The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1889-05-09
BILL. ARP.
A Mothers Love the Best Protection for
Her Offspring.

BILL ARP.
A Mothers Love the Best Protection 1ol
Her Offspring.
atlanta Constitution.
Plato and Socrates and Seneca preach.
ed philosophy, but philosophy won't heal
broken heart. I believe that it is possible
for a man to SO school himself that nc
ordinary misfortune would affect bis
temper or his serenitS'. His house might
burn up o. his mill oe washed away OF
his cattle all die, and it would bring no
depression. But philosophy has no con-
troll over the affections. Just tear q
child away from its mother, and what
can philosophy do there. David arose
and washed and had food net before him,
but the mother dident. It was Rachael
who mourned for her children, and refus'
ed to be comforted because they were
not. It was mother who vas last at the
cross, and earliest at the grave. 1t was
Hagar and not Abraham who wept over
her starving child. 1t was the mother OF
Moses who hid him in the bullrushes and
watched him for months to save his life.
This is all right. Its not only the law
| of nature, but is the will of God, and a
proof of His Providence. A mothers
love is the best protection for her off:
spring. The tigress with her young is
more terrible than the tiger. Of course
the father loves his children. He thinks
that no love can be stronger than his, but
he is mistaken. About thirty.fve years
ago we lost q bright and beautiful boy. l
| did not know how much I loved him un.
| til he was gone-gone from the house and
buried. I would have compromised with
death if I could have kept the child at
home, though dead-dead and undecayed
80 that could see him and touch him
and kiss his marble forehead. How
crushing was the thought that he was
away off alone in the dark night with
weight of earth upon him! How utterly
helpless I feltl How the world did
shrink, and how paltry everything around
me that had been living for! But old
Father Time is good doctor, and by
measurable degrees my grief wore away
until T could pass whole days, yet even
weeks, without thinking Of that child.
Not so with the mother. Her love never
grows cold. Many q time and often does
she open the old family trunk and look
over the little treasures that she B as kept
the little tangable mementoes That she
can see and touch, andit does her good
to let the unbidden tears come. [ feel
ashamed that I cannot weep, for some
times I want to and cannot. The foun.
tain seems to be drying up. The other
day saw a beautiful child lying dead in
the crib where it slept. It was the first
grandchild that we have lost-the prize
baby that I wrote about last fall-the
child that gave its mother queenly dig.
nifty, a conscious pride, and filed the
house with joy-a little sunbeam-a
light without a shadow-and there it lay
smiling and beautiful in death. I saw
the mothers anguish, the fathers grief,
and heard the sobbings of the children,
while, the good old grandmother walked
to and fro in her household duties, and
groaned with broken spirit, and every
little while came near and kissed the boy
and dropped tear on his brow and then
resumed her work. That sgood old
grandmother has had her own cup Of
sorrow, but she never rests nor broods
over her trouble nor tells her grief to
others-"They have enough oftheir own"
she says, "and I'll not trouble them with
mine" When she came for a last look
and knelt down beside the boy and took
his little hand in hers, there came sud
den hope that he was not dead. "His
flesh is not cold enough for DEATH" she
said--"please don't put him in the coffin
yet, please don't-maybe he is in trance
for he died 30 sudden. Maybe the good
Lord will spare him to US, and she felt
his flesh and looked into his eyes and
sighed while seeking some sign of life to
hang hope upon.
Lonely and sad wandered to the city
of the dead-the beautiful cemetery hill
that overlooks the rivers of Rome-our
own little boy WAS buried there and now
the sexton vas digging another grave
close by. Child and grandchild were TO
sleep together until the resurrection
morn. My parents are there, too, and
brother and his children. -Four genera.
tions, all nestled together and waiting.
Numerous kindreds are scattered around,
kindreds who share the blood of the same
grand sire. How like patriarch will my
aged father rise among them and call the
flock and marshall them away to judg.
ment.
"What becomes of these children after
death ?" said a father to me. "Where is
that little boys spirit nowH" The Lord
only knoweth, and He has not seen fit to
tall us. Revelation stops right there.
There is enough revealed to guide US in
all our conduct; enough to make US
strive for heaven and shun despair |;
enough to prove our Immortality. Beyond
that is speculation and faith. But I be.
lieve that child is in heaven and is still 6
child without the fesh-the flesh is all
that 10 in the casket. 1 belive that angels
miuistering spirits received its spirit, and
| with tender love will train it and expand
and give it heavenly employments, and
| it will grow and increase in knowledge as
time rolls on, just as children do here. I
believe there are grades or degrees in the
spirit world, a seventh heaven and q
heaven of heavens, and the spirits of the