Milford chronicle. [volume] (Milford, Del.) 1878-1974, 1896-07-24

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 distinguished family, for
the Bible tells us that he was the son of
JerOham the son of Elihu, the son of
Tohu, the son Of Huph. "Who were they?"
you say. l do not know, but they were
distinguished people, no doubt or their
names would not have been mentioned.
Hannah might have seated herself i'll her
family, and, with folded arms and di=
shcvelcd hair, read novels, from year to
year, il there had been any to read. But
when I see her making that garment and
taking it over to Samuel, know she is in
dustriOus from principle as well rs from
pleasure. God would not have mother
become a drudge or a slave; he would have
her employ all the helps possible in this
day in the rearing of her children. But
Hannah ought never to be ashamed to be
found making o coat for Samuel. Most
mothers need 10 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 Viyacity of girlhood
and usefulness and industry of mother
hood. But there is a heathenish idea get
ting abroad in some of the families Of
Americans. There are mothers who Danish
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 to irrespOnsi-
bic persons these young immortals and al
low them to be under influences which
may cripple their bodies, or faint theiF
purity, or spoil their manners, or destroy
their souls. From the awkward cut Of
Samuel's coat you know his mother Han
nah did not make it.
Out from under flaming chandeliers
and off from imported carpets and down
the granite stairs there is coming II great
crowd of children in this day unframed, |
saucy, incompetent for all tho practical
duties of life, ready to be caught in the |
first whirl of crime and sensUality. IndO |
lent and unfaithful mothers will make in
dolent and unfalthful children. You can
not expect neatness and order in any house |
where the daughters see nothing but slat-
ternliness and upside downativeness in
their parents. Let Hannah be idle, and |
most certainly Samuel will grow up idle. |
Who are the industrious men in all our &C.
equations and professions Who are they |
managing the merchandise of the world, /
building the walls timing the roofs, weav-
jng the carpets, making the laws, govern
Ing the nations, making the earth to quake
and hoave and roar and rattle with the
tread of gigantic enterprises who are
they? For the most part they descended
4r,4 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 stall
wart men and the influential women of
this day, 30 ont of 100 of Them came from
such an illustrious ancestry of hard knuc-
kles and hOmespun. And who are these
people in sOciety-light as frath, blown ev-
cry whittier of temptation and fashion
the peddlers Of filthy stories, tho dancing
Jacks of political parties, the scum of
society, the tavern lOunging, store infest-
ing, Ito men of low wink and filthy chpc-
kle and brass breastpin and rotten ass0-
ciationsg For the most part they came
from mothers idle and disgusting, the
scandal mongers of society, going from
house TO house attending to everybody's
business but their own, believing in
witches and ghosts and horseshoes to keep
the devil out of the churn, and by a god
less 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 Ed
wards, for the most part were industrious,
Woodworking mothers Now, while / con
glatulatc 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 observani
Of her children's walk, her children's be
havior her children's food her children's
books, her children's comprehensive
However much help Hannah may haye, ]
think she ought every year ut least make
one garmcnt for Samuel The Lord lave
mercy on the man who is so unfortunate
as TO have had a lazy mothcri
Hannah's Intelligence.
Again, Hannah stands before you today
as an intelli gent mother From the way in
which she talked in this chapter and
from the way she managed this boy you
know she was intelligent There are nc
norSonc IN a couanr4uffv who need tn he Sl