The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1894-01-19

what Sisera's mother said about the
needlework she expected her son would
bring home from the battle. God only
knows how many homes have made
shipwreck on the wardrobe. And that
mother who sits at the window watch
ing for vain-glorious triumph of mil
linery and fine colors, and domestic
pageantry, will, after while, hear as
bad news from her children out in the
battle of life, as Siseras mother heard
from the struggle at Esdraelon.
But if you still press the question:
"Where's mother?" l will tell you
where she is not, though once she was
there. Some of you started with her
likeness in your face and her principles
in your soul. But you have cast her
out. That hard, grinding, dissipated
look you never got from her. If you
had seen anyone strike her you would
have struck him down without much
care whether the blow was just suffi-
cient or fatal, but my boy, you have
struck her down-struck her innocence
from your face and struck her prin-
ciples from your soul You have 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. But there are
two persons who do not give you up
God and mother.
How many disappointed mothers
waiting at the window. Perhaps the
panes of the window are not great
glass plate, bevel-edged and lowered
over by exquisite lambrequin, but the
window is made of small panes. l
would say about six or eight of them,
| in summer wreathed with trailing vine
and in winter pictured by the Raphaels
of the frost, real country window.
The mother sits there knitting, or
busy with her needle of homely repairs,
| when she looks up, and sees coming
across the bridge of the meadow brook
| a stranger who dismountS in front OF
| the window. He lifts and drops the
heavy knocker of the farm house door.
"Come in!'' is the response. He gives his
name, and says: 81 have come on a sad
GRAND" There is nothing the matter
of my son in the city, is there?" she
asks "Yes!" he says, your son got into
| an unfortunate encounter with a young
man in a liquor saloon last night and is
| badly hurt The fact is, he cannot get
well. / hate to tell you. l am sorry to
say he is dead" "Deadr' she cries. as
she totters back "Oh, my son. my son!
NV son. Would God | had died for
thee!" That is the ending of all her
cares and anXieties and good counsels
for that boy. That is her pay for her
self-sacrifces in his behalf. That is the
bad news from the battle. So 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, ARE you not
mistaken about my glorified mother
| hearing of my evil doings since she
went away?" Says some one else:
Are you not mistaken about my glori-
| fed mother hearing of my self-sacrifice
and moral bravery and struggle to do
| right?' No! Heaven and earth are in
| constant communication. There are
trains running every five minutes
| trains of immortals ascending and de-
scending-spirits going from earth to
Heaven to live there. Spirits descend
| ing from Heaven to earth to minister
and help. They hear from us many
times every day.
There is one thought that is almost
| too tender for utterance. Ialmost fear
| to start it lest l have not enough con-
| troll of my emotions to conclude it As
when we were children we so often
came in from play or from hurt or
from some childish injustice practiced
| upon us, and as soon as the door was
opened we cried: where's mother?"
and she said: Here l am" and we
buried our weeping faces in her lap; SO
after a while when we get through
with the pleasures and hurts of this
life, we will, by the pardoning mercy of
Christ. enter the 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 ques-
ton that is being asked in thousands
of places at this very moment-the
question:: "Where's 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 l want to
hear it from your own souls Tell me
about it, my children And then we
will tell her of all our earthly expert
ences, the holidays, the marriages, the
birth-hours, the burials, the heart
breaks, the losses. the gains, the vic
tories, the defeats, and she will say:
Never mind, it is all over now. / see
each enc of you has crown which was
given you at the gate as you came |
through. Now cast it at 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 ask,
where's mother?"
Why He Was an Exception.
1T makes me tired to see the man |