Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1892-12-17
THE MOTHER OF ALL.
DR. Talmage on an Unusual Aspect
of Divine Character.
The Tcndcr aud Anectionate Side of the
Supreme Being That Ia Often Lost
sight OF AS Gentle asa
Mother.

Vic SuultNl iOl ~ Att1C oSA mum Wv AfACCN
lyn chose IN aspect of the divine char
acter which is seldom considered. He
.discoursed on God as ''The Mother Of
ALL" the text being taken from Isaiah
Xvi, 10: las one whom his mother
comfortcth, SO will comfort you" DIR.
Talmagc said:
The Bible is warm letter Of affec-
ton from parent to child, and yet
there are many who see chiefly the Sc
we're passages. As there may be fifty
or sixty nights Of gentle dew in one
summer, that will not cause rs much
remark us one hailstorm of half IN
hour, so there are those who arc more
struck by those passages of the Bible
that announce the indignation of God
than by those that announce his affec-
ton. There may come to household
twenty or fifty letters OF affection dur
ing the year, and they will not make as
much excitement in that home as one
,sheriff's writ; and so there are people
who are more attentive to those pas
.sages which announce the judgments
of God than to those which announce
His mercy and His favor. God is n lion,
John says in the Book OF Revelation.
God is n breaker, Micah announces in
dis prophecy. God is Rock. God is n
King But here also that God is Love.
The text bends with great gentleness
and love over all who are PROSTATE in
sin and trouble. 1t lights up with COM
passion. 1t melts with tenderness. 1t
breathes upon us the hush of an eter-
nal lullaby, for it announces that God
lis our mother "As one whom his
mother comforteth, so will / comfort
you"
remark in the first place, that God
mas mothers simplicity of instruction.
A father does not know how to teach n
child the A, b. c. Men are not skillful
IN the primary department, but n
mother has so much patience that she
will tell child for the hundredth time
the difference between + and G, and
between 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 awl;wardness of condescen-
sion in so doing. So God, our Mother,
Stops down to our infantile
minds. Though we are told thing a
thousand times, and we do not under
stand it, our Heavenly Mother goes on,
line upon line, preccpt upon precept,
here little and there little. God has
been teaching some of us thirty years,
and some of 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
prosperity, and the letters are in sun
shine, and we cannot spell them. God
puts lis in the school of adversely, and
the letters are black and we cannot
spell them. If God were merely king
He would punish us; If He were simply
a father, lie would whip us; but God is
q mother, and so we are borne with and
helped all the way through.
A mother teaches her child chiefly by
pictures If she wants to set forth to
her child the hideousness of a quarrel
some spirit, instead of giving lecture
upon that subject, she turns over leaf
and shows the child two boys in a
wrangle, and says: "Does not that
look horrible?" If 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 rolling under lids Of flame,
and she says: "That is war;" The
child understands it. In great many
books the best part are the pictures.
The style may be insipid, the type poor,
but picture always attracts child's
attention. Now, God, our Mother,
teaches us almost everything by pict-
ares. 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 in the
sun. The orchards are dropping
the ripe pippins 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 fairness"
God wishes to set forth the fact that
in the Judgment the good will be
divided from the wicked. How is it
done? BY a picture; by parable
fishing scene. A group of hardy men,
long bearded, geared for standing to
the waist in water; sleeves rolled up.
The fisherman puts his hand down
among the squirming fins, takes out
the moss bunkers and throws them into
the water, and gathers the good fish
into the pail So says Christ 1t shall
be at the end of the world The bad
he xvi1l east ayyav and the rood he will