News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1891-12-31


and literature and eloquence and law
and benevOlence have come from the
fields. Washington from the fields
Jefferson from the fields. The presi-
Dental martyrs, Garfield and Lin
coin. from the fields. Henry Clay
from the fields. Daniel Webster from
the fields Martin Luther from the
fields. Before this world is right the
Overlooking populations of our crowd
ed 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 apples. Instead
of ten merchants desiring to sell that
one bushel of wheat, we want at least
eight of them to go out and raise
wheat.
The world wants now more hard
hands, more bronzed cheeks, more
muscular 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 shepherd s crook was that famous
night stood against the wall Of the
Bethlehem khan it was a prophecy
of the time when thIasher's fail and
farmers pillow and wOodman's ak and
ox's yoke and sheafbinder's rake
shall surrender to the God who made
the country, as man made the town.
GOD HONORED MOTHERHOOD.
Behold also that on that Christmas
night God honored motherhood. Two
angels on their wings might have
brought an infant Saviour to Bethle-
hem without Mary's being there at
all. When the villagers on the morn
ing of December 26 awoke, by divine
arrangement and in some Unex-
planned way the child Jesus might
have been found in some comfortable
cradle of the village. But no, no!
Motherhood for all time was to be
consecrated, and one of the telderest
relations was to be the maternal re
lation, and one of the sweetest words,
mother"
In all ages God has honored good
motherhood John Wesley had
good mother; st. Bernard had a good
mother; Samuel Budget a good mo-
Their; Doddridge a good mother;
Walter Scott good mother; Benja-
min West a good mother In a great
audience, most of whom were Chris
tians, l asked that all those who had
been blessed of Christian mothers
arise, and almost The entire assembly
stood up. Don't you see how impor-
tant 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 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 a
Spanish face? l 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 in the alb
stract of a good faithful, honest
mother, your eyes fill 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 'Motherl
motherr' 1t matters not whether
she was brought up in the surround
ings of a city and in affluent home,
and was dressed appropriately with
reference 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 backlog ablaze, on a winter
night.
1t matters not how many wrinkles
crossed and recrOssed her face, or
how much her shoulders stopped with
the burdens of a long life, if you
painted a Madonna, hers would be
the face What a gentle hand she
had when we were sick, and what a
voice to soOthe pain, and was there
any one who could so fill up room
with peace and purity and light2
And what a sad day that was when
we came home and she could greet
us not, for her lips were forever still. |
Come back, mother, this Christmas
fol D11
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 us as of old when you
wished us a merry Christmas or a
happy New Year. But MOI That
would not be fair to call you back. |
You had troubles enough and aches
enough and bereavements enough |
while you were here. larry by Une
throne, mother, till we Join you
there, your prayers all answered,
and in the eternal homestead of our
God we shall again keep Christmas
jubilee together.
But speak from your thrones, all |
you glorified mothers, and 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 heartbreak since you left
them, and you do well to call from
the heights of heaven to the valleys
of earth: Hail, enthroned ancestry
We are coming. Keep place right
beside you at the banquet.
Slow footed years! More swiftly run
Into the gold of that unsetting sun;
HOmeSick we for thee