The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1895-12-27

mother was to us until she was gone?
Young woman, you probably will never
have a more disinterested friend than
your mother. When she says anything
is unsafe or imprudent, you had better
believe 1t is unsafe or imprudent. When
she declares 1t is something you ought
to do, think you had better do It. She
has seen more of the world than you
have. Do you think she could have any
mercenary or contemplate motive In
what she advises you? She would give
her life for you II 1t were called for. DO
you know of any one else who would do
more than that for you? Do you know
OF anyone who would do as much?
Again and again she has already en-
dangered that life during six weeks of
diphtheria or scarlet fever, and she
never once brought up the question of
whether she had better stay. breathing
day and night the contagion. The
graveyards are full Of mothers who died
taking care Of their children. Better ap-
preciate your mother before your ap-
| probation Of her will be no kindness to
her, and the post-mortem regrets will
be more and more Of an agony as the
years pass on. Big head-stones of pol
ished Aberdeen, and the best epitaphs
which the family put together could
compose, and garland Of whitest roses
from the conservatory are, often, the at
tempt to atone for the thanks we ought
to have uttered in living ears, and the
kind words that would have done more
good than all the Gala lilies ever piled
up on the silent mounds of the ceme-
teries. The world makes applauditory
ado over the work Of mothers who have
raised boys to be great men and could
turn to my book-shelves and find the
names of fifty distinguished men who
had great mothers; Cuvier's mother,
! Walter Scotts mother, St. Bernard's
| mother, Benjamin Vests mother. But
who praises mothers for what they do
| for daughters who make the homes of
| America? do not know of an instance
of such recognition. declare to you
| that l believe I am uttering the first
word that has ever been uttered in ap-
probation Of the self-denial, of the
fatigues, and good sense and prayers
which those mothers go through who
navigate a family Of girls from the
edge of the cradle to the school-house
door and from the scbcol-house door
up to the marriage altar. This is
an achievement which the eternal God
celebrates high up in the heavens,
though for it human hands so seldom
clap the faintest applause. My! My!
what a time that mother had with those
youngsters, and If she had relaxed care
and work and advice and solicitation Of
heavenly help, that next e seration
would have landed in the poor-house,
idiot asylum or penitentiary. 1t is while
she is living, but never while she is
dead that some girls call their mother
maternal ancestor" or "the old wom-
an"
Young woman! draw out, and decide
what you will be, and do, God helping.
Write it out in a plain hand, not like the
letters which Josephine received from
Napoleon in Italy, the writing SO
scrawling and scattered that 1t was
sometimes taken as a map Of the seat
of war. Put the plan on the wall of
your room, or write it in the opening OF
blank book, or put it where you will
be compelled often to see 1t. A thou
sand questions Of your coming life you
can settle now, but there is one question
you can settle independent of man,
woman, angel and devil, and that is that
you will be Gods woman now, hence
forth and forever. Clasp hands with
the Almighty. Pythagoras represented
life by the letter Y, because it early d.
vides into two ways. Look out for op-
portunities Of cheering, inspiring, res
cuing, and saving all the people you
can. Make league with the Eterni-
ties. seek your present and everlast-
ing safety. David Brewster said that
comet belonging to our system called
Lexell's comet, is lost, as it ought to
have appeared thirteen times, and has
not appeared at all. Alas! it is not only
the lost comets, but the lost stars, and
what were considered fixed stars. Some
of the most brilliant and steady souls
have disappeared. The world wonders
at the charge of the Light Brigade, i'm
mortalized by Tennyson. Only few of
the six hundred got back from the
charge under Lord Cardigan, of the
Muscovite guns, and all the havoc was
done in twenty-five minutes. The
charge beginning at ten minutes past
eleven o'clock, and closing at thirty-five
minutes past eleven, and yet nothing
left on the field but dying and dead men,
dying and dead horses. But smaller
proportion Of the men and women who
go into the battle Of life come out I'M
wounded. The slaughter has been and
will be terrific, and we all need God,
and we need him now, and we need him
all the time. And let me say there is a
new woman, as there is new man, and
that is the regenerated woman made
such by the ransacking, transforming,
upbuilding, triumphant power of the
Spirit is who so superior to all other
spirits that he has been called for |
ages the Holy Spirit. Quicker than |
wheel ever turned on it's axis:
quicker than f1eetest hoof ever