Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1892-12-15
YhE MOTHER OF ALL.
On. TA4-MAG6 PRESENTS A NOVEL
VIEW OF THE DIVINE LOVE.

lthnO also anu -uOtnerNfs
BROOKLYN, Dec 11.--Rsv. DIR. Talmage
bodey, In selecting a subject for his ser
mon, chose an aspect of the divine charac-
Der which IL seldom considered. To an I'M
usually large audience he discoursed on
God es "The Mother of AL" the text be-
Ing taken from Isaiah Xvi, 10, "As one
whom his mother comfortcth, SO will /
comfort yoA."
The Btbls Is n wsrru letter of affection
from parent to a child and yet there arc
many who see chiefly the severer passages.
As there may be fifty or sixty nights OF
gentle dew In one summer that will not
Casf-o - 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 affection. There
may come to u household twenty or fifty
letters OF affecton during the year, and
they will nos make much excitement
in that home as one sherite's writ, and so
there are people who re- more attentive TO
those passages which announce the iudg
ments of God thaG to those which an
nounce his mercy and his favor.
God is lion, John SAYS in the book Of
Revelation. God 10 a breaker, Micah an
nounces in his prophecy God is rock
God is q king. BuI hea- also that God il
love. 4 father ana his child are walking
out in the fields or a summers day, anG
there comes up thunderstorm, and there
is fash of lightning that startles the
child and the father says, My dear. thnt
is Gods eye" There comes peal of thur
der, and the father says, "My dear, that is
Gods voice" Bus the clouds go off the
Sky, and the storm is gone. and light floods
the heavens and floods the landscape, and
the father forget, to say, That is Gods
smile"
The text of this morning bends with great
Centleness and love over ali who are pros
trate in sin and trouble. 1t lights up with
compassion. 1t nelts with tenderness 1t
breathes upon us the hush OF an eternal
lullaby, for it announces that God l. our
Mother. As one whom his mother com
forteth, so will comfort you
THE MATERNAL INSTINCT.
Iremark, il the first place, that God has
a mothers simplicity of instruction. \
father does not know how to teach child
the \ b &. Men are not sliliful in the
primary department, but a mother has so
much patience that she Will tell Il child for
the hundredth time the difference between
j. and G and between | and j. sometimes
it is by blocks: sometimes by the worsted
by the book. She thus teaches the child
and has no awkwardness of condescensiou
in so doing. 80 God, our Mother, stoops
down to our infantle minds.
Though we are told Il thing a thousa' i
times and we do not understand it, =
heavenly Mother goes on, line upon line
lrecept upon prccept, here a little and
there a little. God has been teaching some
of us thirty years and some Of It's sixty
years one word Of one syllable, and we do
not know it yct-feith, faith, " men we
come to thai 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 pros
perity. and the letters are in sunshine. and
we cannot spell them. God puts IL in the
The school Of adversely, and the letters are
BLACK, and We cannot spell them. If God
were merely It king he would punish MS if
lie were simply father he would whip lis:
but God is n mother, and 50 We are borne
with and helped all the way through.
a mother teaches her child chiefly 10y
pictures. i she wants to set forth to her
child the hideousnes5 Of quarrclsOme
spirit, instead of giving n lecture upon that
subject she turns Overa leaf and shows the
child two boys in wrangle, and says,
Does not that look horriblc?" If She
wants to teach her child the awfuIncss C.
war she turns over the picture book ana
shows the war charger, the headless trunks
of butchered men the wild, bloodshot eye
of battle rolling under lids Of flame, and
abe says, THAT is WARP The child under
stands 1t.
In great many books the best parts are
the pictures. The style may he insipid the
type poor, but picture always attracts
,I,,11 lion, 4 ii \ 4
teaches us almost everything by pictures.
Is the divine goodness to be set forth? How
does G,i, our Mother, teach us? BY an
autumual picture. The barns are full.
The wheat stacks are rounded. The cattle
are chewing the cud lagily 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 nov
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"
a PICTURED JUDGMENT
Ous family comes around the breakfast
tabE, 1t has been very cold night, but
the children are all bright because they
slept under thick coverlets, and they are
now in the warm blast Of the open register
and their appetites make luxuries out q?
but pihIHSsJ laES, AKA We look AT the PIC
ture and say, Bless the Lord, o my soul"
God wishes to set forth the fact that IN
the Judgment the good will be divided from
the wicEsd. How is it done BY picture,
by "a parsble-a fishing scene. A group of
hardy nan, long bearded, geared for stand
ing to the waist in water, sleeves rolled uu
Long oar, sun gilt; boat battered Us though
it had been playmate OF the storm. A
full net humping about with the fish
which have just discovered their captivity,
the worthless nossbunkers and the useful
founders all in the same net The fisher
man puts his hand down amid the souir1n-
ing fms, takes out the rnossbunkers and
throws them into the water and gathers
the good fish into the pail. So, says Christ,
st shall DO 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 is done by q
picture. A heap OF wounds on the road to
Jericho A traveller has been fighting a
robber The 70 bbsr alta bbed hin. and knock