The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1900-12-01
NUMBER p.

mothers knee they would never say
their evening prayers at all. Such
| a woman makes her own home so unat-
tractive that the husband spends his
evenings at the clubhouse or the tav-
ern. The children of that house are
as thoroughly orphans as any of the
fatherless and motherless little ones
gathered in the orphanage for which
that gadabout woman is toiling so in
dustriously. By all means let Chris
tian women foster charitable institu-
tions and give them as much of their
time as they can spare, but the first
duty of that mother is the duty she
owes to her home.
| But no one can take a mothers
| place, and it is an awful mistake that
that mother makes who sacrifices
home duties for any church meeting,
however important. or any hospital.
however merciful, or any outside benefi-
cence, however glorious and grand.
Not understanding this, we mistake
when We try TO give statistics as to how
many Christians there are in our
churches and in the world. We IN
derstate the facts. We look over ou.
church audiences on the Sabbath OF
our week service and conclude that
they represent the amount of piety in
that neighborhood. Oh. no! There are
many most consecrated souls that are
not found in churches. Look into
those houses with large families Of
children and little or no hired help.
For much of the year there is some
one i'll, and a special guardian care
is requisite. How much time can that
mother give to churches and prayer
meetings when most of the family are
down with scarlet fever or have colds
that threaten now one kind of dis
ease and now another? That mother
watching at home as much pleases the
Lord as the mother who at church
takes the sacrament or in the mission
school tells the waits of the street how
they may become sons and daughters
of the Lord Almighty. That mother
at home is deciding the destiny of the
state by the way she leads that boy
into right thinking and acting and is
, deciding the welfare of some future
home by the example she is setting that
girl, and though the world does not
appreciate the unobserved work Heav-
, en- watches and rewards. On the other
hand, you have known women who
( are off at meetings humanitarian and
philanthropic, planning for the desti-
, tute and the outcast. while their own
! children went unwashed and unkempt.
= their garments needing repairs, their
= manners impudent and themselves
= general nuisance 10 the community
in which they live.
One bad habit these gadabouts, mas
culinc or feminine, are sure to get,
and that is of scandal distribution.
They hear so many deleterious things
| about others and see so much Of
: wrong behavior that they are loaded
up and loaded down with the faults of
, others, and they have their eyes full.
? and their ears full, and their hands
t full, and their mouths full of defama-
! tion. The woman who is endowed of
= gossip can so easily unite her bonnet
= strings and sit down to spend the aft
1 ernoon. A man can afford YOU a cigar
as retainer if you will patiently hear
t all he has TO say about those who can
= not pay their debts, or are about to
= fail, or are guilty of moral mishap, or
. have aroused suspicion of embezzle-
| ment. All gadabouts are peddlers,
S who unpack in your presence their
: large store of nux vomica and night
| shade. Such gadabouts have little
e prospect of Heaven. If they got there
/ they would try to create jealousy
, among the different ranks of celes-
Z. tials and make trouble among the
2 Heavenly neighbors, and start quar-
e rels seraphic, and would be on per-
t petual run. now down this street and
J now up that, now in the house of
+ many mansions. and now in the choir
: of the temple. and now on the walls.
e and now in the gates, until they would
! be chased down and pushed out into
r the pandemonium of backbiters and
b. slanderers after Jeremiah had ad-
S dressed them in the words. "Why
t gaddest thou about so much to change
+ thy way?"
D Now. what is the practical use OF
/ the present discourse? This; Where
r as, so many have ruined themselves
e and ruined others by becoming gad-
= abouts among occupations. among re-
e ligious theories, among churches,
: among neighborhoods; therefore, re-
: solved. that we will concentrate upon
e what is right thought and right be-
n havior, and waste no time in vacila.
a tions and indecisions and uncertain
t ties. running about in places where
: we have no business to be. Life is so
7 short we have no time TO play with it
: the spendthrift Find out whether
i the Bible is true and whether your
v nature is immoral, and whether Christ
d is the Divine and only Saviour, and
: whether you must have Him or be
e discounted, and whether there will
probably ever be more auspicious
moment for your becoming His ad-
r herent, and then make this 12 o'clock
at noon of November 25, 1900, the most
i illustrious minute that you will ever
l. have passed since the day of your
l. birth until the ten millionth cycle of
IS the coming eternity, because by COM
:, plete surrender of thought and will
V apd affection and life IN God throuuh