The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-12-12
GOD THE MOTHER OF ALL.
TALMAGE breaches ON GODS
GREAT LOVE.

Which Tell of His Mercy and Bis
Favor.
BROOKLYN, Dec. 1l.-Rev. DR.. Talmage
to-day, In selecting subject for his SER
mon, chose an aspect Of the divine charao-
ter which is seldom considered. To an un-
usually large audience he discoursed on God
as "The Mother of ALL" the text being
taken from Isaiah Xvi, 13: "As one whom
his mother comforteth, SO will l comfort
you.n
The Bible Is a warm letter of affection
from parent to a child, and yet there are
many who see chiefly the severer passages.
As there may be fifty or sixty nights Of
gentle dew in one summer that will not
cause as much remark as one hail storm 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 affection.
There may come to a household twenty or
fifty letters of affection during tine
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 passages
which announce the judgments of God,
than to those which announce his mercy
and his favor. God is lion, John says in
II,
Micah announces in his prophecy. God is a
rock. God is 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 a thunder storm,
and there is fash of lightning that startles
the child. and the father says, MY dear,
that is Gods eye" There comes peal OF
thunder and the father says, my dear,
that is Gods voice." But the clouds 90 off
. ~ IL . - l. tE..lk
floods the heavens and floods the landscape,
and the father forgets to say, THAT is Gods
smilen
The text of this morning bends with
great gentleness and love over all who are
prOstrate in sin and trouble. 1t lights up
with compassion. IL melts with tenderness.
1t breathes upon us the hush of an eternal
lullaby, 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 God has
mothers simplicity of instruction. A
father does not know how to teach a child
the A, B, @. Men are not skillful In the
primary department; but mother has so
much patience that she will tell a child for
the hundredth time the difference between
+ and q, 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 awkwardness Of eonde-
scension In so doing. So God, our
mother, stoops down to our infantile
minds Though we are told a thing thou
sand times, and we do not understand 1t,
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 1t yet-faith, faith. When We come
to that word we stumble, we halt, we lcse
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 sunshine, and we can
not spell them. God puts US Ia the school
of adversity, and the letters are black, and
we cannot spell them. II God were merely
a king, he would punish US; If be were sim
ply father, he would whip US; but God is a
mother, and 30 we are borne with and
helped all the way through.
"a mother teaches her child chiefly by
pictures. II she wants to setsforth to her
child the hideousness Of a querrelsome
SPIRIT instead of giving a lecture upon that
subject, she turns over a leaf and shows the
child two boys in wrangle, 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 charge, the headless trunks of
hutchered men, the wild. bloodshot eye of
battle rolling under lids OF flame. and she
says: THAT is warp 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, cur mother
teaches US almost everything by pictures.
Is the divine goodness to be set
forth? How does God, our mother, teach us3
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 fatness" Our family comes
around the breakfast table. 1t has been
very cold night, but the children are all
bright, because they slept under thick COW
erlids, and they are now Ia the warm blast
of the open register, and their appetites
make luxuries cut Of the plainest fare, and
we look at the picture and say: "Bless the
Lord, o my soull"
God wishes tc set forth the fact that in
the Judgment the good will be divided from
the wicked. How is It donel By picture;
by parable-a fishing scene. A group of
hardy men, long bearded, geared for stand
ing to the waist in water; sleeves rolled up.
Long oar, sungilt; boat battered as though
it had been a playmate of the storm. A full
net humping about with the fish, which
have just discovered their captivity, the
worthless moss-bunkers and the useful
founders all in the same net. The fisher
man puts his hand down amid the squirm-
ing fms, takes out the moss-bunkers and
throws them into the water, and gathers
the good flsh into the pail. So, says Christ,
it shall be at the end of the world The
bad he will cast away, and the good he will
keep. Another picture.
God. our mother, wanted TO set forth the
duty of neighborly love and it ia 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 riding, and dlsmounts. He examines
the wounds; he takes out some wine, and
with ii 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 garment for a band
age. Then he helps the wounded man upon
the beast, and walks by the side, holding
him on until they come to "A tavern. He
says to the landlord, "Here "a money to pay
the mans board for two days; take care OF
him; if 1t costs anything more charge it to
me, and will pay it." Picture-The Good
Samaritan, or Who is Your Neighborl