The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1888-01-06
SUBSCRIPTION: sl00 Per Year.

| Nas only taat Christmas night, but all Sc
ana down che worlds history God has
been honoring this fields. Nearly all the
messiahs of reform, and literature, and
eloquence, and law, and henevolence,
have come from the fields. Washington
from the fields. jefferson from the
fields. The presidential martyrs, Garfield
and Lincoln, from the fields. Henry Clay
from the fields Daniel Webster from the
fields. Martin Luther from the fields.
And before this world is right the
OVERLOOKING populations of our crowded
cities will have to take to the fields. In
stead Of ten merchants in rivalry as TO
who shall sell that one apple, we want at
least eight OF them to go out and raise
apples. Instead Of ten merchants desiring
to sell that one bushel of wheat, we want
at least eight of them to 60 out and raise
wheat. The world wants now more hard
hands, more bronzed checks, more mus
cuar arms. To the fields! God honored
| them when he woke up the shepherds by
the midnight anthem, and he viii, while
the world lasts, continue TO honor the
fields. When the shepherds crook was
that famous night stood against the wall
of the Bethlehem kahn, it was prophecy
of the time when thresher's fail, and
farmers plow, and woodman's axe, and
ox's yoke, and sheaf-binder's rake shall
| surrender to the God who made the oOun-
| try as man made the town.
Behold also that on that Christmas
night God honored motherhood. Two
| angels on their wings might have brought
an infant Saviour to Bethlehem without
Mary's being there at all. When the viii
| layers on the morning of December 25
awOke, by Divine arrangement and in
some unexplained way, the child, Jesus,
| might have been found in some comfort
able cradle of the village. But no, no
Motherhood for all time was to be con-
| secrated, and one of the tenderest rela-
tions was to be the maternal relation. and
one of the sweetest words 'mother." In
all ages God has honored good mother
hood. John Wesley had a good
mother; st. Bernard had a good
mother; Samuel Budget a good
| mother, Doddridge a good mother; Wall
ter Scott good motheri Benjamin West
a good mother. In a great audience, most
of whom were Christians, ] asked that all
those who had been blessed of Christian
mothers arise, and almost the entire
sembly stood up. Don't you see how i'm
portant it is that all motherhood be con-
| secrated? Why did Titan, the italian
artist, when he sketched the Madonna,
| make it an Italian face? Why did Ru-
| bens, the German artist, in his Madonna,
make IL a German faceY Why did Joshua
Reynolds, the English artist, in his Ma
donna, make it an English face? Why did
Murillo, tie Spanish artist, in his Ma
donna, make it a Spanish fHeeg never
heard, but l think they took
their own mothers as the type
of Mary, the mother Of Christ.
| When you hear some one in sermon or
Grafton speak ia the abstract OF a good,
faithful, honest mother, your oyes fiil up
| with tears, while you say TO yourself,
| that was my mother. The first word
child utters is apt TO be mother" and
the old man in his dying dream calls,
whethor she was brought up IN the slr-
roundings of city, and in atiiuent home,
and was dressed appropria tely with ref
erence to the demands of modern life, or
| whether she wore the old time cap,
| and great round spectacles, and apron of
| her own make, and knit your socks with
! her own needles, seated by tho broad fire-
place, with great backlog ablaze on
winter night 1t matters not how many
wrinkles crossed and recroised her face,
| or how much her shoulders stopped with
! the burdens of a long life, il YOU painted
| a Madonna hers would be the face. What
q gentle hand she had when We We're sick,
and what a voice to sOothe pain, aud was
there any one who could hl up a
room with peacs, and purity, and
| lightg And what a sad day that was
when we came home and she could greet
us not, for her lips were 10 ever stfll.
Come back, mother, this Christmas day,
and take your old place, and as ten, or
twenty, or fifty years ago, come and
open the old Bible you used to read,
and kneel in the same place whore you
used to pray, and look upon as
as Of old when you wished Us a merry
Christmas or a happy New Year. But mol
That would not be fair tol call you
back. You had troubles enough, and
aches enough, and bereavements
enough while you were here.
Tarry by the throne, mother, till we
join you there, your prayers oil answered,
and in the eternal homestead Of our God
we shall again keep Christmas jubilee to-
gether. But speak from your thrones, all
you gloriied mothers, aud say TO all these,
your sons and daughters, words Of love,
words Of warning, words Of cheer. They
need your voice, for they have Travelled
far and with many a heart break since
you left them, and you do we'll to call
from the heights Of Heaven to the valleys
of the earth. Hail, enthroned ancestry
We are coming. Keep place for us right
beside you at the banquet.
siow-footed years More swiftly run
Into the gold OF that unsettng sun.
Homesick we are for thee,
Calm land beyond the sea-