Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1892-12-17
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
The Eminent Brooklyn Divine's Sun.
day Sermon.
subject; "1he Mother of ali.'

The Bible is warm letter of affection
/ from parent to child. and yet there are
many who see chiefly the severer passages.
As there may be fifty or sixty nights of gem
/ tie dew in one summer that will not cause
as much remark one hailstorm OF half an
! hour, so there are those who are more struci1
/ by those passages of the Bible that an.
nounce he indignation of God than by thoss
that announce His affection. There may
come to household twenty or fifty letters
OF affeat on during the year. and they will
not make as much excitementin that homs
4 as one sheriff's writ, and so there are people
/ who are more attentive to tnose passages
which announce the judgment of God than
4 10 those which announce His mercy and His
I favor
/ God is lion, John says in the book of Rev
elation. God is breaker Micah announces
/ in his prophecy God is a rocS God is
/ king But hear also that Col is love. A
father and his clil1 are walking out in the
/ fields on a summers day ami there comes
1 up Thunderstorm, and there is flash of
/ lightning that startles the child. and the
father says. MY dear, that is Gods eye.n
! There comes peal of thunder, and the
| father says, MY dear that is Coos voice.
/ But the clouds go off tue sky. AMI the storm
is gone, and light foods the heavens and
! foods the landscape, and tde father forgets
to say, THAT is Gods smile"
The text of this morning bends with great
| gentleness AMI love over all who are pros
| trate in sin and trouble 1t lights up with
compassion. 1T NETS 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"
! remark, in the first place, that Col 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 hundre9th time the difference between II
/ and G and e.ween | and j. Sometimes it
! is by blocas: sometimes by the worsted
work, sometimes by the slate, sometimes
1 by the book. She thus teaches the child and
/ has no awkward ness OF con ascension in so
doing. So God, our Mother, stoo2s down to
/ our infanti,e minds.
Though we are told a thing thousand
! times and we do not IN ierstanl it, our
heavenly Mother goes on, line upon line,
/ precept upon precep, here little and there
little God has been teaching some of us
thirty years and some o. Us sixty years one
WORT of one syllable, an | we do not know it
| yet--:aith, faith When we come to that
word we stumble, we halt, we lose our
place, we pronounce it wrong.
Still Cots patience is not exhausted. God,
| our Mother, puts US in the school of pros
! perity, and the letters are in sunshine, AMI
we cannot spell them. God puts us into the
school of adversely and the letters ara black
and we cannot spell them. II God were
merely king He would punish us; if He
were simply a father He would whip us;
but God is motder, and so we are born
with and helped all the way through.
A mother teaches her child chiefly By pic
lures Ii she wants to set forth to her hid
the hideousness of quarrelsome spirit in/
stea OF giving lecture upon that subject
( she turns over a leaf an1 shows the child
Z 10, pola mi ve Annae
that look horrible?' Ii she wants to teach
her child t1e awfu,ness of war she turns
over the picture book AMI shows the war
charger, the haa1less trunks of butchered
mep, the wild, b.oodshot eye of battle rolf
ing under lids OF flame, ami she says, That
4 is WARP The child understands 1T.
In great many books the best parts are
/ the pictures The style may be insipid, the
type poor, but picture always ATTRACTS
rhild's attention. Now God our Mother,
teaches us almost every thing by pictures.
Is the divine goodness TO be-set forth? How
does Go1, our Mother, teach US? By an
autumnal picture. The barns are full. The
wheat stacks are roun led. The cattle are
chewing the cu1 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 seen now
to be resting in great abundance.
We look at the picture and say, Thou
GlOWn6aI Ite year WIFI IDg SOOIutSS am
Thy paths drop fatness.' Our family comes
around the breakfast table, 1t has been
very cold night but the children are all
bright because they slept I'm Ter thick cover
lets. and they are now in the warm blast of
the open register, and their appstiteS makes
luxuries out of the plainest fare, AMI we
look at the picture and say BLESS the Lord,
o my soul"
God wishes to set forth the fact that ia
the judgment the good viii he divide from
the wicked. How is it done2 By picture;
by a parable-a fishing scele. A group OF
hardy men, long bearded, gearei for stand
ing to the waist in water; sleeves rolled up.
Long oar, sun gilt; boat battered as though
it had been playmate OF the storm. A full
net humping about with the fish, which
have Just discovered their captivity, this
worthless mosSSunkerS and 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 tine good fish IN
TO the pail. SO, says Cdrist it shalt be at
the end of the world. The bad He will cast
away, and the COOL H will keep. Another
picture.
God, our Mother wanted to set forth the
duty of neighborly love, and it is done By a
picture. heap of wounds on the road to
Jericho. A traveller has been fl yhtny a
robher. The robbar stabbed him an
knocked him down Two ministers come
along. They look at tue poor fellow, but
do not hep MIN. A traveller comes along
Samaritan. He says ''Whoap to the
beast he is riding and dismounts. He ex-
amnes the wouu is; he take out som9 wine,
and WITH it washes the wounds and then
he takes some oil an l puts that in to make
the wounds stop snarting, and then he
tears off piece OF his own garment for a
bandage. Then he helps the wounded man
upon the beast and walks By the side, hold
ing him on until they come to a tavern. He
says 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 viii pay it" Picture-"rhe Cool
Samaritan, or Who Is Your Neighbour
Does God our Mother want to set forth
what 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 rat sheep and oxen. Fine houses with
exquisite wardrobe. Disconnected boy. Goes
away. Sharpers fleece him. Feeds hogs.
Gets bomesck. Starts back. Sees an old
man running. 1t is father! The hand, torn
OF he huSks, gets ring. The foot, in
famed and bleeding, gets a sandal. The
bare shoulder, showing throu gh the tatters
gets robe. The stomach, gnawi ng itself
with hunger, gets full platter smoking
with meat. The father cannot eat for look
ing at the returned a iventurer, Tears run
ming down the face until they come to
smile-the night dew melting into the morn
ing.
No work on the farm that day, for when
ba boy rep nts an / cones back promise
ing to do better, Col knows that is enou "a
for one day, "An they began to be merry"
Picture-"Proliga Son Returned From the
Wilderness So Col, our Mother, teaches
us everything by pictures. The sinner is a
lost sheep. Jesus is the bridegroom. Ths
useless man barren fig tree. The Gospel
is great supper. Satan, sower of tares.
Truth, a mustard seed That which we
could not have understood in the abstract
statement God, our NJ other, presents to us
in this Bible album of pictures, God en-
eraved. Is not the divine maternity ever
thus teaching u.s.
| remark again that Col has n mothers
tavoritism father sometimes shows a sort
OF favoritlsm. Here Is boy-strour well of
nigh forehead aud quick intellect The
father saws, 81 will take that bov into my
firm vet or, Il will give him the very best
possible education. d" There are instances
where, forthe culture of the one boy, all
the others have been robbie l. sad favor
itlsm, but that is not the mothers favorite.
l will tell voa her faYorite.
There is a child who at two years OF age
bad fall. He has never got over it. The
scarlet fever muffiai his hearing He is not
what he once was. That child has causai
the mother more anxious nights than all the
other children. Ii he cou ghs 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 to give a charge in re-
gard to him. The first thing on coming in
is to ask in regard to him.