Iuka reporter. (Iuka, Miss.) 1888-1894, 1894-02-01
from the time when the Lord Almighty from

| from the time when the Lord Almighty from
| the heavens ordered in regard to the en-
broidered door OF the ancient tabernacle,
| Thou shalt make a hanging for the door of
/ the tent OF blue and purple and scarlet and
| fine twlned linen wrought with needlework,"
down TO the Nomanly hands which this
winter in this tabernacle are presenting
for benevolent purposes their necde-
work. But there was nothing exc
\ cept vanity and worldliness and social splash
\ in what Siseras mother said about the nee
/ dlework she expected her son would bring
/ home from the battle. And I am not sur
prised TO find that Sisera fought on the
/ wrong side wnen his mother at the window
o. my text in that awful exigency had her
chief thought on dry goods achievement and
| social display. God only knows how many
homes have made shipwreck 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
geantry will, after while. hear as bad news
/ from her children out in the battle of life as
Siseras mother heard from the struggle at
| Esdraeion.
| But if youstill press hequestion. ''where's
mother?' l will tell you where size is not,
| though once she was there. Some of you
| started with her likeness in your face and
| her principles in your SOUL But you have
| cast her out. That was an awful thing for
| you to, but you have done it. That hard,
| grinding dissipated look you never got from
her. If you had seen any one strike her you
would have struck him down without much
care whether the blow was just sufficient or
fatal but, my boy, you have struck her
| down-struck her innocence from your face
! and struck her principles from your soul.
You struck her downi The tent pin that
| Jael drove three times into the skull of Sisera
was not so cruel as the stab you have made
more than three times through yourmother's
| heart. But she is waiting yet for mothers
are slow to give up their boys-waiting 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 disinhert 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. beyel
edged and lowered over by exquisite lam
| brequin, 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 a stranger. who dismounts in
| front OF the 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 sad Grand" ''There
| is nothing the mattar with my son in the
city, IS there?" she asked. "Yesr' he says.
| your son got into an unfortunate encounter
with a young man in q liquor saloon last
night and is badly hurt. The fact is he can
not get well. hate to tell you ALL am
sorry to say he is dead" ''Dead "a 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.
But, says some one, "are you not mis-
taken 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 sacri-
| flee 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 immortals
ascending and ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 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
good news or bad news from the battle,
| this Sedan, this Thermopyl8, this Austen
| ltz, in which every one of US is fighting on
| the right side or the wrong side. o God,
| whose 1 am, and whom I am trying to
serve, as a result of this sermon, roll over
on all mothers new sense of their RESPONSE
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
LIMO 10 fhs,,,
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
| rion C conclude it. 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 as soon as Ike door was
opened we cried, ''Where's mother" and
she said, Here 1 am and we buried ol-
weeping faces in her lap, SO after awhile,
when we get through with the pleasures and
hurts of this life, We will, by the pardoning
mercy of Christ, enterthe 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, ''Wheres mother?'
And it will not take long for us TO find her
or for her to find u.s. 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 life2 L have often heard from
others about you, but now l want to hear
| it from your own souls. Tell me all about
| it, my children p 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
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 mother?'"