Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1886-03-29


and said She was anxious about her sins
she had been praying all night The
mother said "Oh, stop praying
don't believe In praying. Get oyer ali
these religious notions and I'll give
you dress that will cost $500, and you
may wear II next week TO that party
The daughter took 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
came to die, and In her closing moments
| said: "Mother, I wish you would bring
me that dress that cost S500.n The
mother thought II a very strange request,
but she brought 1t to please the dying
child. "Now,n said the daughter,
"mother, hang that dress on the foot OF
my bed and the dress was hung there
on the foot of the bed. Then the dying
girl got up on ono elbow and looked at
her mother, and then pointed to the dress
and said "Mother, that dress Is the
price Of my soull" Oh, what a moment
Gus thing IL 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 disci-
plIne exerted over him, she got
abundant compensation in the picty, and
the usefulness, and the popularity of her
son Samuel and that Ia true in all ages.
Every mother gets full pay for all the
( prayers aud tears in behalf Of her chill
dren That man useful in commercial
| life, that man prominent in profession,
that master mechanically, every step
he takes In life has an echo of gladness IN
the 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 homestesd--for there is some one
always ready to carry good tidlngs, and
that story makes the needle in the old
mothers 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 children2 Do you send them
good news alwaysp
Look out for the young man who speaks
OF his father as "the governor" the
Squire" or the "old chap Look out
for the young woman who calls her
mother her "maternal ancestor,n or the
cold woman 'frhe eye that mocketh
w llb lutuCIl uuu itluSGbu W OUey MS
mother, the ravens Of the valley shall pick
1t 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 q life of
street-gaddiDg and gossip retailing, hang
ing on the children the ripper es aud fol-
lies of this world sees those children
tossed out on the sea Of life like foam on
the wave, or nonentities in world where
only bravery and stalwart character can
stand the shock! But blessed be the
mother who looks upon her children as
sons and daughters Of the Lord Almighty.
Ohl the satisfaction Of Hannah in see
ing Samuel serving at the altar, of
Mother Eunice in seeing her Timothy
learned In the scriptures. That is the
mothers recompense to see children
coming up useful in the world, reclaim
ing the lost, healing the sick, pitying the
ignorant, earnest and useful IN every
sphere. That throws n new light back
on the old family bible whenever she
reads II, and that will be ointment to
Soothe the aching limbs Of decrepitude
and light up the closing hours OF life's
day with the glories Of an autumnal sun
set
There she sits, the old Christian
mother, ripe for heaven. Her eyesight is
almost gone, but the splendors OF the
celestial city kndle up her vision.
The gray light of heavens morn
has struck through the gray locks
which are folded back over the wrinkled
emples She stoops very much now
under the burden Of care she used to
carry for her children. She sits at home,
too old to find her way to the house of
Col; but while she sits there, all the
past comes back, and the children that
forty years ago trlpped around her arm.
chair with their griefs aud joys and sor-
rows-thqse children are gone now Some
caught up into better realm, where they
shall never die, and others out In the
broad world, testing the excellency of a
Christian mothers discipline. Her last
days are full of eace, and calmer and
sweeter viii her sphit become, until the
gates of life shall lift and let in the worn
out pilgrim into eternal springtide and
youth, where the limbs never ache and
the eyes never grow dim, and the staff Of
the exhausted and decrepit pilgrim shall
b come the palm of the immortal athlete.