The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1892-12-16

and sin that hath tossed ten thousand
shivered hunks into the breakers?
Know You not that the whole earth is
strewn with the shipwrecked? That
there are wounds to be healed and
broken hearts to be bound and drown
ing souls to be rescued? Some have
gone down and you come too late, but
others are clinging to the wreck, are
shivering with the cold, are strangling
in the wave, are crying to you for de
liverance. Will you not, ore in hand,
put out to-day from the lighthouse?
And Christ, pointing to the inebriate
that you reformed, and the dying sim
ner whom you taught to pray, and the
outcast whom you pointed to God for
shelter. will say: "You did it to them!
You did it to me.'
Again, the scene of the text impresses
upon us the strength of maternal attach
ment. Not many men would have had
courage or endurance for the awful
mission of Rizpah- There is no emotion
so completely unselfish as maternal af-
lection. Conjugal love expects the re-
turn of many lxindnesses and atten-
tons Filial love expects parental care
or is helped by the memory of past
watchfulness. But the strength of
mothers love is entirely independent of
the past and the future, and is, of all
emotions, the purest The child
has done nothing in the past
to earn kindness, and in the future
it may grow up to maltreat its
parent; but still from the mothers
heart there goes forth inconsumable
affection. Abuse cannot offend it;
neglect cannot chill it; time cannot
efface it; death cannot destroy it. For
harsh words it has gentle Gliding, for
the blow it has beneticent ministry, for
neglect it has increased watchfulnesS
It weeps at the prison door over the
| incarcerated prodigal, and pleads for
pardon at the governors feet, and Is
forced away by compassionate friends
from witnessing the struggles of the
gallows. Other lights go out, but this
burns on without extinguishment, as in
gloom struck night you may see a
single star, one of Gods pickets. with
cleaning bayonet of light guarding the
outposts of Heaven.
O, despise not a mothers love! If
heretofore you have been negligent OF
such an one, and you have still oppor-
tunity for reparatIOn, make haste. If
YOU could only justlook in for an hours
visit to her, you would rouse up in the
aged one a whole world of blissfuh MEM
cries. What if she does sit without
talking much; she watched you for many
months when you knew not how to talk
at all What if she has many ailments
to talk about During fifteen years
you ran to her with every little scratch
and bruise and she doctored your
little finger as carefully as surgeon
| would bind the worst fracture. You
| say she is childish now. | wonder il
she ever saw you when you were child
ish. You have no patience to walk with
her on the street, she moves SO slowly.
l wonder if she remembers the time
when you were glad enough to go
slowly. Do not begrudge what you do
| for the old folks. / care not how much
you did for them, they have done more
| for you.
But from this weird text of the morn
ing comes rushing in upon my soul a
thought that overpowers Inc. This
watching by Rizpah was an after death
watching. | wonder now If there Is an
after death watching? | think there is.
There are Rizpahs who have passed
death, and who are still watching.
| cannot believe that those who
before their death were inter-
ested in us have since their
death become Indifferent as to what
happens to us. Not one hour of the six
months, during which Rizpah watched
seated upon the rocks, was she more
alert, or diligent, or armed for us than
our mother, if glorifed, is alert and dill
gent and armed for us. 1t is not now
Rizpah on rock, but Rizpah on a
| throne. How long has your mother
been dead? Do you think she has been
dead long enough to forget you? My
mother has been dead twenty-nine
years l believe she knows more
about me now than she did
when l stood in her presence, and
| am no spiritualist either. The
Bible says: Are they not all minister
| ing spirits sent forth to minister To
them that shall be heirs of salvation"
Young man, Better look out what you
do and where you go for your gloritied
| mother is looking at you. You some
times say to yourself: What would
mother say if she knew this?" She does
| know. You might cheat her once, but
you cannot cheat her now.
Oh. this tremendous thought of my
text, this after-death vatchingi What
an uplifting consideration. And what
a comforting thought. Young mother,
Won who have just lost your babe, and
| who feels the need of nearer solace
| than that which comes from ordinary
sympathy, your mother knows all
| about it. You cannot run in and talk
it all over with her as you would if she
were still a terrestrial resident, but it
will comfortyou some, think, yea il
will comfort you good deal to know
that she understands it all You see
that the velocities of the heavenly con-
ditions are so great that it would not
take her a half second to come 10 your
| bercft heart o, these mothers in
Heaven, They can do more for us now
than before they went away. The
bridge between this world and the next
is not broken down. They approach
the bridge from both ways, departing
spirits and coming spirits, disimpris-
oned spirits and sympathizing spirits.
And so let us walk as to be worthy of
the supernal companionships, and if to
any of US life on earth is 4 hard grind,
let us understand that if we watch
faithfully and trust fully our blessed
Lord, there will be corresponding re-
ward in the land of peace, and that
Rizpah, who once wept on a rock, now