Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1894-01-26
srsera's mother heard from the struggle at
Esdraeion.

ESnfaelOD.
But if you still press the q lestion, ''Whera's
Ecther?' I will tell you where STE is not.
| though once she was there. Some of you
started with her likeness in your face and
her principles in your soul. Bat you have
cast her out. That was awful thing for
you to, but you have done it. That hard,
grinding disslpated look you never got from
her. If you had seen ally ole strike her you
would have struck him down without much
care whether the blow was just sufficient or
fatal; but; my boy, you have struck her
down-struck her innocence from your ta:a
and struck her principles from your soul.
You 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 ahe is waiting yet. for mothers
are slow to give up their boys-waiting at
come window; it may be window on earth
or at some window in heaven. And others
may cast you OFF. Your wife may seek
divorce and have no patience with you.
Your father may dsir herit you and say,
''Let him never again darken the door o. our
house" But there are two persons who do
not give you up-God and mother.
How many disappointed mothers waiting
at the window Perhaps the paueS of the
window are not great glass plate, bevel
edged and lowered over by exquisite lam
bredun, but the window Is made of small
panes, would say about six or eight of
them, in summer Wreathed with trailing
v!ae anc IN winrer pictured by the -taphaels
Of the forest, real country window. The
mother sits there knitting. or busy with her
needle on homely repairs, when She looks up
and sees coming across tho bridge OF the
meadow brook a stranger who dismOunts in
front ofthc window. He lifts and drops the
heavy knocker ofthe farmhouse door. "Come
in p is the response. He gives his name and
says, II have come on sad errand." There
is nothing the mattar with my son in the
l. Srt,C
"Your son got into an unfortunate encounter
with young man in liquor saloon last
night and is badly hurt. The fact is he can
not get well. hate to tell you all. am
sorry to say he is dead" 'Dead - she cries
as she tOtters back. ooh, my son my son
my son Would God had died for theer "
That is the ending of all her cares and ankle
ties and good counsels for that boy. That
is her pay for her self sacrifices in his behalf.
That is tho bad news from the battle. 50 the
tidings of derelict or Christian sons travel to
the windows of earth or the windows OF
heaven at which mothers sit.
'But," says some one, care you not mis-
taken about my ClOrified mother hearing of
my evildoings since she went away! Says
some one else, "Are you not mistaken about
my glorifed mother hearing Of my self sacri-
flee and moral bravery and struggle to do
right2" No! Heaven and earth are in con
stant communication. There are trains run
ming every FIVE minutes-trains OF inImOrtals
ascending and descending-spirts going
from earth to heaven to live there. SPIRITS
descending from heaven to earth to min
lister and help. They hear rom us
many times every day. Do they hear
good news or bad news from the battle.
this Sedan, this ThermOpyia, this Auster-
litz, in which every one of us is fighting on
the right side or the wrong side. o God,
whose [ am, and whom l am trying to
serve, as a result of this sermon, roll over
all mothers a new sense of their response
biIty, and upon all children. whether still
in the nursery or out on tho tremendous
Esdraelon OF middle life or OLD age, the fact
that their victories or defeats sound clear
out, clear up to the windows Of sympathetic
maternity. Oh is not this the minute when
the cloud Of blessing filled with the eXhaled
tears of anxious mothers Shall burst i'll
showers of mercy on this audience?
There is one thought that is almost too
tonder forntterance. I almost fear to start
it lest have not enough control Of my emo
ton to conclude it. AS when we were chill
dren we so often came in from play or from
hurt or from some childish Injustice prac-
ticed upon u.s. and as soon as the door was
opened we cried, ''Where's mOther2" and
she said, Here am, and we buried our
weeping faces in her lap, so after awhile,
when we get through with the pleasures and
hurts of this life, we will, by the pardOnlng
mercy of Christ enterthe heavenly home, and
among the first questions, not the first, but
among the first will be the old question that
we used to ask, the question that IS being
asked in thousands Of places at this very
moment-the question, "Wheres mother?'
And it will not take long for us to find her
or for her to find US. for she will have been
watching at the window for our coming,
and with the other children OF our household
of earth We will again gather round her, and
she will say "Well how did you get through
the battle of life? [ have often heard from
others about you, but now 1 want to hear
it from your own souls. Tell me all about
1t, my children" And then we will tell
her of all our earthly experiences,
the holidays. the marriages, the birth hours,
the burials, the heartbreaks, the losses, the
gains, the victories. the defeats, and she will
say: ''Never mind. it is all over now see
each one of you has a crown, which was
given you at the gate you came through.
Now cast it al the feet of the Christ who
saved you and saved me and saved us all.
Thank God, we are never to part, and for all
the ages of eternity you will never again
have tO HWh q mOfhprYh