The free press., 1894-02-01

| tr,r, .be time when the Lord Almighty from
| tbe heavens ordered in regard 10 the Gu
broidered door Of the ancient taoeIliacie;
| a0rhou shalt make hanging Tor the door oi
the tent of blue and purple and scarlet ant :,
| fine twined linen wrought with needieW".AS;.
| down to the womanly hands Whlch thh
| ,gipter in this tabernacle are presenting
| for benevolent purposes thep heeuio
work: But there was nothing eI
| cept vanity aId worldliness and soclat sPitoA
in what Sisera's mother sad ABOUT Tue 80, ne
| dlework she expected her son would bring
! home from the battle. And l am not sur
nrised to find that Sisera fought OH the
wrong side when his mother at the Wlndo"
| of nv text in that awful exgency had her
chief thought on dry goods achievement anu
social display. God only knows now many
| homes have made shjpwreck on the ward
| robe. And that mother who sits at the WIN
dow watching for vainglorious triumph OF
| millinery and fine colors and domestic pa
! onantrv will, after while, hear as bad news
| from her children out in the battle Oh lie as
sisera's mother hoard from the struggle at
1 Esdraeion.
But if you still press the question. where's
rnotherY' | will tell you where she Is not,
though once she was there. Some OF you
started with her likeness in your lace ana
her principles in your soul. But you nave
cast her out That was an awful thing Tor
YOU to, but you have done it. That hard,
grinding disspated look you never got from
her If YOU had seen any one strike her you
would have struck him down without mucn
care whether the blow was just sufficient or
fatal but, my boy, you have struck her
down-struck her innocence from your iace
and struck her principles from your soul.
You struck her down The tent pin that
Jael drove three times into the skull OF Si5era
was not so cruel as the stab you nave mace
more than three times through your mothers
RI Du+ he is
are slow to give up their boys-waitlnS at
some 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 disinherit you and say,
''Iet him never again darken the door OF our
house" But there are two persons who 90
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 lam
brequin, 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 Raphaeis
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 the bridge of the
meadow brook a stranger, who dlsmounts IN
front Of the window. He hits and drops the
heavy knocker ofthe farmhouse door. Come
in r' is the response. He gives his name and
says, II have come on asad errand. " There
is nothing the mattar with my son in the
city. is there?' she asked. eyes y he says
Your son got into an unfortunate encounter
with a young man in liquor saloon last
night and is badly hurt. The fact is he can
sorry to say he is dead" 'Dead p she cries
as she totters back. "Oh, my son! my son
my son Would God had died for thee p
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 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.
out" SAYS some one, "2re you not mis-
taken about my glorided mother hearing OF
my evldoings since she went awayV Says
some one else, "Are you not mistaken about
my gloriied mother hearing of my self sacri-
Ace and moral bravery and struggle to do
right?" No! Heaven and earth are in con-
slant communication There are trains run
ming every five minutes-trains OF inmortals
ascending and descending-spirits going
from earth to heaven to live there. SPIRITS
descending from heaven to earth to min
lister and help. They hear from US
many times every day. Do they hear
this Sedan, this Thermopyla, this Auster-
litz, in which every one OF lis is fighting on
the right sido or the wrong side. God,
whose l am. and whom | am trying to
serve as a result of this sermon, roll over
on all mothers a new sense OF their responsl-
bility, and upon all children, whether still
in the nursery or out on the tremendous
EsdraeIon OF middle life or old age, the fact
that their victories or defeats sound clear
out clear up to the windows of sympathetic
maternity. On. is not this the minute when
the cloud of blessing filed with the eXhaled
tears OF anxious mothers shall burst in
showers Of mercy on this audience?
There is one thought that is almost too
tender for utterance. almost fear to start
it lest have not enough control of my emo
non - conclude it. As when we were chill
dren we 50 often cane in from play or from
a hurt or from some childish injustice prac-
ticed upon US, and as soon as lSe door was
opened we cried, ''Wheres mothef?" 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 pGrdoning
mercy of Christ, enterthe heavenly nome, and
among the first questions, not the first, but
among tho 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? l have often heard from
others about you, but now 1 want to hear
it from your own souls. Tell me all about
ii, my children l'' And then we will tell
her of al 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 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 motherY"
A Coin Recovered After Thirty Years.