Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1892-12-23
REY, DIR. TALNAGE
THE BROOKLYN DIVlNE'S sun
DAY SERMON.
Subject: "lhe Mother of All"

from a parent to A child and vet there are
many who see chiefly the severer passages.
AS there NAV be fifty or sixty mig hts Of gen
tie 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
nounce the indignation OF God than by those
that announce His affection. There may
come to a household twenty or fifty letters
OF affection during the year, and they Will
not make as muc6 excitement in that home
as one sherifs writ. and so there are people
who are more attentive to tnoSe passages
which announce the judgment or GOD than
to those which announce His mercy and His
favor
God is lion, John says in the book of Rev
elation God is a breaker Micah announces
in his prophecy God is a rock. God is
a king But hear also that God Is love. A
father and his child are walking out in the
fields on a summers day and there comes
UP thunderstorm, and there is a fash OF
lightning that startles the child, and the
father says, MY dear that is Gods eye"
There comes a peal of thunder, and the
father says my dear that is Gods voice"
But the clouds go off the sky, AMI the storm
is gone. and light floods the heavens and
foods the landscape, and the father forgets
to say, That is Gods smile"
The text of this morning bends with great
gentieness and love over all who are pros
trate in sin and trouble. It lights up with
compassion. 1t mets 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"
Iremark, in the first place that God has
a mothers simplicity of instruction.
father does not know how to teach child
the A B G. Men not skillful in the
primary department, but mother has
much patience that she will tell a child for
the hundredth tiToe the difference between
and G. and between L ana 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 condescens;on in so
doing. So God, our Mother stOOps down to
our nfantile minds.
Though we are told a thing thousand
times and we do not understand it, our
heavenly Mother goes on, line uOon 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
wori 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. Col,
our Mother puts US in the school OF pros
perity, and the letters are ia sunshine, AMI
we cannot spell thea. God puts US into the
school of adversely and the letters are black
md we cannot spell them. 1t God were
merely a king He would punish US; il He
we're simply a father He would whip US;
but God is a mother, 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 c1ild
the hideousness of a quarrelsOme spirit, in
stead of giving a lecture pom that subject
she turns over Leaf AMI shows the child
two boys in wrangle, aud saws, docs not
that look horrible?' Ii she wants to teach
her child toe awfulness of war she turns
over the picture book AMI shows the war
charger, the haadless trunks OF butchered
men, the wild, b!oodshot eye of battle roll
ing under lids Of flame, AMI she says, That
is warp The child understands 1t.
In a great many books the best parts are
the pictures. The style may be insipid, the
type poor but picture always attracts
chids attention. Now God, our Mother,
teaches US almost everything by pictures.
Is the divine goodness to be set forths How
does God, our Mother, teacn 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 p4ppins 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
crOwne>t the year with Thy goodness. and
Thy paths drop tatness." Our family comes
around the breakfast table, It has been a
very cold night but the children are all
bright because they slept un Ter thick cover
lets, and they are now in the warm blast OF
the open register, and their appetites makes
luxuries out Of the plainest fare AMI we
look at the picture ana say, b1eSS Coe LoEu,
y my soul"
God wishes to set forth the fact that in
the Judgment the good will he divided from
the wicked. How is it done? By picture;
by paraOle-a fishing scene. A group OF
hardy men, long bearded, geared 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, the
worthless mO>S0unkerS and the useful
founders all i'll the same net. Inc fisherman
puts his hand down amid the squlrming ms,
takes out the mossbunkerS and throws them
into the water and gathers the good fish in
to the pail. So, says CCrist, it shall be at
the end of the world. he bad He will cast
away, and the good H. 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 AMI
knocked him down Two ministers
along. They look at toe poor fellow, but
do not help him. A traveller comes along
a Samaritan. He says "Whoa| TO the
beast he is riding and dismouuts. He ex-
amines the wounds; he take out some wine,
and with it washes the wounds, and then
he takes some oil AMI puts that in to make
the wounds stop snartng, aud then he
tears off a piece OF his own garment for a
bandage. Then he helps the wounded man
upon the beast aud 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: II 1t costs anything more charge 1t co
me, and will pay it." Picture-"The Cool
Samaritan, or Who Is Your Neighbour"
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