Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1892-12-17
AT THE TABERNACLE.

L a l. Il
THE DIVINE AND THE MATERNAL
TRIBUTES COMPARED.
DR.. TelmGgo Believes We Should Think
of God as Our Mother MS Woll as Our
Father-Mc-oy, Patience, Love for the
Weak and Gentle Teaching.
BROOKLYN, Dec. 11.-Rev. DR.. Tai
mage today, in selecting a subject for
his sermon, chose an aspect Of the die
vine character which is seldom consid-
cred. To an unusually large audience
he discoursed on God as The Mother
of ALL" the text being taken from Isaiah
.lxyie Is, AS one whom; his mother cons
forteth, SO Will comfort you. : sss
The Bible is: nswarm letterof affection
from a parent ton. child, and YETI there
are many whossce chiefly the seveyer
passages. Az there MAY be fifty or sixty
nights of gentle dew in one summer
that will not cause IS much remark as
one hailstor1n Of half an hour, SO there
are those who are more struck by those
passages of the Bible that announce the
Indignation Of God than by those that
announce his affection. There may come
to household twenty or fifty letters of
affection during tho year, and they will
not mako us much excitement in that
home rs one sherifs writ, and SO there
are people who are more attentive to
those passa ges which announce the 'judg-
ments of God than to those which an
nounce his mercy and his favor.
God is u lion, John says i'll the book
of Revelation. God is breaker, Micah
announces in his prophecy. God is q
rock. God is q king. But hear also
that God is love. A father and his
child are walking out in the fields on a
summers day, and there comes up II
thunderstorm, and there is a fash of
lightning that startles the child, and the
father says, SHY dear, that is Gods
eye" There comes a peal Of thunder,
and the father says, .'AIy dear, that is
Gods voice" But tho clouds go off the
sky, and the storm is gone, and light
foods the heavens and floods the land
scape, and the father forgets to say,
THAT is Gods smile
GOD 4 LovIEo TEACHER.
Tho text of this morning bends with.
great scrrleness and love over ali who
are prostrate in sin and trouble. It
lights I'D with compassion. It melts
with tenderness. 1t breathes upon us.
tine hush of ar eternal lullaby, for it an.
nolnces that Cod is cur mother GAS
orc whom his mother co,nforteth, SO
will comfort you"
remark, il the first place. that God
has Il rlothor's simplicity OF instruction.
A father does not know how to tesch a
child the a &C. lien are not skilIful.
in the primary department, but alhother5
has SO much patience that she will tell a
child for tho hundredth time the diff.
ference between F.and G and between:
f anil J 5. SSonetimeS is is by. blocks:
sometimes BY tho wersted work some
times By the slate; sometimes bythe'
book. She thus teach s the Chi a::and.
has no awkward ness of condasce nsiostini
steop$
down to orr iDfaStile minds.
Though we are told thing u thousand
times and we do not understand it, our
heavenly Mother goes on, line uponline,
precept upon precept, here little and
there a IitElo. God has been teaching
so1ne of us thirty years and some of us
sixty years one word Of one syllable, and
we Go not know it yet-faith, faith.
When we come to that word we STUN
bic, we halt, we lose our place, we pro-
nounce it wrong.
Still Gods patience is not exhausted.
Cod, our Mother, puts Us i'll tho school
Of prosperity, and the letters are in sun
shine, I'D we cannot spell them. God
puts u in the school of adversely, and
the letters are black, and we cannot spell
them. II God were merely king he
would punish Us; If he were simply
father he would whip US; but God is a
mother, and SO we are borne with and
helped ali the way through.
A mother teaches her child chiefly by
pictures. If she wants so set forth to
her child the hideousness of o quarrel
some spirit, instead Of giving u lecture
upon that subject she turns over a leaf
and shows the child two boys in a wran-
gle, and says, "Does not that look hor-
rible? If she wants to teach her child
the awfulness of war she turns over the
picture book and shows the war charger,
the headlcss trunks of butchered men,
the wild, bloodshot eye OF battle rolling
under lids Of flame, and she says, "That
is war; The child understands it..
In a great many books the best parts
are the PICTURES. The style may be in
sipid, the type poor, but a picture al
ways attracts child's attention. Now
God, oar Mother, teaches US almost
everything by pictures. Is the divine
goodness to be set forth? How does God,
our Mother. teach us? By an autumnal
picture. The barns are full. The wheat
stacks are rounded. The cattle are
chewing the cud lazily il the sun. The
orchards are dropping the ripe pippins
into the lap OF the Turner. The natural
world that has been busy ali summer
seems now to be resting in great abun-
dance
We look at the picture and say, "Thou
crownest the year with thy goodness, and
thy paths drop fatness." Our family
comes around the breakfast table. It
Log -laaa1, :, unru cold rl;rht h1lE The chill