Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1902-01-04

y,
The first word a child utters is apt
to be "Mother," and the old man in
his dying dream calls, Mother, moth
err 1t matters not whether she was
brought up in the surroundings of
city and in an aff1uent home and was
dressed appropriately with reference
to the demands of modern life or
whether she wore the old time cap
and great round spectacles and apron
of her own make and knit your socks
with her own needles seated by the
broad fireplace, with great backlog
ablaze, on a winters night; it mat
ters not how many wrinkles crossed
and recrossed her face or how much
her shoulders stopped with the bur-
dens of a. long life, if you painted
Madonna hers would be the face. What
a gentle hand she had when we were
sick and what voice to soothe pain.
and was there any one who could SO
fill up room with peace and purity
and light? And what a sad day that
was when we came home and she could
greet us not, for her lips were for
ever still. Come back, mother, in
these Christmas times and take your
old place and as ten or twenty or fifty
years ago come and open the old BIZ
BILE as you used to, read and kneel in
the same place where you used to pray
and look upon us as of old when you
wished us a merry Christmas or a
happy New Year. But no! That would
not be fair to call you back. You had
troubles enough and aches enough and
bereavements enough while you were
here. Tarry by the throne, mother,
till we join you there, prayers all an
swered. and in the eternal homestead
of our God we shall again keep Christ
mas jubilee together. But speak from
your thrones, all you glorified mothers,
and say to all these, your sons and
daughters, words of love, words Of
warning, words of cheer. They need
your voice, for they have travelled far
and with many a heartbreak since
you left them, and you do well to call
from the heights of heaven to the val
leys of earth. Hail. enthroned ances-
tryl We are coming. Keep a place
right beside you at the banquet.
Slow footed years! More swiftly run
Into the scid-ef- that unsetting sun.
Homesick we are for thee,
Calm land beyond the sea-
Behold also in that first Chistmas
night that God honored the fields.
Come in, shepherd boys, to Bethlehem,
and see the child. No." they say;
I'VE are not dressed good enough to
come in Yes, you are. Come in"
Sure enough, the storms and the night
dew and the brambles have made rough
work with their apparel, but none has
a better right to come in They were
the first to hear the music of that
Christmas night. The first announce
ment of Savior's birth was made to
those men in the fields. There were
wiseacres that ght in Bethlehem and
Jerusalem snoring in deep sleep, and
there were salaried officers of govern
ment who, hearing of it afterward,
may have thought that they ought to
have had the first news of such a great
event, some one dismounting from a
swift camel at their door and knock
ing till at some sentinePs question,
"Wbo comes there?'' the great ones of
the palace might have been told of the
celestial arrival No; the shepherds
heard the first two bars of the music,
the first in the major key and the last
in the subdued minor, GLORY to God
in the highest and on earth peace,
good will to men, All, yes, the fields
were honored.
The old shepherds, with plaid and
crook, have for the most part van
ished, but we have grazing on our
United States pasture fields and prairie
about 100000 sheep. and all their
keepers ought TO follow the shepherds
of my text and all those who toll in
fields-all vine dressers, all orchard
lists, all Eusbandmen- Not only that
Christmas night, but all up and down
the worlds history, God has been hon
o-ing the fields. Nearly all the mes
siahs of reform and literature and elo-
Quence ard law and benevo1ence have
come from the fields Washington from
the fields Jefferson from the fields
The presidential martyrs, Garfield and
Lincoln and Mckinley, from the fields.
Henry Clay from the fields Daniel
Webster from the fields. Martin Lu-
ther from the fields Before this world
is right the overfiowing populations of
our crowded cities will have to take to
the fields Instead of ten merchants
in rivalry as to who shall sell that one
apple we want at least eight OF them
to go out and raise apples Instead
of ten merchants desiring to sell that
one bushel OF wheat we want at least
eight of them to go out and raise
wheat The world wants now more
hard hands. more bronzed cheeks, more
muscular arms To the fieldsi God
honored them when he woke up the
shepherds by the midnight anthem,
and he viii while the world lasts con-