The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1893-02-04
THE MOTHER OF ALL.
Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage Talks Upon
the Divine Character,
Reviewing 1t From Seldom c Considered
Stspdpoint-The Bible Letter
OF Affection as From
Parent to q Child.

Parent to Child.
The following discourse by Rev. T.
Dewitt Talmage was delivered in the
Brooklyn tabernacle on the subject OF
God as 1.-THE Mother of AL" He took
for his text:
As one whom his mother comforteth, so will
lcomfort you.-Isaiah Xvi, 10.
The Bible is 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 hajlstorm 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 af-
lection. There may come to a house
hold twenty or fifty letters of affection
during the year, and they will not
make as much excitement in that home
rs 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 the
Book of Revelation. God is breaker.
Micah announces in his prophecy. God
is 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 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 go off the sky, anti the storm is
gone and light floods the heavens and
floods the landscape, and the father
forgets to say: THAT is Gods smile"
The text of this morning bends with
great gentleness and love over all who
are PROSTATE in sin and trouble. 1t
lights up with compassion. 1t melts
with tenderness. 1t breathes upon us
the bush of an eternal 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 instruc-
ton. A father does not know how
to teach a child the A. B, c. Men are
not skillful in the primary department;
but a mother has so much patience that
she will tell q child for the hundredth
time the difference between T and G.,
and between / and j. Sometimes it is
by BLOCKS; sometimes by the worsted-
work; sometimes by the slate; some
times by the book. She thus teaches
the child, and has no awkwardness of
,. condescension in so doing So God,
our Mother, stoops down in our infan-
tile minds. Though we are told a
thing thousand times, and we do not
understand it, our Heavenly Mother
goes on, line upon line, precept upon
precept, here little and there little.
God has been teaching some of ne
thirty years, and some of us sixty
years, one word of one syllable, and
we do not know it yet-faith, faith.
When we come to that word we STUN
BILE, we halt, we lose our place, we pro-
nouncc 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 in the
school Of adversely, and the letters are
black, and we can not spell them. If
God were merely a king, he would
punish us; If He were simply a father,
Hewould whip us; but God is Ia mother,
and SO we are borne with and helped
nil the yvav through
A mother teaches her child chiefly by
pictures. If she wants to set forth the
hideousness of a quarrelsome spirit, in
stead of giving a lecture upon the sub
ject, she turns over leaf and shows
the child two boys in wrangle, and
says: "Does not that look horrible?''
II she wants to teach the child the,awful-
ness of war, she turns over the picture
book and shows the war-charger, the
headless trunks of the butchered men,
the wild, blood-shot eye of battle roll
ing under lids of flame, and she says:
s'rhat is war;" The child understands
1t. 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 al
most everything by pictures Is the
divine goodness to be set forth? How
docs God, our Mother. teach us? 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, "Thon crownest the
year with Thy goodness, and Thy
paths drop fatness.' Our family comes
around the breakfast table. 1t has
been a very cold night. but the children
are all bright, because they slept under
thick coverlids. and they are now in
the warm blast of the open register.
and their appetites make luxuries ont
of the plainest fare, and we look ut the
picture and say, '.Bless the Lord. my
soul.'
God wishes to set forth the fact that
in the Judgment the good will be di-
yidcd from the wicked. How isitdone?
BY picture; by parable--a fishing
scene. A group of hardy men, long