The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-06-07
DIR. TALMACE'S SERMON.
BY TIE REV. FRANK DE WITT TALMAeE. D. D.

i to tell you that no daughter is developed aright unless she has had before her the example of a mother who has been faith fully trying to be true to her father as well as to her Would that every mother might have as beautiful eulogy passed upon her by her husband as Pliny the younger wrote about his beloved wife. She has great talents, she is an admira- ble economist and loves me with entire affection. To these qualities she unites taste for literature inspired by a ten derness for me When l plead. how great is the anxiety she suffers! She engages people to tell her what applause l have gained, what acclamations I have excited and what Judgment is pronounced upon my orations. She sings my verses and, untaugnt adapts them to the lute. Love is her only instructor; hence l expect with certainty that our happiness will be durable and that it will daily in- crease I wish that such a eulogy might be given to every mother. A wo- mans direct relation to her husband is almost as important in the development l of a daughters life as the mothers di- rect relation to her child
 The true mother should also be a true daughter and sister. A woman cannot | rightly meet the cares and responsibili- ties of her husbands home if she is for | getful of the freside where she spent her | childhood before which the banquet ta- ble was spread and the wedding cake cut on the night she left to preside at her own table. The young mother, bending | over the cradle of her baby can feel no genuine holy rapture if she has no grat- | itude or reverence for her gray haired | father and mother who watched over her own infancy, or love for the brothers ] and sisters who were her childhood's companions
 Strong Links of Steel.
 God develops true motherhood in many ways. The factorys machinery may | seem to the untrainod eye to be working uselessly and in ridiculous confusion. There are some wheels running from right to left, others from left to right There are sagging belts and great piston rods moving up and down, and strong steel bars 'whirling round and round and round. There are tanks where the goods are soaked and places where the raw | goods are chewed into pulp But after awhile, under the xplanation of the su- perintendent or guide the visitor to the | factory finds that every belt and every wheel and every cylinder of the machin- | cry is put there for a purpose. All the different parts of that machinery are working together for good, for the com | pletion of finished article. So God in 1 the great human factory for the creation of a consecrated motherhood has many
 
 I ing duties. They all have purpose not the least of which is the influence sulting from the right performance of l the duty a wife and mother owes to her | ehfldhood's home.
 My sister. how can you honestly ex- pect your children to respect you if you are stony hearted and refuse to honor the many wrinkles and the bedimmed sight of an aged parent? Can your moth i CT breathe forth the bitter lamentation of i the neglected old woman who said, When l was young my children used to tread upon my feet, but now. when I am old, they are treadlng upon my heart" Are you going to show the selfish spirit of the brutal people of the Pacific islands who were accustomed to behead or bury i alive their fathers and mothers as soon as they become crippled with age? Are you a heartless woman going to tear your parents from your thoughts and affec- [ tions merely because you can get no more service out of them? How can you expect your little children to love each other after you are gone when you your self have nothing to do with the broth | CTS and sisters of your childhood? Is it nothing to you when they are sick or In financial trouble? Is 1t nothing to you when they are dead? Why, some moth CTS who think they are good and true l mothers never pretend to have any affec- ton for their parents or brothers and sis ters or for their nephews and nieces. The 1 inevitable result will be that some day your own children will cease to love each other. An, my friends, blood ought to be the human heart tS the home of child hood ought to be as strong as links of | steel.
 Today the sacred memories of the past are calling many mother to her nobler and truer self A short time after her marriage a young wife told me of vis- | ion she had that was so vivid it was dif- ficult to believe that 1t was not real. As | she lay in bed In the early morning of 1 the early morning of the day when she was to leave her fathers home her thoughts were busy with her past life, in which her mother, then six months dead. occupied a prominent place. What. she thought, would that dear mother say to her if she were then living? The be- | loved form, the tender tones of her voice. 1 were we'll remembered. As she dweit on the memory it seemed to her that her mother stood beside her. She had the same dear old face, the same look of | love. Dressed in pure white, she came | and stood at the foot of the bed. 'T was | not in the least affrighted., said the young girl T felt and knew that I was awake. I raised myself upon my elbow | and said. Is that you, mother? Yes, l daughter. the mother answered. It Is I. I have come back to have a few part | ing words before you start out in your new life Then. after talking awhile the mother said: Daughter, be true to your self; be true to your new home; but, daughter also be true to your old home. Never forget or neglect you old father. 1 He Is alone now Never cease to love l your brothers and sister. You cannot be | true. my daughter. to your new home unles you are true to your old Then the strange vision slowly turned and dis appeared" So today the sacred memo ries of the past plead for noble mother l hood which will be true to the old loves and which will therefore be doubly true to the new.
 The true mother should also be true friend to the great suffering world at | large. The woman who would try to train her children merely within the four walls of home or in the family relation l to their father and grandparents and un- | clesand aunts and cousins has a too cir- cumscribed territory. The mother bird might just well try to teach her young | how to fly without their leaving the par 1 ental nest or the horseman train the colt | to draw a load without his taking it from | the stall or a child to learn how to sing | by merely studying a music scroll with | out letting her voice run the scales. l mother in teaching her children what l they ought to be has her relation with the great world at large as well as with the unit of her own home.