The times., 1897-03-15
An Eloquent Sermon Preached
by Rev. I. Dewitt Talmage.
MANS MOST FAITHFUL FRIEND
Your Wife May Seek Divorce, Your
rather Disinherit You, But There
Are Two Persons Who VIII
Never Give You Up, God and
Mother.

mother or Sisera looked out at a window :
He said n part:
Spiked TO the ground OF Jaers ten
lay the dead commander-in-chief of th,
Canaanitish host, Gen. Sisera He hat
gone out with 800 iron chariots, but he
was defeated, and his chariot wheels in
| terlocked with the wheels of other charIots
de could not retreat fast enough, and SC
! he ieaped TO the ground and ran, TILL ex-
| hauSted, he went into Jael's tent for
safety. He went to sleep upon the floor,
| but Jael who had resolved upon his
death, took tentpin long, and round, and
| sharp, and II hammer, and putting the
sharp end of the tent pin to the fore
! head of Sisera with one hand, with her
| other hand she lifted the hammer ana
brought IL down on the head of the pin
with stout stroke. When Sisera strug-
eied TO rise, she struck him again. The
third time she struck him, and the com
mander-in-chier OF the Canaanitish host
lay dead
Meanwhile, in the distance, SiSera s
mother sits amid surroundings of wealth
and ponip and scenes palatial, waiting for
bis return. The ladies Of her court stan1
around and She tells them of what they
shall have when her son coIncS up -chlins
or gold ana carcanets of beauty and
dresses OF wondTous fabric and slleaGor
But, alas FOR the disappointed mother: ste
Will not see the gllttering h eadgear of the
horscs at full gallop, bringing her son
home from victorious battle. AS solitary
messenger, arriving in hot haste, rides up
to the winGow at which the mother OF
Sisera sits, he cries: Your armies are de-
feated and your son is dead there is IA
scene OF honor and anguish from which
we turn way.
Now you see the full meaning of my
short text: The mother OF sisera locked
out at window Well. my friends, we
are all out in the battle of life 1t is
raging now, and the most OF US have a
mother watching and waiting for rcws
of our victory or defeat. If she is not
sitting at window OF earth, she is sit
ting at a window OF heaven, and she is
going TO hear all about it.
Where's mother is the question
most frequently asked in many house
holds. 1t is asked by the little ones
when they get hurt and come in crying
with the pain. II is asked by those who
have seen some grand sight or heard some
good news, or received some beautiful
gift. Where's mother?' 1t comes from
the nursery and from the evening stand
where the boys and girls are learning their
school lesson, and from the starting out
in The morning, when the tippet or ha {
or slate or book or oyershoe is lost, until
at night, all out OF breath, the youngsters
come ia and shout it until you can hear
them froTn cellar TO garret. ana from front
door to the back fence of the back yard.
Where's mu,her?' Indeed, ehild's life
is so full Of that question that if he lie
taken away one of the things that the
mother most misses and the silence that
most oppresses her is the absence or that
question. which she VIII never hear on
earth again.
III that question were put to most Of
Us this morning, we would have to say, if
we spoke trHthfGlly, like SiSera's mother.
she is at the palace window. She has
become a queen unto God forever, and
she is pulling back the rich folds of the
Kings upholstery to look down at us
l answer, She is in your present cha racter
The probability is that Your physical
features suggest her If there be seven
children in q household, at least six Of |
them look like their mother, and the |
older You get the more You VIII look like |
her. But speak DOW especially OF Your |
character. and not of Your looks. This |
is easily explained During the first ten |
years OF your life You We're almost all the |
time with her, and your father You sa |
only mornings and nights. There are no
years in any life SO important for i'm |
preston the first ten. Then and there |
is the impression made for virtue or vice,
for truth or falsehood, for bravery or
,owardice, for religion or skepticism.
"lf You still press the question, Where's
! VIII tell you where she is not,
hough once she was there. Some of you
started with her likeness in your face
and her principles in your soul. But you
rave cast her out. That hard, grinding,
iiSSipated lock you never got from her
4 you had seen anyone strike her you
would have struck him down; but, my |
10Y, you have struck her down-Struck
Ter innocence from your face and struck
ler principles from your soul You struck
Ter down The tent-pfn that Jael drove
hree times into the skull OF Sisera was
lot so cruel as the stab you have made
norethan three times through yourmother's
y
re slow to give up their boys-waiting
It some window, it may be a window on |
arth, ot at some window in heaven. All
theirs may have cast you off. Your wife
nay Seek divorce and have no more pa
ience with you. Your father may dis
lherit you and say, Let him never again
arken the door of our house, But there |
re two persons who do not give you up
rod and mother
There is one thought that is almost
90 tender for utterance. ! almost fear
o start it lest have not enough control
4 my emotions to conclude it, When we
will, by the pardoning mercy of Christ, |
nter the heavenly home, among the first |
ueStions-not the first, but among the
be the old question that we
Sed to ask, the question that is being
Sked in thousands of places at this very
question: Where's mother?' I
nd it will not take long for us TO find
er or for her to find US. for she will
ave been watching at the window for
UT coming, and with the other children
our household of earth we will again i
ather around her. And then we will tell /
er all our earthly experiences, and she .
ill say: Never mind, it is all over Ii
Ow Thank God, we will never again q
art and for all the age of eternity you IL