The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1896-07-30


| are among children. II parents knew more
Of art and were in sympathy with all that is
beautiful. there would not be so many chill
dren coming out in tho world with bOOrish
prociivities. If parents knew more of Christ
and practiced more of His religion, there
would not be so many little feet already
starting on the wrong road, and all around
Us voices Of riot and basphemy would not
come up with such ecstasy of internal
triumph.
Again. Hannah stanGs before you to-day as
a Christian mother. From her prayers and
from the way she cOnSPcrated her boy to
God know she was good. A mother may
have the finest culture, the most brilliant
surroundings, but she is not fit for her
duties unless she be u Christian mother.
There may be we'll read libraries in the
house, and exquisite music in the parlor,
and the canvas of the best artist adjoining
the walls, and the wardrobe be crowded
with tasteful apparel, and the children be
wonderful foE their attachments and make
the house ring with laughter and innocent
mirth. but there is something woefully
lacking in that; house if it be not also
the residence of a Christian mother
l bless God that there are not
many prayerless mothers. The weight
of responsibility is so great that they feel the
need of divine hand to help and a divine
voice to comfort and Il divine heart to
sympathize. 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
have been Christians b ad it not been for the
prattie Of their little ones. Standing some
day in the nursey, they bethought Them
selves: "This child God has given me to
raise for eternity. What is my influence
upon 1t? Not being Christian myself how
can l ever expect him to become Il Christian.
Lord. help me'
Every child is bundle of tremendous pos
sibilties And whether that child shall come
forth in life, its heart attuned to the eternal
harmones, and after a life of usefulness on
earth, go to life Of Joy in heaven. or
whether across it shall jar eternal discords,
aud after life of Wrongdoing on earth it
shall go to a home Of impenetraDle darkness
and an abyss of immeasurabIe plunge-is be-
ing decided by nursery song and Sabbath
lesson and evening prayer and walk and ride
| and look and froWn and smile. Oh, how
many children in glory. crowding all the
battements and lifting a million voiced no.
sauna, brought to God through Christian
percentage! One hundred and twenty clergy
men were together, and they were telling
| their experience and their ancestry, and OF
the one hundred and twenty clergymen.
| 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
20 God by the Scripture lesson on the
Dutch tile of the chimney fireplace. The
mother thinks she is only rocking q child.
| but at the same time she may be rocking the
| destiny of empires, rocking the fate of
| nations, rocking the glories OF heaven. The
same maternal power that may lift child
| up may press a child down. A daughter
came to a worldly mother and said she was
anxious about her sins and she had been
praying all night. The mother said ooh,
stop praying! l don't believe in praying.
Get over all those religious notions, and I'll
give you dress that will cost five hundred
| dollars. and you may wear it 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
said, "Mother, l 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
looked at her mother and then pointed to
the dress and said. "Mother, that dress is the
| price of nv SOUL" Oh, what a moment GUS
thing it is to be mother.
Agein, 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 the dis
cipline she exerted over him, she got album
dant compensation in the piety and useful
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
gIadness 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 have exerted, has gone back to the old
homestead-for there is some one always
ready to carry good tidingsand 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 more vigorous thump. Parents
love to hear good news from their children.
Do you send them good news, always? Look
out for the young man who speaks of his
father as the governor" the "squire' OF
the ''old chap" Look out for the young
woman who calls her mother her "materna
ancestor or the cold woman" "The eye
that mocketh at his father and refuseth to
obey his mother the ravens of the valley
snail PICK II out, ana the young cages oiiall
eat it," God 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 life of street gaddng and gossip re
failing, hanging on her children the "trip
peries and folles of this world, sees those
children tossed out on the sea of life like
foam on the wave or nonentities in a world
) where only brawny and stalwart character
/ can stand the shock! But blessed be the
mother who looks upon her children as sons
and daughters of the Lord Almighty! Oh
the satisfaction of Hannah in seeing Samue
serving at the altar; of Mother Eunice il
seeing her Timothy learned in the Scri ptures
That is the mothers recompense-to SCI
children coming up useful in the world, re
+ claiming the lost, healing the sick, pityins
, the ignorant, earnest and useful IN ever,
sphere. That throws a new light back OF
, the old family Bible whenever she reads it
: and that will be ointment to soothe the ach
, ing limbs of decrepitude and light up tn
closing hours of life's day with tho glorie
Of an dutumnal sunset.
There she sits--the old Christian mother
ripe for heaven. Her eyesight is almos
4 gone, but the spendors of the celestial cit
. kindle up her vision. The gray light c