The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-10-26

ssAs one whom his mother comrorteth. so will comfort you
 Washington Irving has aptly been eall- ed the father of American literature, but among all the writings of the wizard of sunnyside there is not a chapter more trenchantly powerful than that on The Art of Bookmaking" In 1t the author pictures himself asleep and dreaming in the library of the British Museum. His head is pillowed upon a pile of musty tonnes. While he dreams he sees the dif- ferent authors of the present day boring over the manuscripts of the ancient li- braries and making ample notes ana yer batim copies of the same anG, Indeed, going so far as to cut entire leaves from the books of a Beaumont. a Fletcher, a Pollock and Ben Johnson. Then the dreamer sees these modern authors past ing together the verbatim excerpts and the stolen leaves into new volumes and printing their own names upon the titie pages. These literary piracies continue until at last, the cry of Thieves! Thievesg is raised. Then there is a great hubbub and scurrying among the II CTS whose faces and bodies are pictured within the quaint. old fashioned frames hanging upon the walls of the British museum are changed into flesh and blood ready to snatch the new books out of the hands of the kidnapers and to claim them as the offsprings of their own brain, some of them born centuries upon ceniu- ries ago.
 The obvious moral of the imaginative Fs.ars tine sun. No mar, woman or child, no matter how intelligent, can ever lay claim to true originality. We are all physically and mentally, as well as spiritually, re- productions of other lives. We are all combinations of other peoples thoughts and desires and actions, even as the waiis of an ancient palace are often huge mo- safes of many different stones cut from many different quarries. While many have contributed to make us what we are, the largest contribution is the maternal one How much of all that is good and pure in our nature do we owe to our mothersi How much. of all the peace and comfort we have enjoyed do we owe to their wise and loving ministry It Is this fact which we all recognize that the pro- phet uses to impress on us the. love and of God. No simile could he have used so effective as that in my text "As
 
 The words of my text have for many of us a very tender and reverent applica- ton. The greatest lessons of a saerihc- ing and a forgiving love have been learn ed by most of us from the now silent lips of our Christian mothers. Though your mother may have been dead for ten or twenty years, yet you remember as though it were yesterday how tenderiy she cared for you when you were a little 1,r- e-4,1 aof4 you through that long fit Of sickness when you were about fifteen, and every time she left the room you would call: Mother, motheri Where Is mother?' You will remember how she placed her hand upon your shoulder and looked long and earnestly into your eyes the day you left for the great city or college, as though she were trying to make up her mind whether she could trust you away from home. You also remember how, when man grown, you had that great trouble in life. and your chief desire was to get back to the old homestead and tell mother. And, alas you well remember the dark day when you carried her out to gently lay her body down into the open grave, when you laid her away to sleep among the spring flowers or when you covered her up under the soft quilt of spotless snow. the purest. gentlest,
 
 man companions was forever taken away from your side. Remembering all this love and devotion, we realize the force of the metaphor which Isaiah the prophet, uses when, seeking to show how tenderIy God loves and cares for his children, he takes the gentle, maternai influence which has done so much to develop our physical and mental and spiritual life and says. "As one whom his mother com fafh c0 xrrf11 I font
 The Divine Being shows the love of a mother in wanting to be the comforter Of all the young folks who are preparing Tor the great struggle of life. The mother wants to be the inspiring friend of her boys and girls during the long years of immaturity, when the world at large IS sneering at them and laughing at their ambitions, as though they were the mere outgrowths of a foolish and visionary brain She wants to be the friend of the young men and the young women during those school days when they have no earning capacity and when they are en- tirely dependent upon others for finan- cial support. The struggle for life even under the best conditions is a hard one, but that struggle does not commence. as some people suppose, when the young man stands with a diploma in hand on the graduating day from school or col I "early teens" It commences with the young girls failure who is trying for the prize in the school room It commences with the disappointments of the play ground It commences with those little youthful sorrows and trials which the boy and the girl can tell no one but motn- CT. Yes, the mothers comfort which is given to the young folks Is an all iIn- portant comfort. It is such a necessary comfort that many of us when we were young often could not go to sleep be- cause of weeping until we heard her foot moving across our bedroom floor and fel, her gentle hand upon our cheek and heard her soft voice saying: Never mind my boy! It will come out all right I will speak to your papa about the mat ter. and l know he will let us do what you want" God pity the man who never had the gentle influence or a comforting mother during the days of childhood or of young manhoodl God pity -sle boy who never knew the holy joy of having his tears wiped away by a mothers hand after he had been hurt upon the ball ground,
 The Boys Divine Friend.
 God, as the divine mother, today wants to be the companion and the comforting friend and savior of all the boys and the once turned and rebuked his disciples, who tried to crowd away the young peo- pie from his side. and said, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and for bid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven" so today, he bids the children
 EY'S