News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1896-07-23


an abyss of unreasonable plunge-is be-
ing decided by nursery song and Sab
bath 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 hosanna, brought to
God through Christian parentagel One
hundred and twenty clergymen 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 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 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
worldly mother and said she was anx-
ious about her sins and she had been
praying all night The mother said:
sob, stop prayingl 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 i'll the gay circle, the gayest Of
all the gay that night, and, sure enough,
all religious impressions We're gone, and
she stopped praying. A few months aft
er, she came to die and III 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. CHOW" said
the daughter, mother, hang that dress
on the foot Of my bed. And the dress
was hung thcre On the foot of the bed
Then the dying girl got up on one ell
bow and looked at her mother and then
pointed to the dress and said, Mother
that dress is the price of my soul" Oh,
what a momentous thing it is to be
mother!
Again, and lastly, Hannah stands be-
fore you today, the rewarded mother
For all the coats she made for Samuel,
for all the prayers she offered for him,
for the discipline she exerted over him,
she got abundant compensation in the
piety and the usefulness and the popu-
| larity Of her son Samuel, and that is
true i'll all ages. Every mother gets full
pay for all the prayers and tears in be-
half of her children. That man useful
in commercial life, that man prominent
in the profession, that master mechanic
why, every step he takes in life has
! an echo of gladness i'll 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 writ
ten, of the influence you have exerted,
has gone back to the old homestead-for
there is some enc always ready to carry
good tidings-and that story makes the
needle in the old mothers tremulOus
hand fly quicker and the fail in the
| fathers hand come down upon the barn
floor with more vigorous thump. Par
ents 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 ''gov-
ernor, " the esquire" or the ''old chap. 5"
Look out for the young woman who
calls her mother her maternal an
cestor" 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. p" God grant that all
these parents may have the great salts
faction of seeing their children grow up
Christians.
But, oh, the pang Of that mother who,
after life Of street gadding and gossip
retailing, hanging on her children the
fripperies and follies of this world, sees
those children tossed out on the sea of
life like foam on the wave or nonenti-
ties in 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 satisfac-
ton Of Hannah i'll seeing Samuel serv-
ing at the altar; Of Mother Eunice in
seeing her Timothy learned i'll the
Scriptures. That is the mothers recon-
pense-to see children coming up useful
in the world, retaining the lost, heal
ing the sick, plying the ignorant ear
nest and useful in every sphere. That
throws a new light back on the old
family Bible whenever she reads it; and
that will be ointment to soothe the ach-
ing limbs of decrepitude and light up
the closing hours of life's day with the
glories 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 wrinkled temples She
stoops very much now under the burden
of care she used to carry for her chill
dren. She sits at home today, too old tc
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 joys and sorrows,
those children are all gone now
some caught up into better realm,
where they shall never die, and others
| Al i i.