The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1894-01-31

You struck her down! The tent pin that
Jael drove three times into the skull OF Slsera
was not so cruel rs 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-waltlng at
some window, 1t may be window on eartn
or at some window In heaven. And others
NAV cast you off. Your wife may seek
divorce and have no patience with you
Your father may disinherit you and say,
"Let him never again darken the door OF our
house." But there are two persons VINO 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 IAN,
brequin, but the window IS made OF smali
panes, would say about six or eignt OF
them, in summer wreathed with trailing
vine and in winter pictured by the Raphaels
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 stranger, who d1smounts IN
front ofthe window. He lifts and drops the
heavy knocker ofthe farmhouse door. "Come
in ~ is the response. He gives his name and
says, 81 have come on q sad er-and." There
Is nothing the mattar with my son IN the
city, is there?" she asked. eyes," 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 can
not get well. I hate to tell you ell. am
sorry to say he Is dead" "Dead p she cries
as she totters back. sob, my son! my son!
my son! Would God had died for thee ]"
That is the ending OF all her cares and ankle
ties and good counsels for that boy Thnt
is her nav for her self sacrifices in his behalf.
That Is the bad news from the battle. So the
tidines 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 mis-
taken about my glori1ed mother hearing OF
nv evildoings since she went away|" Says
some one else, care you not mistaken about
my ylorifed mother hearing OF my self sacri-
flee and moral bravery and struggle to do
rightY No! Heaven and earth are In con-
ming every five minutes-trains OF 1mmortals
ascending and descending-spirits going
from earth to heaven to live there. SPIRITS
descending from heaven to earth to min
ister and help. They hear from us
many times every day. Do they hear
good news or bad news from the battle,
this Sedan, this Thermopyle, this Auster-
litz, in which every one OF US is fighting on
the right side or the wrong side. 0 God,
whose I am, and whom am trying to
serve, as result Of this sermon, roll over
on ali mothers new sense of their responsi-
bility, and upon all children, whether still
in the nursery 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 sympathetic
maternity. Oh, 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 iear 10 start
it lest have not enough control Of my emo
tion to conclude it. As when we were chill
dren we so often came in from play or from
a hrrt or from some childish injustice prac-
ticed upon US, and as soon as the door was
opened we cried, ''Where's mother?" and
she said, "Here T am,'' 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, ''WhOres mothers"
And it will not take long for lis 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? I have often heard from
others about you, but now I want to hear
it from your own souls. Tell me all about
it, my childrenr' 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
Jay "Never mind, it Is all over now. see
each one of you has q 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 oil.
Thank God, we are never to part, and for all
the ages OF eternity you will never again
have to ask, Where's motherY"