The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1896-07-25
HANNAH'S DEVOTION.
DIR. Talmage Talks interestingly OF
the Old-Fashioned Mother.
Hannah Made n Coat for Samuel Every
Year and In Many Ways showed the
wisdom of Her Lovo-Some
Practical Words

In a recent Washington sermon Rev.
T. Dewitt Talmage a suoJect
will no doubt have its practical
result in many homes in Chrlstendom'
The text was /. Samuel ii:19: More
over his mother made him a little coat,
and brought it to kim from year to
when she cams up with her hus-
band to offer the yearly sacrifice" Dr.
Talmage said:
The stories of Deborah and Abigail
are very apt to discourage a
She says within herself: III is
impossible that 1 ever achieve any
such grandeur of character, and
don't mean to try as though a child
should refuse to play the eight notes
because he cannot execute a "Wllllam
Tell" This Hannah of the text differs
from the persons 1 just named. She
was an ordinary woman, with ordinary
intellectual capacity, placed in ordl-
nary circumstances, and yet, by extra
ordinary piety, standing out before all
the ages to come, the model CHRISTIAN
mother. Hannah was the wife OF
Ellxanab. who was a person very much
like herself-unromantic and PLAIN
never having fought a battle or peen
the subject of a marvellous escape.
Neither of them would have been
called a genius. Just what you and l
might be, that was Elkanah and
Hannah. The brightest time in all
the history of that family was h
birth of Samuel. Although no star
ran along the heavens pointing down
to his birthplace, 7 think h angels
of God stopped at the coming OF SO
wonderful a prophet
As Samuel had been given in an
swer to prayer Elkanah and all ms
family, save Hannah, started up to
Shiloh to offer sacrifices of thanksgiv-
ing. The cradle where the child slept
was altar enough for Hannah's CRATE
full heart; put when the boy was old
enough she took him to Shiloh, and
took three bullocks and an ephah of
flour and a bottle of wine, and made
offering OF sacrifice unto the Lord, and
there, according to a previous vow, she
left him; for there he wss to stay all
the DAVIS of his life, n minister in
the sanctuary. Years rolled on; and
eyerv veal Hannah mad with her own
hand a garment for Samuel, and took
IL 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
would not be contented unless h was
all the time doing something for her
darling boy. Moreover his mother
made him a little coat, and brought 1t
to him from year to year, when she
came I'D with her husband to offer the
yearly sacrifice"
Hannah stands before you, then, in
the first place, as an industrious moth
err. There was no need hat h work.
Elkanah, her husband, was far from
moor. He belonged to a distinguished
family; for the Bible tells us thai he
was the son of Jeroham, the son OF
Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph.
"Who were they?" you say. 1 do no
know; but they were distinguished
ueople, no doubt, or their names would
not have been mentioned, hannah
might have seated herself in hel
family, and, with folded arms
and disheveled hair, read novels
from year to ear If there hac
been any to read; but when
see her making that garment ane
taking it over to Samuel, l know sh'
is industrious from principle as vel
as from pleasure. God would not hav'
a mother become a drudge or a slave
He would have her employ all tn
helps possible in this day in the rear
ing of her children. But Hannal
ought never to he ashamed to be foun'
making a coat for Samuel. Most moth
ers need no council in this direction
The wrinkles on their brow, the palloI
on their cheek, the thimble-mark oil
their niger attest that they are faith
full in their maternal duties. TIL
bloom and the brightness and the vi
vacity of girlhood have given place t
the grander dignity and usefulness an
industry of motherhood
But there is a heathenish idea get
ting abroad in some of h families @
Americans; there are mothers VIII
banish themselves from the home cir
ole. For three-fourths of their ms
ternal duties they prove themselves in
competent. They are ignorant c
what their children wear n wha
their children eat, and what thei
children read. They intrust to IRE
sponsible persons these young immol
tails. and allow them to be under Unfit
ences which may cripple their bodie:
or faint their purity or spoil their mar
ners, or destroy their souls. From tn
awkward cut of Samuel's coat 20
know his mother Hannah did not max
It. Out from under flaming chandt
liers, and off from imported carpets
and down the granite stairs, there
coming a great crowd of children /
this day, unframed, saucy, incomp'
tent for all the practical duties of lif,
ready to be caught in the first whirl {
crime and sensuality. Indolent an
unfaithful mothers will make indoler
and unfaithful children.
=. You cannot expect ~neatness and o
der in any house where the daughter
see nothing but sl~atternliness and VI
side-downativeness in thei parent
Let Hannah be idle and most certainl
Samuel will grow up idle. Who al
the Industrious men in all our occupi
tions and professions? Who are the
managing the merchandise of tn
world, building the walls, thinning tt
roofs, weaving the carpets, maxim
the laws, governing the nation
making the earth to quake and hea'
and roar and rattle with h trea
of gigantic enterprisesp Who al
theYP For the mOSC pdrt thcy uCSCCA
from industrious mothers, who,
the old homestead, used to spin the
own yarn, weave there own carpet
and plat their own doormats, and ia
their own chairs, and do their ow
work. The stalwart men and the II
huential women of this day, 90 out
100 of them, came from sue an indu
trious ancestry of hard knuckles an
homespuu. And who are these peopl
in society, light as froth; blown ever
whittier of temptation n fashion
the peddlers of filthy stories, the dan
ing jacks of politi cal parties, the scuI
of society, the tavern-lounglni
story-infesting, the men of 10
wink, and filthy chuckle an
brass breastpin, and rotten a
sociations? For the most part the
came from mothers idle and ~disgustini
the scandal mongers of society, goin
from house to house attending
everybody's blu siness but their owl
believing in vito hes and ghosts, an
horseshoes to keep the devil ont OF IL
churn, and by a goddess life settir
their children on the very verge