usefulness and industry of mother
hood. But there is a heathenish idea get
ting abroad in some OF the families Of
Americans; there are mothers who
Danish themselves from the home circle.
For three-fourths Of their maternal duties
they prove themselves incompetent. They
are ignorant OF what their children wear
and what their children eat and what
their children read. They entrust to
irresponsible persons these young i'm
mortals and allow them to be under in
fluences which may cripple their bodies,
or taint their purity, or spoil their
manners, or destroy their souls. From the
awkward cut Of SamuePs coat you know
his mother Hannah did not make it. Under
flaming chandeliers and of from i'm
ported carpets and down the granite stairs
there is come great crowd of children
II this day, unframed. saucy, incompe-
tent for all practical duties of life, ready
To be caught ia the first whirl of crime
and sensuality. IndOlent and unfaithful
mothers will make indolent and unfaith-
fui children. You cannot expect neat
ness and order in any house where the
daughters see nothing but slatternness
and upside-down nativeness In their
parents. Let Hannah be idle and most
certainly Samuel will grow up idle. Who
are the industrious men in all our occupa-
lions and professiOnsy 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 10 quake and heave and roar
and rattle with the tread Of gigantic en-
terprises? Who are they? For the most
part they descended from industrious
mothers who in the old homestead used
70 spin their own yarn and weave their
own carpets aud plait their own door
mats and flag their own chairs and do
thet. own work. The stalwart men and
the influential women OF this day. ninety
nine out OF "a hundred Of them, came from
such an lllustriOus ancestry Of hard
knuckles and hOmespun. And who are
these people in society, light as froth,
blown every whittier of temptation and
fashion-the peddlers Of filthy stories, the
danciDg-jacks Of political parties, the
scum Of society, the tavern-lounging. the
stOre-infestlng, the men OF low wink and
filthy chuckle and brass breast-pin and
rotten associations? For the most part
they came from mothers idle and disgust
ing-the scandal-mongers Of society, go
ing from house 10 house attend
ing 10 cyerybody's business but
their own; believing in witches and
ghosts and horse shoes 10 keep the devil
out Of the churn, and by a Goddess life
Neffiuu fhoir ehf1drou of4 fhn vgrv ynrgo ~