Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1896-07-18

she left him. for there he was Ia stay all
the days Of his life and minister in the
sanctuary
Years rolled on, and every year Hannah
made with her own hand "a garment for
Samuel and took II over To him The lad
would have got along well without that
garment, for / suppose he was well clad by
the ministry Of the temple, but Hannah
could not be contcntcd unless she was all
the time doing something for her darling
boy. Moreover his mother made him a
little coat and brought il Ia him from year
TO year when she came up with her hus-
band To offer the yearly sacrifice.
Hannah's Industry.
Hannah stands before YOU, then, today
in the first place, as an industrious moth
er. There was no need that she work
Elkanah, her husband, was far from poor
He belonged To a distinguished family, for
the Bible tells us that he was the son of
Jcroham, the son of Elihu, the son Of
Tohu, the son Of Zuph who were they"
you say. do not know, hut they were
distinguished people, no doubt, or their
names would not have been mentioned.
Hannah might have seated herself in her
family, and, with folded arms and di-
sheyeled hair, read novels, from year to
year, II there had been any 10 read. But
when see her making that garment and
taking 1t over TO samuel. know she is in
dustrious from principle as well rs from
pleasure. God would not have mother
become n drudge or slave: he would have
her employ all the helps possible In this
day In the rearing of her children. But
Hannah ought never to he ashamed To be
found making coat for Samuel Most
mothers need no counsel in this direction.
The wrinkles ON their brow, the pallor on
their cheek, the thimble mark on their fin
ger, attest that they are faithful in their
maternal duties The bloom and the
brightness and the yivacity of girlhood
have given place to the grander dignity
and usefulness and industry OF mother
hood. But there Is a heathcnish idea get
ting abroad in some of the families Of
Americans. There are mothers who banish
themselves from the home circle For
three-fourths Of their maternal duties they
prove themselves incompetent. They are
ignorant Of what their children wear. and
what their children eat, and what their
children read. They intrust tn irrcsponsi-
bic persons these young immortals and al
low them to I've under influences which
may cripple their bodies, or faint their
purity, or spoil their manners, or destroy
their souls From the awkward cut Of
Samucl's coat you know his mother Han
nah did not make it.
Out from under flaming chandeliers,
and of from imported carpets, and down
the granite stairs there is coming "a great
crowd OF children in this day unframed,
saucy, incompetent for all the practical
duties of life, ready To he caught in the
first whirl of crime and scnsuality 1ndo-
lent and unfaithful mothers will make in
dolcnt and unfaithful children You can
not expect ncltncss and order in any house
where the daughters soc nothing but Stat
ternliness and upside downativencss in
their parents. Let Hannah bc idle, and
most certainly Samuel will grow mp idle
Who are the industrious men In all our oc-
equations and Professions Who are they
managing the merchandise Of the world,
building the walls Timing the roofs, weav-
ing the carpets, making the laws govern
ing the nations, making the earth to quake
and hcave and roar and rattle with the
tread Of gigantic enterprises? Who arc
they? For the most part they descended
from industrious mothers, who in the old
homestead used to spin their own yarn
and weave their own carpets and plat
their own doormats and flag their own
chairs and do their own work. The stall
wart men and the influential women Of
this day, % out Of 100 of them, came from
such an illustrious ancestry Of hard knuc
klcs and homcspun. And who are these
people in socicty-light as froth, blown ev-
cry whittier of temptation and fashion
the peddlers Of filthy stories, the dancing
jacks Of political parties, the scum of
society, the tavern luunging, store infcst-
ing, the men of low wink and filthy chuc-
klc and brass brcasipin and rotten asso-
ciationsg For the most part they came
from mothers idle and disgusting, the
scandal mongcrs of society, going from
house Ia house attending 10 everybody 5
business but their own. believing in
witches and ghosts, and horscshocs to keep
the devil out Of the churn, and by god
less life setting their children on the very
verge OF hell. The mothers Of Samuel
johnson, and 81 Alfred the Great, and Of
Isaac Newton. and uf 1T. Augustine, and
Of Richard Cecil, and of President Ed
wards, for the most part were industrious,
Woodworking mothers Now, while con
graduate all Christian mothers upon the
wealth and the modern science which may
afford them all kinds of help, let me say
that every mother ought TO be observant
Of her childr.n's walk her childrcn's he
havior, her children's food, her children s
books, her childrcn's companionships.
However much help Hannah may have.
think she ought every year at least make
one garment for Samuel The Lord have
mercy on the man who is So unfortunate
rs TO have had lazy mother.
Hannah's Intelligence.
Again Hannah stands before Won today