The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1902-01-08
mi God honored the fields. Come

dressed good enough to come in" eyes,
YOU are; come in" Sure enough, the
storms and the night dew and the bram'
bles have made rough work with their ap.
parel. but none has better right to come
in, They were the first to hear the music
of that Christmas night. The first an.
.nouncement of Saviour's birth was made
to those men in the fields. There were
wiseacres that night in Bethlehem and
were salaried officers of government who,
hearing of it afterward, may have thought
that they ought to have had the first news
of such a great event, some one dlsmount.
ing from a swift, camel at their door and
knocking till at some sentiueps question,
"Who comes there" the great ones Of the
palace might have been told of the celes'
tial arrival. No; the shepherds heard the
first two bars of the music, the first in the
major key and the last in the subdued. mi
nor, "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 vanished, but we
have grazing on our United States pasture
fields and prairie about 42,000,000 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 husbandmen. Not only that Christ.
mas night, but all up and down the worlds
history God has been honoring the fields
Nearly all the messiahs of reform and lit.
erature and eloquence and law and bsney'
olence have come from the fields. Wash.
fields. The Presidential martyrs, Garfield
and Lincoln and Mckinley, from the
fields. Daniel Webster from the fields.
Martin Luther from the fields. Before
this world is right the overfowing popu'
lations of our crowded cities will have to
take to the fields. Instead of ten mer.
chants in rivalry as to who shall sell that
one apple We want at least eight OF them
to 20 out and raise apples. Instead of ten
merchants desiring to sell that one ousnel
of wheat, we want at least eight OF them
to 20 out and raise wheat. The world
wants now more hard hands, more bronzed
God honored them when He woke up the
shepherds by the midnight anthem, and
He will. while the world lasts, continue to
honor the fields. When the shepherds
crook was that famous night stood against
the wall of the Bethlehem khan, it was a
prophecy of the time when thrasher's tiall
and farmers plow and woodman's axe
and ox's yoke and sheaf binders rake shall
surrender to the God who made the coun-
try, as man made the town.
Behold, also, that on that, Christmas
night God honored motherhood: Two an
gels on their wings might have brought an
Mary's being there at all. When the VII.
layers on the morning Of December 70
awoke. by divine arrangement and IN some
unexplained way the child Jesus. might
have been found in some comfortable era
die of the village. But no, no! Mother
hood for all time was to be consecrated,
and one of the tenderest relations was to
be the maternal relation and one of the
sweetest words, mother" In all ages
God has honored good motherhood: John
Wesley had a good mother; ST. Bernard
had a good mother; Doddridge, q good
mother; Walter Scott, a good mother;
Benjamin West, good mother. In
great audience, most of whom were Cnrls'
tians, asked that all those who had been
blessed of Christian mothers arise, and
YOU not see how important it is that all
motherhood be consecrated? Why did II,
tan, the italian artist, when he sketched
the Madonna make it an Italian face!
Why did Rubens, the German artist, IN
his Madonna make it German face!
Why did Joshua Reynolds, the English
artist, in his Madonna make it an English
face? Why did Murillo, the Spanish art
list. in his Madonna make it q Spanish
face? I never heard, but 1 think they
took their own mothers as the type OF
Mary, the mother of Christ. When you
hear some one in sermon or oTatlon speak
in the abstract of good, faithful, honese
mother, your eyes fill up with tears While
YOU saw to yourself, "That was my moth
er."
The first word a child utters is apt to
be mother" and the old man in his dy;
inc dream calls: Mother! Mother!' 1t
matters not whether she was brought up
in the surroundings of city and II athu-
ent home, and was dressed appropriately
with reference to the demands of modern
life or whether she wore the old-tlme cap
and great, round spectacles and apron OF
her own make and knit your socks with
her own needles seated by. the broad hre'
place, with great backlog ablaze, on VIM
ter mighty 1t matters not how many wrin-
kles crossed and recrossed her face OF now
much her shoulders stopped with the bur-
dens Of long life. If you painted Ma
donna, hers would be the face. What a
gentle hand she had when we were SICK,
and what a voice to soothe pain, and was
there any one who could so fill up a 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 forever still! Come back, moth
er, in these Christmas times and take
your old place, and, as ten or twenty or
fifty years ago, come and open the olu
Bible 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 happy New
Year! But, no! That would not be falr
to call you back. You had troubles enough
while you were here. Tarry by the throne,
mother, till we join you there, your pray
ers all answered. and in the eternal home
stead of our God we shall again keep
Christmas jubilee together: But speak
from your thrones. all you gloritied moth,
ers, and say to all these, your sons and
daughters, words of love, words OF warn
ing, words of cheer. They need your voice,
for they have travelled far and with many
a heartbreak since you left them, and you
do we'll to call from the heights of heaven
to the valleys of earth. Hail, enthroned
ancestry! We are coming! Keep place
right beside you at the'banquet!
"slow footed years! More swiftly run
Into the gold of that setting sun.
Homesick we are for thee,
Calm land beyond the sea-"
tC1n,,-io,,t 1901 T.