The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1894-02-24
AT THE TABERNACLE.
WHERE'S MOTHER" WAS REV. DR..
TALMAeE's SUBJECT SUNDAY.

A Queen Unto God Forever--Old Fashioned
Mothers Resting In u Good, Easy, Com.
Portable Heaven and Waiting at the Pal.
ace window For Their Loved Ones.
BROOKLYN, Jan. A. This novel and
unique subject was presented by DR. Tai.
mage this forenoon to the usual throngs
crowding the largest Protestant church in
America. The congregation, led by organ
and cornet, sang n gospel hymn to the tune
of Home, Sweet Home" Text Judges v,
2s THE mother of Sisera looked out at a
window"
Spiked to the ground of Jael's tent lay
the dead commander in chief of the Ca.
naanitish host, General Sisera not far from
the river Kishon, which was only dry bed
of pebbles when in 1889, in Palestine, we
crossed it, but the gullies and ravnes which
ran into It indicated the possibility of great
freShets like the one at the time of the text.
General Sisera had gone out with 900 iron
chariots, but he was defeated, aud, his chart.
OF wheels interlocked with the wheels of
other chariots, he could not retreat fast
enough, and so he leaped to the ground and
ran till, exhausted. he went into Jael's tent
for safety. She had just been churning,
and when he asked for water she gave him
buttermilk, which in the east is considered
a most refreshing drink.
Very tired and supposing he was safe, he
went to sleep upon the floor, but Jael, who
had resolved upon his death. took a tent
pin, long and round and sharp, in one hand
and hammer ina her other hand and put
ting the sharp end Of the tent pin to the
forehead Of Sisera with her other hand she
lifted the hammer and brought it down on
the head Of the pin with a stout stroke,
when Ssera struggled to rise, and she
struck him again, and he struggled to rise,
and the third time she struck him, and the
commander in chief of the Canaanitish host
lay dead
Meanwhile in the distance Ssera's moth
er sits amid surroundings of wealth and
pomp and scenes palatal waiting for his re-
turn. Every mother expects her son to be
victorious, and this mother looked out at
the window expecting to see him drive up
in his chariot followed by wagons loaded
with embroideries and also by regiments of
men vanquished and enslaved / see her
now sitting at the window in high expecta.
ton. She watches the farthest turn of the
road. She looks for the flying dust of the
swift hoofs. The first flash of the bit of The
horses bride she will catch.
THE DEATH OF SlSERA.
The ladies of her court stand round, and
she tells them of what they shall have when
her son comes up-chain' of gold and car.
canets of beauty and dresses of such won.
drous fabric and splendor as the Is Die only
hints at, but leaves us to imagine HE
ought to be here by this time" saws his
mother. THAT battle is surely over.
hope that freshet of the river Kishon has
not impeded him. hope those strange ap.
pearances we saw last night in the sky were
not ominous when the stars seemed to fight
in thes courses. No, mol, He is so brave in
battle know he has won the day. Hewill
soon be here"
But alas for the disappointed motherl
She will not see the glittering headgear of
the horses at full gallop bringing her son
home from victorious battle As a solitary
messenger arriving in hot haste rides up to
the window at which the mother of Sisera
sits he cries, Your armies are defeated, and
your son is deadr' There is scene of bor.
ror and anguish from which we turn away.
Now you see the full meaning of my short
text, THE mother of Sisera looked out at
a window" Well, my friends, we are all
out in the battle of life 1t is raging now,
and the most of us have mother watch.
ing and waiting for news of our victory or
defeat. If she be not sitting at the window
of earth, she is sitting at window of
heaven, and she is going to hear all about it.
BY all the rules of war Sisera ought to
have been triumphant. He had 900 iron
chariots and host of many thousand.
vaster than the armies of Israel. But God
was on the other side, and the angry fresh.
cts of kishon, and the hail, the lightning,
and the unmanageable war horses and the
capsized chariots, and the stellar panic in
the sky discounted Sisera. Josephus in
his history describes the scene in the follow
ing words
when they were come to a close fight,
there came down from heaven a great storm
with vast quantity of rain and hail, and
the wind blew the rain in the face of the
Canaanites and sodarkened their ewes their
arrows and sings were of no advantage to
them, nor would the GOODNESS of the air per
init the soldiers to make use of their
swords, while this storm did not so much
incommode the Israelites because it came
on their backs. They also took such cour-
age upon the apprehension that God was
assisting them that they fell upon the very
midst Of their enemies and slew a great
number of them, so that some of them fell
by the Israelites, some fell by their own
horses which were put into disorder, and
lots"
AT HEAVENS WINDOW.
Hence, my hearers, the bad news brought
to the mother of Sisera looking out at the
window. And our mother, whether sitting
at Il window of earth or window of heaven.
will hear the news of our victory or defeat
not according to our talents or educational
equipment or our opportunities, but accord
ing as to whether God is for us or against us
where's mother9" is the question most
frequently asked in many households 1t
is asked by the husband as well as the child
coming in at nightfall, "Where's motherf''
1t is asked by the little ones wheI they get
hurt and come in crying with the pain,
where's motherY" 1t is asked by those
who have seen some grand sight or heard
some good news or received some beautiful
gift, Where's mother"
She sometimes feels wearied by the uues-
ton, for they all ask it and keep asking il
all the time. She is not only the first to
hear every case of perpleXity, but she is the
judge in every court of domestic appeal.
That is what puts the premature wrinkles
on SO many maternal faces and powders
white so many maternal foreheads. You
see it is question that keeps on for all the
years Of childhood. 1t comes from the
nursery, and from the evening stand where
the boys and girls are learning their school
lesson, and from the starting out in the
morning, when the tippet or hat or slate OF
book or overshoe is lost, until at night, all
out Of breath, the youngsters come in and
shout until you can hear them from cellar
TO garnet and from front door to the back
fence of the back yard, Where's motherY"
Indeed a child's life is so full of that
question that If he be taken away one of
the things that the mother most misses
and the silence that most Expresses her is
the absence of that question, which she
will never hear on earth again, except she
hears it in a dream which sometimes re-
stores the nursery Just as it was, and then
the voice comes back so natural, and 81,
sweet, and so innocent, and so inquiring
that the dream breaks at the words,
where's mother?n
QUEEN UNTO GOD FOREVER.
NlaH