Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1891-12-31

and benevolence 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 Web
ster from the fields. Martin Luther from
the fields Before this world is right the
overlooking populations of our crowded
cities will have to take to the fields.
Instead 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 ap-
pies, Insteadeaf ten merchants desiring TO
sell that one Dtshel of wheat we want at
laast eight of them to go out and raise
wheat. The world wants now more hard
hands, more bronzed checks, more muscu-
lar arms To the fields! God honored them
when he woke up the shepherds by the
midnight anthem, and he WILL while the
world lasts, continue to honor the fields.
When the shepherds crook was that ia
nous night stood against the wall of the
Bethlehem khan, it was prophecy of the
time when thrasher's fail and farmers
pillow and woodlands ak and ox's yoke and
shenfbnder's rake shall surrender to the
God who made the country, as man made
the town.
Behold, also, that on that Christmas
night God honOred motherhood. Two an
gels on their wings might have brought
an infant Saviour to Bethlehem without
Mary's being there at all. When the vii
layers, on the morning Of December %,
awoke, by divine arrangement and in some
unexplained way, the child Jesus might
have been found in some comfortable cradle
of the village. But no, mol Motherhood for
all time was to be consccrated, and one Of
the tenderest relations was to be the ma
.~,.~
words "Mother." In all ages God has
honored good motherhood. John Wesley
hed a good mother, st. Bernard had good
mother, Samuel Budget a good mother,
| Doddridge a good mother, Walter Scott
/ good mother, 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 assembly stood up.
Don't you see how important it is that all
motherhood he consccrated? Why did
Titan, the Italian artist, when he sketched
the Madonna, make it an Italian face?
Why did Rubens, the German artist. in
his Madonna make it a German face,
/ Why did Joshua Reynolds, the English
artist, in his Madonna, make it an English
face? Why did Murillo, the Spanish artist,
/ in his Madonna, make it Spanish face?
never heard but | think they took their
own mothers as the type OF Mary, the
motker of Christ? When you hear some
one, in sermon or Grafton, speak in the alb
stract of good, faithful, honest mother,
your eyes fill up With tears while you say
to yourself, THAT was NY neither"
THE GLORY OF MOTHERHOOD
The first word child utters is apt to be
+ "MDt her u and the old man in his vino
dream calls Mot her. mothern 1t matters
not whether she was brought up in the sur
roundngs of a city, and in affluent home,
end was dressed appropriately with refer
ence 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 the broad fireplace,
with great black logs ablaze on winter
night. 1t matters not how many wrinkles
crossed and recrossed her face, or how
/ much her shoulders stopped with the bur-
dens Of a long life, if you painted Ma
donna. hers would be the face. What a
gentle hand she had when we were sick,
and what voice to sooth pain, and was
there any one who could so fill up a room
with peace and purity and lights And
what sad day that was when we cane
] ii''i'C tli'i SHV tbuHi SIccb Us uOu, lOr llST
lips were forever still.
/ 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 as you used to- read and kneel
in the same place where you used to pray,
and look upon MS as of old, when you
wished us Il merry Christmas or a happy
New Year But, no! That would not be
fair to call you back. You had troubles
enough and aches enough and bereave-
mente enough while you were here. Tarry
by the throne, mother, till we Join you
there, your prayers all answered, and in
the eternal homestead Of our God we shall
again keep ChrisJunas Jubilee together
But speak from your thrones, all you glor-
fed mothers and say to all these, your
sons and daughters words of love, words
Of warning, words Of cheer. They need
your voice, io- they nave Travelled far and
with many hcartbreak since you left
them, and you do well to call from the
heights of heaven to the valleys OF earth
Hail, enthrO,led ancestry We are coming
Keep place right beside you at the ban
quet.
Slow footed years! More swiftly run
Into the gold of that unSottiGg sun:
Eomesick we are for thee,
Calm land beyoad the sea.