The Monitor-register., 1896-07-24
IA ACHRIST1G'N MOTHER
REV. DR.. TALMAGE DRAWS A TOUCH.
ING AND FAITHFUL PICTURE.


discourse will no doubt have its practi-
cal result In many homesteads through
out Christendom. The text was l Sam
uel ii, 10, Moreover his mother made
him little coat and brought it to him
from year to year when she came up
with her husband to offer the yearly
sacrifice" "
The stories of Deborah and Abigail
are very apt to discourage woman's
soul She says within herself, SIT is
impossible that ever achieve any such
grandeur of character, and don't mean
to try, +" as though child should refuse
play the eight notes because he cannot
execute a William Tell " This Han
nah of the text differs from the persons
1 just named. She was an ordinary wo-
man, with ordinary intellectual capac-
aty, placed in ordinary circumstances,
and yet. by extraordinary piety, stand
ing out before all the ages to come the
model Christian mother Hannah was
the wife OF Elkanah, who was person
very much like herself-unromanti and
plain, never having fought battle or
Neither of them would have been called
a genius. Just what you and / might
be that was Elkanah and Hannah. The
brightest time in all the history of that
family was the birth of Samuel AL
Though no star ran along the heavens
pointing down to his birthplace, think
the angels of God stopped at the coming
of so wonderful a prophet AS Samuel
had been given i'll answer to prayer. Ell
kanah and all his family save Hannah
started up to Shiloh to offer sacrifices
of thanksgiving. The cradle where the
child slept was altar enough for Han
nah's grateful heart, but when the boy
was old enough she took him to Shiloh
and took three bullocks and all ephah Of
flour and bottle of wine and made Of
fering of sacrifice unto the Lord, and
there, according to previous vow, she
left him. for there he was to stay all
the days of his life and minister in the
sanctuary.
Years rolled on, and every year Han
nah made with her own hand a garment
for Samuel and took it over to him.
The lad would have got along well
without that garment, for / suppose he
was we'll clad by the ministry of the
temple, but Hannah could not be con-
tented unless she was all the time doing
something for her darling boy, "More-
over, his mother made him a little coat
and brought it to him from year to
year, when she came up with her hus-
band to offer the yearly sacrifice. -
Hannahs Industry.
Hannah stands before you, then, to-
day, in the first place, as an Industrious
mother. There was no need that she
work. Elkanah, her husband, was far
guished family, for the Bible tells us
that he was the son of Jeroham, the son
of Elihu, the son of Tohu. the son of
Zuph "Who were they?" you say. do
not know, but they We're 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 disheveled
hair, read novels, from year to year, if
there had been any to read; but, when 1
see her making that garment and taking
it over to Samuel. know she is indus
trious from principle as we'll as from
pleasure. God would not have mother
become a drudge or q slave; he would
have her employ all the helps possible
in this day in the rearing of her chill
dren. But Hannah ought never to be
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 finger, attest that
they are faithful in their maternal du-
ties. The bloom and the brightness and
the vivacity Of girlhood have given
place to the grander dignity and useful
ness and industry of motherhood. But
there is a heathenish idea getting abroad
i'll some of the families of Americans; /;
there are mothers who Danish them
selves 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
to irresponsible persons these young i'm
influences which may cripple their bod
les, or taint their purity, or spoil their
manners, or destroy their souls. From
the awkward, cut of Sanuel's coat
You know his mother Hannah .did not
make it.
Out from under flaming chandeliers.
andfoff from imported carpets, and down
- = r,
great crowd of children in this day, un-
trained, saucy, incompetent for all the
practical duties of life. ready to be
caught in the first whirl of crime and
sensdality. Indolent and unfaithful
mothers will make indolent and unfaith-
full ehildren. You cannot expect neat
ness and order in any house where the
daughters see nothing but slatternliness
and upside downativeness i'll their par
ents Let Hannah be idle, and most GER
tafnly Samuel will grow up idle. Who
are the industrious men in all our occu-
pations and professions? Who are they
managing the merchandise of the world,
building the walls, thinning the roofs,
weaving the carpets, making the laws,
governing the nations, making the earth
to quake and heave and roar and rattle
with the tread of gigantic enterprises?
Who are 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 plait their own doormats
and flag their own chairs and do their
own work. The stalwart men and the
influential women of this day, 90 out Of
100 of them, came from such an illus
trious ancestry Of hard knuckles and
homespun. And who are these people
in society, light as froth, blown every
whittier of temptation and fashion-the
peddlers OF filthy stories, the dancing
jacks of political parties, the scum of
society, the tavern lounging, store in
Testing, the men of low wink and filthy
chuckle and brass breastpin and rotten
associations? For the most part they
came from mothers idle and disgusting,
the scandal mongers of society, going
from house to house attending to every.
body's business but their own, believing
in witches and ghosts and horseshoes
to keep the devil out of the churn, and
by goddess life setting their children
on the very verge of hell. The mothers
of Samuel johnson and of Alfred the
Great and of Isaac Newton and of st.
Augustine and of Richard Cecil and OF
President Edwards for the most part
We're industrious, hard working moth
ers.
Now, while | congratulate all Chris
tian 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
children walk, her children's behavior,