The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1892-12-28
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVlNES SUN
DAY SERMON.
Subject: "The Mother Of All"

TEXT: "As one rhon his mother COM fort.
eth, so ,vfH com fort you. Xvi, 10.
The Bible is warm letter Of affection
from a parent to child. and yet there are
many who see chiefly the severer passages
AS there may be fifty or sixty nights OF gen.
tie dew ia one summer that will not cause
as much remark as one hailstorm OF half an
hour. so there are those who are more struck
by those passages Of the Bible that an.
nounce the indignation OF God than by those
that announce His affection. There may
come to household twenty or fifty letters
of affection during the year, and they will
not make as much excitement IN that nome
as one sheriff's writ, and so there are people
who are more attentive to those passages
which announce the judgment Of God than
to those which announce His mercy and His
favor
God is a lion, John says in the book Of Rev.
.elation. God is q breaker, Micah announces
in his prophecy. God is rock. God is
a king, But hear also that God Is lows. A
father and his child are walking out in the
fields on a summers day and there comes
1p thunderstorm, and there is fash OF
lightning that startles the child, and the
father says, my dear, that is Gods eye"
father save, "My dear, that is Gods voice"
But the clouds 90 off the sky, and the storm
is gone. and light floods che heavens and
foods the landscape, and the father forgets
to saw. That is Gods SMILE"
The text of this morning bends with great
<,entleness and love over all who are pros
trate in sin and trouble. It lights up with
compassion. 1t melts with tenderness. 1t
breathes upon US the hush OF an eternal lul-
laby, for it announces that God Is our
mother. "As one whom his mother COM
forteth. so will comfort you"
Iremark, in the first place, that God has
a mothers simplicity Of instruction. A
father does not know how to teach child
the A B C. Men are not skillful in the
primary department. but mother has so
much patience that she will tell child for
the hundredth time the difference between
and G. and between I and j. Sometimes it
is by blocks; sometimes by the worsted
work: sometimes by the slate; sometimes
by the book. She thus teaches the child and
has no awkwardness Of condescension In so
doing. So God. our Mother, stoops down to
our infantie minds.
times and we do not understand it, our
heavenly Mother goes on, line upon line,
precept upon preceps, here little and there
a little. God has been teaching some Of US
thirty wears and some o. Us sixty years one
word of one syllable, and we do not know it
yet-faith. faith. When we come to that
word we stumble, we halt, we lose our
place, we pronounce it wrong.
Still Gods patience is not exhausted. God,
our Mother, puts US in the school OF pros
perity, and the letters are in sunshine, and
we cannot spell them. God puts us into the
school Of adversely, and the letters are black
and we cannot spell them. It God were
merely king He would punish US; II He
were simply father He would whip Us;
but God is q mother, and so we are born
with and helped all the way through.
A mother teaches her child chiefly by pic
tures. II she wants to set forth to her child
the hideousness Of a quarralsome spirit in
stead of giving lecture upon that subject
she turns over a leaf and shows the child
two boys in a wrangle, and says "Does not
that look horribleT II she wants to teach
her child the awfulness of war she turns
over the picture book and shows the war
charger, the headless trunks OF butchered
men, the wild, bloodshot eye OF battle roll.
ing under lids OF fame and she says "That
is WARP The child understands 1t.
In a great many books the best parts are
the pictures. The style may bs insipid, the
type poor, but picture always attracts q
child's attention. Now God, our Mother,
teaches us almost everything by pictures.
Is the divine goodness to be set forths How
does Col, our Mother, teach Us? By an
picture. The barns are full. The
wheat stacks are rounded. The cattle are
chewing the cud lazily in the sun. The
orchards are dropping the ripe p.ppins into
the lap Of the farmer. The natural world
that has been busy all summer seems now
to be resting in great abundance.
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, 1t has bean q
very cold night, but the children are all
bright because they slept under thick cover
lets, and they are now in the warm blast OF
the open register. aud their appstites makes
luxuries out OF the plainast fare, and we
look at the picture and say, "Blsss the Lord,
0 my soulm
God wishes to set forth the fact that in
the judgment the good will be divided from
the wicked. How is it done? By picture;
BY parable-a fishing scene. A group OF
hardy men, long bearded, gsared for stand
ing to the waist in water; sleeves rolled up.
Long oar, sun gilt; boat battered as though
it had been playmat Of thu storm. A full
net humping about with the fish, which
have just discovered their captivity, the
worthless mossbunkers aud the useful
founders all in the same net. The fisherman
puts his hand down amid the squirming fins,
takes out the mossbunkers and throws them
into the water and gathers the good fish in
to the pail. So, says Christ, 1t shall be at
the end Of the world. The bad He will cast
away, and the good Hs will keep. Anothar
picture.
God. our Mother, wanted to set forth the
duty of neighborly love, and 1t is done by q
Jericho. A traveller has been fighting
robber. The robbsr stabbed him oni
knocked him down. Two minister's come
along. They look at the poor fellow, but
do not help him. A traveller comes along
a Samaritan. He says "Whoap to the
beast he is riding and dismounts. he ex-
amines the wounds; he take cut some wine,
and with it washes the wounds and then
he takes some oil and puts that 10 to make
the wounds stop smarting, and then he
tears of piece OF his own garment for
bandage. Then he helps the wounded man
upon the beast and walks by the side, hold
ing him on until they come to tavern. He
saws to the landlord, ''Here is money to pay
the mans board for two days; take care Of
him: if it costs anything more charge it to
me and will pay it." Picture-"The Cool
Samaritan, or Who Is Your Neighbor"
Does God, our Mother, want to set forth
what a foolish thing it is to go away from
the right, and how glad divine mercy is to
take back the wanderer? How is it done.
By picture. A good father. Large farm
with fat sneep and oxen. Fine houses with
EXQUISITE wardrobe. Discontinued boy. Goes
away. Sharpers fleece him. Feeds hogs.
Gets homesick. Starts back. Sees an old
man running. 1t is father The hand, torn
of be husks, gets ring. The foot in.
famed and bleeding, gets a sandal. The
bard shoulder, showing through the tatters,
gets robe. The stomach, gnawin ng itself
with hunger, gets full platter smoking
with meat. The father cannot eat for look
ing at the returned adventurer. Tears rum
ming down the face until they come to a
smiIe-ths night dew melting into the morn
ing: .,.. a.n ,or u,sn