Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1896-07-31

and the canvas OF the best artist auOrninS
the 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
mirtb but there Is something woefully
lacking in that house If 1t be not also
the residence Of 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 divine
voice to comfort anil divine heart 10
sympalhize 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 had it not been for the
prattle 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 it? Not being Christian myself how
can ever expect him to become Christian.
Lord help me!'
Every child Is a bundle Of tremendous pos
sibilities. And whether that child shall come
forth in life, its heart attuned to the eternal
harmonies, and after life OF usefulness on
earth. 20 10 a life of Joy in heaven, or
whether across it shall jar eternal discords,
and after life OF wrongdoing on earth it
shall 90 to home Of impenetra lie darkness
and an abyss Of immeasurabie plunge-is be-
ing decided by nursery song AMI Sabbath
lesson and evening prayer and walk and ride
and look and frown and smile. Oh. how
many children in glory. crowding all the
battlements and lifting million voiced ho-
sauna, brought to God through Christian
parentageI One hundred and twenty clergy
men were together, and they were telling
their experience and their ancestry, and oil
tho one hundred and twenty clergymeD.
how many of them, do you suppose, as
signed rs the means of their CONVEX
sion the influence of a Christian mother2
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 child.
but ut the same time she may be rocking the
destiny OF empires. rocking the late OF
nations, rocking the glories OF heaven. The
same maternal power that may lift child
up may press child down. daughter
came to worldly mother and said she was
anxious about her sins and she hal been
praying all night. The mother said "C1,
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 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, aud, sure enough, all
religious impressions were gone, and she
stopped praying. 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
looked at her mother and then pointed to
the dress and said. "Mother, that dress is the
price of my SOUL" Oh. what momentous
thing it is to be a 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 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
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 have 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 treDlu-
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 "gover1or," the esquire" or
the "old chap" Look out for the young
woman who calls her mother her maternal
ancestor, 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," 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
oeries and foIies Of this world, sees those
,hildren tossed out on the sea OF life like
foam on the wave or nonentities in world
whore only brawny aud 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 Samuel
serving at the altar; Of Mother Eunice in
seeing her Timothy learned in the Scriptures.
That is the mothers recompense-to see
children coming up useful in the world, re-
claiming the lost, healing the sick, plying
The ignorant, earnest and useful IN every
sphere. That throws a new light back on
the old family Bible whenever she reads II:
aid that will be ointment to sOothe the ach-
ing limbs OF decrepitude and light up the
closing hours Of life's day with the glorles
Of an autumnal sunset.
There she sits-the old Christian mother
ripe for heaven. Her eyesight IS almost
gone. but the splendors of the celestial city
kindle up her vision. The gray light OF
heavens morn has struck through the gray
locks which are folded back over the wrin-
killed. temples. She stoops very much now I'M
der the burden of care she used to carry for
her children. She sits at home to-day, too
oil TO find her way to the house of God; but
while she sits there all the past comes back,
and the children that 40 years ago trooped
around her armchair with their little griefs
and lows an1 sorrows, those children are all
gone nOw-some caught up into better
realm, where they shall never die, and others
out in the broad world, attesting the excel
lence Of a Christian mothers discipline. Her
last days are full OF peace, and calmer and
sweeter will her spirit become, until the
gates of life shall lift and let the wornout
pilgrim into eternal springtide and youth,
where the limbs never ache and the eyes
never grow dim aud the staff OF the exhaust
ed and decrepit pilgrims shalt become the
palm Of the immortal atal"te-