Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1894-01-26

You struck her down The tent pin tnat
Jael drove three times into the skull OF SlseLe
was not so cruel as the stab you have nleoe
more than three times through your motners
heart. But she is waiting yet, for mothers
are slow to give up their boys-waitlng st
some window, 1t may be window on eartn
or at some window in heaven. And others
may east you of. Yoar wife may seek
divorce and have no patience with you
Your father may disinherit you ana say,
"Let him never again darken the door OF our
house" But there are two persons VINO 40
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, pevei
edged and lowered over By exquisite laln
brequin, but the window 10 made OF snail
pnnes, | would say about six or elght OF
them, in summer wreathed with training
vine and in winter pictured by the Raphae's
OF the forest, real country window. Inc
mother sits there knitting or busy with hef
needle on homely repairs, when she LOOKS up
and sees coming across the bridge OF tue
meadow brook a stranger who dismounts ID
front fthe window. He lifts and drops the
heavy knocker the farmhouse door. come
in :" is the response. He gives his name and
saws. II have come on sad errand. Iher7
is nothing the mattar with my son In the
city, is there? she asked. eyes = he sAy4.
"Your sou got into anunfortuuate encounter
with young man in liquor saloon last
night and is badly hurt The fact is he ,aA-
not get well. hate TO tell you all. am
sorry TO say he is dead" "Dead - 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 anxie"
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 Oh
heaven at which mothers sit.
"But." says some one, "are you not mis-
taken about my glorifled mother hearing OF
nv evildoings since she went away says
some one else "Are you not mistaken about
ms ylorifed 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
njno every five minutes-trains OF immortals
ascending and descending-spirits gong
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 ThermopylR, this Austen
litz, i'm which every one of us is fighting on
the RIGHT side or the wrong side. God,
whose I am. and whom / am trying TO
serve. as a result of this sermon, roll over
| on ali mothers new sense OF their RESPONSE
biIitv. 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 flied with the exhaled
tears of anxious mothers shall burst In
showers of mercy on this audience?
There is one thought that Is almost too
fender for utterance. | almost fear to start
If lest have not enough control of my emo
tion 10 conclude il. As when we were chill
dren we SO often came in from play or from
a hurt or from some childish injustice prac-
ticed upon US. and rs soon as the door was
onened we cried, "Where's motherY ana
she said. Here l am, and we buried our
weeping faces in her lap. so after a"nIeI
when we get through with the pleasures ana
hurts of this life. we WILL by the pardoning
mercy of Christ. enterthe heavenly home, ana
among the first questions, not the first, put
among the first, will be the old question that
we used 10 ask, the question that ls belne
asked in thousands of places at TINS very
1 moment-the question, where's motnerf
And if will not take long for US 10 find her
or for her to find us, for she will have been
watching Mt the window for our coming
and with the other children of our householC
Of earth we will again gather round her, ane
she will say "Well, how didyou get through
the battle of life? l have often heard IRON
others about you, but now | want TO nea,
- from vour own souls. Tell me all abou
il. nv childrenr' And then we Will tel
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
say ''Never mind, it is all over now. sec
each one OF you has a crown, which wa:
given you at the gate as you came through
Now cast it at the feet of the Christ wht
saved you and saved me and saved us al
Thank God, we are never to part, and ior al
the ages OF eternity you will never agan
have TO ask. Where mother!