The Pickens sentinel. [volume] (Pickens, S.C.) 1871-1903, 1894-01-25

III
you have preserved your integrity and
are really Christian, you have first of
all TO thank God, and l think next YOU
nave TO thank your mother.
Inc most impressive thing at the in
auguration of James A. Garfield as
President Of the United States was tbs
after he had taken the oath of Office he
turned round, and in the presence of
the Supreme Court and the Senate of
the United States kissed his old moth.
er. II had time to take statistics out
or this audience and could ask what
proportion of you who are Christians
owe your salvation under God to ma.
ternal fidelity, L think about three.
iourths of you would spring to your
feet. "Ha! Hal" said the soldiers of
the regiment to Charlie, one of their
comrades, "Wt at has made the change
lnyou? You used to like sin as we'll
as any OF u.s." Pulling from his pock-
et MS mothers letter, in which, after
Gelllng OF some comforts she had sent
nlm, she concluded, "We are all pray.
ing Tor you, Charlie, that you may be
Christian" he said, Boys that's the
sentence" '
The trouble with Sisera's mother was
that while sitting at the window of nv
text watching for news of her son from
the battlefield she had the two bad
qualities of being dissolute and bejng
TOO fond OF personal adornment. The
Blole account says: "Her wise ladies
answered her yea. She returned an
SWer to herself: "Have they not sped ?
Have they not divided the prey-to
every man damsel or two, to Sisera a
prey or divers cOlOrS.-a prev of divers
cOlors of needlnwOrk, of divers colors
or needlewOrk on both sides 2"
one makes no anxious utterance
aDoui the wounded in battle, about the
Dloodshed. about the dying. about the
dead. about the principles involved In
'he oattle going OLA battle 80 ip port.
anu mat the stars and the freshets took
part, and the clash of swords was an
SWered by the thunder of the skies.
What she thinks most Of is the bright
coiors or the ward robes to be captured
ana the needlework. "TO Sisera a prey
OF olVers colors-a prey of divers cOlors
OF peedlework, of divers colors of nee.
die work on both Sides"
Now, neither Sisera's mother nor anv
one else eau say too much in eulogy of
the needle. 1t has made more uSIfuJ
cohquests than the sword. Pointed at
one end and with an eye at the other.
"he'her or bone or ivory, rs in earliest
Clme; or OF bronze, as in Pliny's time:
or OF steel, as in modern time: whether
laboriously fashioned as formerly by
one hand or as now, when a hundred
"o.kmen in factory are employed to
make the different parts of one needle
~ Is an Instrument divinely ordered for
Che comfort. for the life, for the health.
Tor the adornment of the human race
The eye OF the needle hath seen more
domestic comfort, and more gladdened
poverty, and more Christian service
than any other eye.
Ihe modern sewing machine has in
noWise abolished the needle. but rather
enthroned it. Thank God for the nee.
dleWork from the time when the Lcrd
Almigl ty from the heavens ordered in
regard to the embroide ed door of the
ancient tabernacle, "Thou shalt make
a hanging for the door Of the tent of
Dlue and purple and scarlet and fine
tWlned linen wrought with needle
work. down to the Womanly hands
which this winter in this Tabernacle
are presenting for benev lent purposes
their needlework. But there was
nothlng except vanity and worldliness
and social splash in what Sisera's
mother said about the needleWork she
expected her son would brtng home
from the battle.
And am not surprised to find that
oisera Fought on the wrong side, when |
MS mother at the window of nv text. |
n that awful exigency, had her chief
thought on dry goods achievement |
ana social display. God only knows
now many homes have made shipwreck |
IN the wardrobe. And that mother |
VINO sits at the window watching for |
Valnglorious triumph Of millinery and |
me colors and domestic pageantry will |
after awhile hear as bad news from
ler children out in the battle of life as |
olsera's mother heard from the strug- |
gle at Esdraelon.
But II you still press the question.
where's mOtherw | will tell yOu
where she Is not, though once she was
Ihere. Some OF you started with her |
likeness in your face and her princi |
Plies IN your soul. But you have cast |
her out. That was an awful thing for |
you to do. but you have done 1t. That |
hard, grinding, dissipated look you
never got from her. If you had seen |
any one strike her, you would have
struck him down without much care
Wnether the blow was just sufficient or |
tatal; put, my boy, you have struck her |
doWn-struck her innocence from your
WV '' ooA "SN ilCA from
your soul.
4ou struck her down! The tent pin |
that Jael drove three times into the |
skull OF Sisera was not so cruel as the |
stab you have made more than three |
times through your mothers heart. |
But she Is waiting yet, for mothers are
slow to give up their boys-waiting at |
some window, it may be a window on
earth or at some window in heaven.
All Others may cast you off. Your
wife may seek divorce and have no
more patience with you. Your father
may disinherit you and say. "T.et him
never again darken the door of our
house" But there are two persons
who do not give you up-God and
How many disappointed mothers
waiting at the Windowl Perhaps the
panes of the windo " are not great glass
plate, beVel edged and hovered over by
exquisite lambrequin, but the window
Is made of small panes, 1 would say
about six or eight IF them, In summer
wrrathed with trailing vine, and In
winter pictured by the Raphaels of the |
frost, a real country window The |
mother sits there knitting or busy with
hpr nlQ6la hnrn OF n,