The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-12-12

ing itself with hunger. gets a full platter
smoking with meat. The father cannot
eat for looking at the returned ad-
venturer. Tears running down the face
until they come to smile the
night dew melting into the morning. No
work on the farm that day for when bad
boy repents and comes back, promises to do
better, God knows that Is enough for one
day. "And they began to be merry. {"
Picture-prodigal son returned from the
wilderness So God, our mother, teaches
us everything by pictures. The sinner is a
lost sheep. Jesus is the bridegroom. The
useless man a barren fig tree. The gospel
is great supper. Satan a sower of tares.
Truth a mustard seed. That which we
could not have understood in the abstract
statement, God, our mother, presents TO US
in this Bible-album of pictures, God-en-
graved. Is not the divine maternity ever
thus teaching uei
remark again, that God has a mothers
favoritism. A father sometimes shows a
favoritisn. Here is q boy-strong, well, of
high forehead and quick intellect. The
father says, 81 will take that boy into my
firm yet;h or, 81 will give him the very
best possible education There are in
stances where, for the culture of the one
boy, all the others have been robbed. A
sad fsvoritism but that is not the mothers
favorite. There Is q child who at two years
of age had a fall he has never got over it.
The scarlet fever muffled his hearing.
He is not what be once
all the other children. Ii he coughs in the
night, she springs out of sound sleep and
goes to him. The last thing she does when
going out Of the house is 20 give charge
in regard to him. The first thing on COM
ing In is TO ask in regard to him. Why,
the children Of the family all know that he
is the favorite, and say; Mother, you let
him do just as he pleases, and you give him
things which you do not give us. He is
your favorite." The mother smiles; she
knows it is so. So he ought to be; for if
there is any one in the world that needs
sympathy more than another, II is an in-
valid child, weary on the first mile of life's
journey; carrying an aching head, weak
side, an irritated lung. So the mother ought
TO make him favorite. God, our mother
has favorites. "Whom the Lord loveth
he chasteneth." That one whom he es-
pecially loves he chasteneth. God loves US all
but Is there one weak. and sick, and sore,
and wounded, and suffering, and faintl
That is the one who lies nearest and more
perpetually on the great, loving heart of
God. Why It never coughs but our mother,
God hears it. 1t never stirs weary limb
in the bed but our mother, God, knows of
it. There is no sucn a watch as God. The
best nurse may be overborne by fatigue.
and fall asleep In the chair; but God, our
mother, after being up year Of nights
with suffering child, never slumbers nor
sleeps.
"Ol" says enc, 81 cannot understand all
that about affliction.n A refiner of silver
once explained it to Christian lady, 81 put
the silver in the fire, and keep refining it
and trying 1t till can see my face in it, and
then l take it out" Just so ID is that God
keeps his dear children in the furnace till
the divine image may be seen in them /;
then they are taken out of the fire. ''Well, !"
says some one, ''if that is the way that God
treats his favorites. do not want to be
favorite." There Is q barren field on an
autumn day just wanting to be let alone.
There Is q bang at the bars, and a rattle
of whiff1e-trees and clevices. The field
says, "What is the farmer going to
do with me nowi" The farmer puts the
plow on the ground. shouts 10 the horses,
the coulter goes tearing through the sod,
and the furrow reacher from fence to fence.
Next day there Is bang at the bars, and
rattle OF whiffie trees again. The field says:
~ wonder what the farmer is going to
do nowW The farmer bitches the horses to
the barrow. and It goes bounding and tear
ing across the field. Next day there is a
rattle at the bars again, and the field says:
What is the farmer going to do
nowp He walks heavily across the
field, scattering seed as be
walks. After a while cloud comes. The
field says, ''What, more troubled" 1t begins
TO rain. After while he wind changes to
the northwest and it be gins to snow. Says
the field, "ls it not enough that have
been torn and trsmpled upon and drowned?
Must | now be showed underg" After a
while spring comes out Of the gates of the
}, I'D o-In
it. A green scar bAndages the cash OF the
wheat field and the July morning drops a
crown Of gold on the head of the grain.
80, A." says the field, "now know the use of
the plow, of the harrow, of the heavy foot
of the shower and of the snow storm. 10 is
we'll enough to be trodden, and trampled,
and drowned, and showed under, if In the
end can yield such a glorious harvest"
"He that goeth forth and weepeth, bear
ing precious seed, shall doubtless come
again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves
with him."
When l see God especially busy IN troub.
ling and trying a Christian, know that
out of that Christians character there Is TO
come some especial good. A quarryman
goes down into the excavation, and with
strong-handed machinery bores into the
rock. The rock says. What do you do
that forw He puts powder in; he lights a
fuse. There is q laundering crash. The
rock says, why, the whole mountain is
going to pieces" The crowbar is plunged :.
the rock Is dragged out. After awhile it is
taken into the artists studio. 1t SAYS,
"Wel, now | have got to a warm. COM
Portable place at last" But the SCULPTOR
takes the chisel and mallet, and he digs
for the eyes, and he cuts for the mouth.
and he bores for the ear, aud he rubs it
with sand paper, until the rock SAYS,
"When will this torture be endedl' A
sheet is thrown over IL. It stands in dark
mesa. After a while it is taken out. The
covering is removed 1t stands in the sum
light, In the presence OF ten thousand ap-
preaching people, as they greet the statue
of the poet, or the prince, or the conuueror.
"Ahp says the stone, 'now / understand
IL. am q great deal better Off now stand
Ing as a statue of a conqueror than / would
have been down In the quarry" So God
finds a man down in the quarry Of ignor-
ance and sin. How TO get him upY He
must be bored, and blasted, and chiseled.
and secured, and stand sometimes in the
darkness.
But after awhile the mantle Of affiiction
will fall OF, and his soul viii be greeted by
the one hundred and forty-four thousand,
and the thousands Of thousands. as more
than conqueror. o, my friends, God. our
mother, is just as kind In our Affections as
in our prosperities. God never touches us
but for our good. II a field clean and
cultured is better off than a barren field.
and IL a stone that has become a statue is
hatkar off than the fnarhla in kba s,,,..-,-