Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1894-01-20

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, would say
about six or eight of them, in summer
wreathed with trailing vine and in
winter pictured by the Raphaels of the
forest. a 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 stranger,
who dismounts in front of the window.
He lifts and drops the heavy knocker of
the farmhouse door. Come in" is the
response. He gives his name and says,
II have come on sad errand. There
is nothing the matter with my son
in the city, is there?" she asks. " Yes!"
he says. Your son got into an unfor
tunate 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 ALL am sorry to
say he is dead "Dead!" she cries as
she letters back. .'Oh. my son! my
son! my son! Would God | had died
for thoel" That is the ending Of all
her calos and anxieties and good coun-
sells 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 trav-
ell to the windows of earth or the win
dows of heaven at w,AAiiss th mothers sit.
But, says some one, ARE you not
mistaken about my glorifed mother
hearing of my evildoings since she
went away Says some one else, Are
you not mistaken about my glorified
mother hearing of my self sacrifice and
moral bravery and struggle to do
right" No! Heaven and earth are in
constant communication. The1e 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. Do they hear good
news or bad news from this battle, this
Sedan, this Thermopyl@, this Auster-
litz, in which every one of us is fight
ing on the right side or the wrong side.
o God, whose | am, and whom l am
trying to serve, as a result of this SER
mon, roll over on all mothers new
sense of their responsibility, and upon
all children, whether still in the nur-
sery or out on the tremendous Esdraelon'
of middle life or old age the fact that
their victories or defeats sound clear
out, clear up to the windows of sympa-
thetic maternity. Oh, is not this the
minute when the cloud of blessing
filled with the exhaled tears of anxious
mothers shall burst in showers of mercy
on this audience2
There is one thought that Is almost
too tender for utterance. | almost fear
to start it lest have not enough con-
troll of my emotion 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; sHere | am, y and we
buried our weeping faces in her lap. 80
after awhile, 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 question that
is being asked in thousands of places
at this very moment the question,
where's mother2' And it will not
take long for us to find her or for her
to find us, for she will have been watch
ing at the window for our coming, and
with the other children of our house
hold of earth we will again gather
round her, and she will say: We'll.
how did you get through the battle of
life? have often heard from others
about you, but NOW want to hear it
from your own souls. feline all about
it, my childrenl' 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 de-
feats, and she will say: Never mind, it
is all over now. l see each one 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 fer all the ages Of eternity you will
never again have to ask, Where's
,nother?'