The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-04-04

best mode or bringing up chud. IL parents
knew more of dietetics there would not be 30
many dyspeptic stomachs and weak nerves, and
incompetent iivers among children. Ii parents
knew more of physiology there would not be so
many curved spines, and cramped chests,
and inflamed threats, and diseased lungs as
there are among children. If parents knew
more of art, and were in sympathy with all that
is beautiful. there would not be SO many chill
dren coming out in the world with boorish pro-
clivities Ii 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 the voices of riot
and blasphemy would not come with such &C.
stacy of internal triumph
The eaglets in the eyrio have no advantages
over the eagets of thousand years ago; the
kids have no superior way of climbing up the
rocks than the old goats taught hundreds of
years ago: the whelps know no more now than
did the whelps ages ago-they are taught no
more by the lions of the desert; but 1T is a
shame that in this day, when there are so many
opportunities of improving ourselves in the best
manner of cultivating children, that often
there is no more advancement in this respect
than there has been among the kids and the
eaglets, and the whelps.
Again. Hannah stands before you as Chris
tian mother. From her prayers and from the
way she consecrated her boy to God. l know
that she was good. A mother may have the
finest culture, the most brilliant surroundings,
but she is not fit for her duties unless she be a
Christian mother. There may be well read
libraries in the house, and exquisite music in
the parlor, and the canvas of the best artists
| adjoining the walls. and the wardrobe be
crowded with tasteful apparel, and the children
| be wonderful for their attainments, and make
the house ring with laughter and innocent
| mrth; but there is something woeful-looklng in
that house If it be not also the residence of a
| Christian mother
| bless God that there are not many prayer
| less mothers on earth-not many of them. The
weight of responsibility is so great that they
feel the need of divine hand to help, and di-
vine voice to comfort, and dinine heart to SYM
| pathze. Thousands of mothers have been led into
| the kingdom of God by the hands of their little
children. There were hundreds of mothers who
would not have been Christians had it not been
| for the prattle of their little ones. Standing
some day in the nursery, they bethought them
selves This child God has given me to raise
| for eternity What is my influence upon it,
Not being Christian myself how can l ever
expect him to become ChristianY Lord help
mel"
| Are there anxious mothers, who know nothing
| of the infinite help of religion2 Then / com
| mend to them Hannah, the pious mother of
Samuel. Do not think it is absolutely impossi-
BILE that your children come up Ubiquitous. Out
of just such fair brows and bright eyes, and soft
hands, and innocent hearts, crime gets its vic
tims-extirpating purity from the heart. and
rubbing out the smoothness from the brow, and
quenching the lustre Of the eve, and shriveling
up, and poisoning and putrefying. and scathing
and scalding, and blasting, and burning with
shame and woe.
| Every child is bundle of tremendous posi-.
blities. and whether that child shall come
forth TO fe its heart atJuned to the eternal har
MONIES and after life of usefulness earth
| go to a life of Joy in heaven; or whether across
it shall jar eternal discords, and after life of
| wrongdoing on earth it shall 60 to homo of
| impenetrable darkness and an abyss of immeas-
urable plunge, is being decided by nursery song
| and Sabbath 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 mion-voiced
hosanna brought to God through Christian
parentage!
One'hundred and twenty clergymen were to-
| gether, and they were telling their experiences
and of their ancestry. and of the 120 cereymen
how many of them, do you suppose assigned as
| the means of their conversion the influence of a
| Christian mother9 One hundred out
of the 100! Philip. Doddridge was
brought to God BY the Scripture
| The mother thinks she is only rocking child
but at the same time she may be rocking the fate
| of nations, rocking the glories of heaven. The
same maternal power that may lift the child
up may press a child down.
daughter came to a worldly mother and
| said she was anxious about her sins, and she had
been praying all night. The mother said "Oh.
stop praying! / don't believe in praying Get
over all these religious notions and III give you
dress that will cost $500, and you may wear
the Dress and she moved in the gay circle, the
| gayest of all the gay, that night; and, sure
enough, all religious impressions we're gone and
she stopped praying A few months after she
ments said Mother, 1 wish you would
bring me that dress that cost five hun
| dred dollars" The mother thought it very
strange request, but she brought it to please the
| dying child. Now" said the daughter, "moth-
| err hang that dress on the foot of my bed" and
wa hI1pO nm he foot IF tha had
Then the dying girl got up elbow and
looked at her mother. and then pointed to the
dress and said: Mother that dress is the price
of my soulr Oh, what q momentous thing it is
to be mother
Again. and lastly, Hannah stands before you
| the rewarded mother. For all the coats she
made for Samuel; for all the prayers she offered
for him, for the discipline she exerted over him,
she got abundant compensation in the piety, and
the usefulness, and the popularity of her
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 in com
merclal life; that man prominent in profession;
that master mechanically, every step he takes
in life has an echo OF gladness in his old heart
that long ago taught him to be Christian, and
heroic and earnest
The story of what you have done, or what you
have written, OF the influence you have exerted,
has gone back to the old homestead-for there is
some one always ready to carry good tidines-
and that story makes the needle in the old moth
er's tremulous hand fly quicker, and the fail in
the fathers hand come down upon the barn floor
with vigorous thump. Parents love to hear
good news from their children Do you send
them good news alwaysq
Look out for the young man who speaks of his
father as the governor" the Esquire" or the
sold chap" Look out for the young woman VINO
calls her mother her maternal ancestor" or
1.-The old woman" '"The eye that mocketh at
the 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 the
great satisfaction of seeing their children grow
up Christians. But oh! the pang OF that mother
who after life of street gadding and gossip-re
failing, hanging the children the frpperies
and follies of this world, sees those children
wave, or nonentities in world where only
h.a reax- o-d 4aI.za.x aha.aa4o. aau etand Tho