The Penn's Grove record., 1896-07-24

triumph.
Again, Hannah stauL 8 before you to-day as
A Christian mother. From her prayers and
from the way she consecrated her boy to
God l know she was good. A mother may
rave the finest culture, the most brilliant
surroundings, but she Is not at for her
duties unless she be a Christian mother.
There may be well read libraries in the
house, and exquisite music in the parlor,
snd the canvas of the best artist adjoining
he walls, and the wardrobe be crowded
with tasteful apparel, and the children be
wonderful for their attachments and make
the house ring with laughter and innocent
mirth, but there is something woefully
lacking In that house II 1t be not also
The residence Of a Christian mother.
bless God that there are not
many prayerless mothers. The weight
Of responsibility is so great that they feel the
need of a divine hand to help and a divine
voice to comfort and a divine heart to
sympathi2e. Thousands of mothers have
been led into the kingdom Of God by the
hands OF their little children. There are
hundreds OF mothers to-day who would not
nave been Christians had it not been for the
prattle OF their little ones. Standing some
lay In the nursey, they bethought them
selves: ''This child God has given me to
raise for eternity. What is my influence
upon IT? Not being a Christian myself, how
IAN L bNtt bAItfl MIN 10 D6tOnb u C1ElAIl1Q,
lord. help mel"
Every child is a bundle OF tremendous pos
abilities. And whether that child shall come
forth in life, its heart attuned to the eternal
larmonies, and after a life of usefulness on
earth, 20 to a life of Joy in heaven, or
whether across it shall jar eternal discords,
ADD after u life OF w~rongdoing on earth 1t
shall go to a home OF impenetraole darkness
and an abyss OF Unreasonable plunge-is be-
inc Hnp1.fn1 Inv puFanFv GOnO and Sabbath
lesson and evening prayer and walk and ride
Ind look and frDwn n smile. oh, how
many children in glory. crowdiDg all the
oattlements and lifting a million voiced no.
sanna, brought to God through Christian
parentage! One hundred and twenty clergy
men were together, and they were telling
their experience and their ancestry, and OF
the one hundred and twenty c~lergymen,
how many OF them, do you suppose, as
signed as the means of their CONVEX
sion the influence of a Christian mother?
One hundred out Of the hundred and
twenty. Philip Doddridge was brought
to God by the Scripture lesson on the
Dutch tile of the chimney fireplace. The
mother thinks she is only rocking a child.
but at the same time she may be rocking the
. ,stiny of empires, rocking the fate OF
nations, rocking the glorles of heaven. The
same maternal power that may lift a child
up may press a child down.. A daughter
zane to q worldly mother and said she was
anxious about her sins and she had been
praying all night. The mother said. sob,
stop praying! 1 don't believe In praying.
Get over all those religious notions, and I'll
give you q dress that will cost five hundred
dollars. and you may wear 1t next week to
that party"
The daughter took the dress, and she
moved in the gay circle, the gayest of all
the gay that night, and, sure enough, all
religious impressions were gone, and she
stopped praying. A few months after. she
came to die and in her closing moments
said, "Mother, | wish you would bring me
that dress that cost $500" The mother
thought it was a very strange request. but
she brought it to please the dying child.
'Now," said the daughter, 'mother, hang
that dress on the foot of my bed And the
dress was hung there on the foot OF the bed.
Then the dying girl got up on one elbow and
the dress and said. Mother, that dress Is the
price of my soul" Oh. what a momentous
thing it Is to be n mother!
Again, and lastly, Hannah stands before
you to-day, the rewarded mother. For all
the coats she has made for Samuel, for all
the prayers she offered for him, for tile dis
cipline she exerted over him, she got abun-
dant compensation In the piety and usesui-
ness and the popularity of her son Samuel,
and that is true in all ages. Every mother
gets full pay for all the prayers and tears in
behalf Of her children. That man useful In
commercial life, that man prominent in the
profession, that master mechanically,
every step he takes in life has an echo Of
gladness in the old heart that long ago
taught him to be Christian and heroic and
earnest. The story Of what you have done
or what you have written, Of the influence
you lave exerted, has gone back to the old
homestead-for there is some one always
ready to carry good tidings--and that story
makes the needle in the old mothers tremu-
lous hand fly quicker and the fail In the
fathers hand come down upon the barn
floor with a more vigorous thump. Parents
love to hear good news from their children.
you send them good news, always2 Look
for the young man who speaks of his
father as the governor" the Squire or
tho ''old chap" Look out for the young
woman who calls her mother her ''maternaI
or the ''old woman" 'The eye
that mocketh at his father and refuseth to
obey his mother the ravens OF the valley
shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall
eat IT," Goo grant that all these parents
may have the great satisfaction of seeing
their children grow up Christians.
But, oh, the pang of that mother who
after afife Of street gadding and gossip re.
hanging OF her children the "trip
oeries and follies of this world, sees those
children tossed out IN the sea of life like
'oam on the wave or nonentities in a world
only brawny aud stalwart character
,an stand the shoekl But blessed be the
who looks upon her children as, sons
nd daughters of the Lord Almighty Oh,
he satisfaction Of HANNAH in seeing Samuel
serving at the altar; of Mother Eunice In
,eeing her Timothy learned In the Scriptures.
Is the mothers recompense-to see
coming up useful In the world, re-
,Io;,nfn, tho Loot haulfpn fho oialr afk.i-x
he ignorant, earnest and useful In every
'phere. That throws a new light back on
he Old family Bible whenever she reads IL;
md that will be ointment to soothe the aeh-
ng limbs of decrepitude and lighr up the
hours OF life's day with the glories
If an autumnal sunset.
There she sits-the old Christian mother
'ipe for heaven. Her eyeslght Is almost
gone, but the splendOrs OF the celestial city
lindle up her vision. The gray light Of
morn has struck through the gray
oeks which are folded back over the wrin-
temples. She stoops very much now I'M
Ter the burden of care she used to carry for
Ter children. She sits at home to-day, too
BID to find her way to the house of God; but
while she sits there all the past comes back,
Ind the children that 40 years ago trooped
lround her armchair with their little griefs
md Joys aud sorrows, those children are all
zone now-some caught up into a better
calm, where they shall never die, and others
tut in the broad world, attesting the excel
ence of a Christian mothers discipline. Her
asst days are full of peace, and calmer and
iweeter will her spirit become, until the
rates of life shall lift and let the wornout /
1ilgrim into eternal sprlngtids and youth,
where the limbs never ache and the eyes
lever grow dim and the stan Of the exhaust
Vi and decrepit pilgrims shall become the
,alm of the immortal athlete.
Don't have "heart talks" with every
nan you know.
The road 10 poverty is easy to find,