The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1892-12-23
THE MOTHER OF ALL.
Or. Talmage on an Unusual Aspect
of Divine Character.
The Tender and Afectionats side of the
Supreme Being That is Often Lost
Sight of-As Gentle as a
Mother.

4
| Mother.
Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage in selecting
the subject for late sermon at Brook,
lyn chose an 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, Is: ''As one whom his mother
comforteth, so will comfort you" DIR.
Talmage said:
The Bible is a 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 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 announce the indignation of God
than by those that announce his affec-
ton. There may come to a household
twenty or fifty letters of affection dur
ing the year. and they will not make as
much excitement in that home as one
sheriffs 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 lion.
John says in the Book of Revelation
God is a breaker. Micah announces in
his prophecy. God is Il Rock God is a
| King. But here also that God is Love.
I a ~ Wit
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
/ is our mother. ''As one whom his
mother comforteth. so will | comfort
you"
remark in the first place. that God
has mothers simplicity OF instruction.
\ father does not know how to teach a
/ child the \. Il. c. Men are not skillful
in the primary department, but a
mother has so much patience that she
will tell a child for the hundredth time
the difference between + and G., and
/ between l 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 condescen-
sion in SO doing. So God. our MotheA
stoops down to our infantile
minds. Though we are told a thing n
thousand times, and we do not under
stand it, our Heavenly Mother goes on.
line upon line, precept upon precept.
here little and there a 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 vet
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 us in the school of adversitv. and
the letters are black and we cannot
spell them. II God were merely a king
He would punish us; if He were simply
a father, He would whip Us: but God is
mother, and 50 we are borne with and
helped all the way through.
\ 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
wrangie, and SAYS: Does not that
look horrible?" 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 eve
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-
ures. Is the divine goodness to be set
forth? How does God. our Mother.
teach US? BY an autumual 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-a
fishing scene. \ group of hardy men.
long bearded, Ceared for standing to
the vast 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, it shall e.
be at the end of the world The bad
he will east away and the good he will
keep. Another picture.
God, our Mother, wanted to set forth
the duty OF neighborly love. and it is
done by picture. A heap of wounds
on the road to Jericho A traveller has
been fighting a robber The robber
stabbed him and knocked him down
Two ministers came along. They look
at the poor fellow, but do not help him.
A traveller comes along-a Samaritan
He says whoa to the beast he is rid
ing and dismounts He examines the
wounds; he takes out some wine and
with it washes the wounds, and then
he takes some oil and puts that in to
make the wounds stop smarting, and
then he tears off piece of his own gar
ment for a bandage. Then he helps
the wounded man upon the beast and
u IL ! = l. l. ! =. -