Connecticut western news., 1894-01-18
MOTHERS IN ISRAEL.
REV. DR. TAlMAGE'S ELOQUENT SER
 MON AND UNIQUE TEXT.

MOfN ANU OlNlsLOE GNts
 How sissrA Was Killed by Jael-The Bad
 News Brought to His Mother-sitting at
 tho Palace window-A Eulogy Of the
 NeedlerAnxious Mothers.
 BRooKLYN, Jan. 14.-This novel md unique subject was presented by Dr. Talmage this forenoon to the usual throngs crowding the largest Protestant church in America. The congregation, led by organ and cornet, sang gospel hymn to the tune of Home, Sweet Home.'' Text, Judges v, 2S, "The mother of Sisera looked out at win dow.''
 Spiked to the ground of Jael's tent lay the dead commander in chief of the Canaanitish host, General Sisera, not far from the river Kishon, which was only dry bed of pebbles when In 1889, in Palestine. we crossed it, but the gull lies and rayines which ran into it indi- cated the possibility of great freshets like the one at the time of the text. General Sisera had gone out with 900 iron chariots, but he was defeated, and, his chariot wheels interlocked with the wheels of other chariots, he could not retreat fast enough, and so he leaped to the ground and ran till, exhausted, he went into Jael's tent for safety. She had just been churning, and when he asked for water she gave him butter milk, which in the east is considered a most refreshing drink. Very tired, and supposing he was safe, he went to sleep upon the floor, but Jael, who had re- solved upon his death, took tent pin, long and round and sharp, in one hand and hammer in her other hand, and, putting the sharp end of the tent pin to the forehead of Sisera, with her other hand she lifted the hammer and brought it down on the head of the pin with a stout stroke, when Sisera strug- gled to rise, and she struck him again, and he struggled to rise, and the third time she struck him, and the command CT in chief of the Canaanitish host lay dead.
 MEANING OF THE TEXT.
 Meanwhile in the distance Sisera's mother sits amid surroundings of wealth and pomp and scenes palatial waiting for his return Every mother expects her son to be victorious, and this moth- CT looked out at the window expecting to see him drive up in his chariot fol lowed by wagons loaded with embroid cries and also by regiments of men van quished and enslaved. see her now sitting at the window, in high expecta tion. She watches the farthest turn of the road. She looks for the flying dust of the swift hoofs. The first flash of the bit of the horses bridle she will catch.
 The ladies of her court stand round, and she tells them of what they shall have when her son comes up-chains of gold and carcanets of beauty and dresses of such wondrous fabric and splendor as the Bible only hints at, but leaves us to imagine. He ought to be here by this time, !" says his mother. "That bat tie is surely over. I hope that freshet of the river Kishon has not impeded him. hope those strange appearances we saw last night in the sky were not ominous, when the stars seemed to fight in their courses. Noi Noi He is 50 brave in battle I know he has won the day. He will soon be here." But alas for the disappointed motheri She will not see the glittering headgear of the horses at full gallop bringing her son home from victorious battle. As solitary mes- senger arriving in hot haste rides up to the window at which the mother of Sis era sits, he cries, "Your armies are de- feated, andyo son Is dead ' There is scene of horror and anguish from which we turn away.
 Now you see the full meaning of my short text, "The mother of Sisera look ed out at window" We'll, my friends, we are all out in the battle of life; it is raging now, and the most of us have mother watching and waiting for news of our victory or defeat. If she be not sitting at the window of earth, she is sitting at window of heaven, and she is going to hear all about it.
 By all the rules of war Sisera ought to have been triumphant. He had 900 iron chariots and host of many thou sands vaster than the armies of Israel. But God was on the other side, and the angry freshets of Kishon, and the hail, the lightning and the unmanageable warhorses, and the capsized chariots and the stellar panic in the sky d1scom- fited Sisera. Josephus In his history describes the scene in. the following words: "When they were come to a close fight, there came down from heav- en great storm with a vast quantity of rain and hail, and the wind blew the rain in the face of the Canaanites and SO darkened their eyes their arrows and slings were of no advantage to them, nor would the coldness of the air permit the soldiers to make use of their swords, while this storm did not 80 much in- commode the Israelites because it came on their backs. They also took such courage upon the apprehension that God was assisting them that they fell upon the very midst of their enemies and slew great number of them, so that some of them fell by the Israelites, some fell by their own horses which were put into disorder, and not few were killed by their own chariOts.
 Hence, my hearers, the bad news brought to the mother of Sisera looking out at the e,window. And our mother, whether sitting at window of earth or window of heaven, will hear the news of our victory or defeat-not ac-' cording to our talents or educational equipment or oar opportunities, but ac- coIding as to whether God Is for us or against us.
 Where's motherr" is the question most frequently asked in many house. holds. It is asked by the husband as we'll as the child coming in at nightfall, Where's mother?" It is asked by the little ones when they get hurt and come in crying with the pain, Where's mother?" It is asked by those who have seen some grand sight or heard some good news or received some beau tiful gift, Where's mother?" She sometimes feels wearied by the ques- tion, for they all ask it and keep asking it all the time. She is not only the first to hear every case of perplexity,