The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1906-07-11


before her own eye and mind. | can not now
FIX the date of my conversion; it was her constant
influence that led me gradually along, and grew
into religious life under her potent training and
by the power of the Holy Spirit working through
her untiring agency If all mothers were like
her, the Church in the house" would be one of
the best feeders of the church in the public sane
tuary.
We ministers must take airs. There is
a ministry that is older and deeper and more po-
tent than ours; it is that ministry that presides
over the crib, and impresses the first Gospel in
fuence upon the infant soul Before the pulpit
begins, or the Sabbath-school begins, the mother
has already begun, and has been moulding the
plastic wax of characters for veal or woe, for
heaven hell. A prodigious power this; it is
the power which sent Samuel out of the godly
home of Hannah, and wicked Ahaziah out of the
home of goddess Jezebel. Both of them walked
in the way of his mother
Far be it from me to underrate the influence of
fathers for good evil. But still the fact re-
mains that it is mainly the mother who shapes
the home influence and imparts to it its prevail
ing atmosphere; for the most important part of
moral education is atmospheric The purity or
lmpurity, the tonic the demoralizng qualities
of that atmosphere of the home, depend, for the
most part, on the mother the sovereign of the
home. There is her throne, there her sway,
there she can make or mar the destiny of the i'm
mortal soul beyond any this side of the throne
of God. Among eminent ministers none preach
powerfully than DIR. Newman Hall, of London.
He almost idolized his mother, and told that
the first words she taught him were, God
so loved that He gave His only begotten Son"
The text became the keynote of his grand minis
try, and of his world-known tractate, Come to
Jesus" Susannah Wesleys hand rings all the
Methodist church bells around the globe day.
Would that could burn it in the heart of every
mother who reads these lines, that, under God,
she is chiefly responsible for the moral and spir-
itual welfare of her household. If the mother is
a frivolous fashion worshiper, utterly prayerless
and irreligious, careless of the spiritual
welfare of her children, the whole home atmos-
phere catches the faint. The downward pull of
her home preaching is quite strong for the
upward pull of the best preaching in Gods house
on the Sabbath. On the other hand if she does
her utmost to make the religion of Jesus attrac-
tive to her family, if she is watchul of every op-
portunity to lead them Christward, if she fol-
lows up the effect of Sabbath gospel by the power
full influence of home gospel, then there is almost
a moral crtainty that God will send His convert
ing grace into that household. Let the mothers
in Israel who read this try the blessed experiment
for themselves
Carlyle found the teachings and the granite
piety of his old Scotch mother about the chief
breakwater against skepticism; his rugged rough
ness seems always to have sweetened in her pres
That eminent preacher Richard Cecil, of
London, tells that when he was a youth he tried
his utmost to be infde but his mothers beau
tfu and eloquent Christianity too much for
him. He never could answer that Sometimes
she used to talk to him, and weep as she talked
He says
81 flung out of the house with oath--but |
wept too, when got in the street. Sympathy is
the powerful engine of mother Yes there is
power i'll her love when it is reinforced by the
grace of God to reach and bring down the most
stubborn heart; it is the power that goes miles
deeper than pulpit appeals, for it links itself with
the primal instincts of our nature. If every pa
rent were thus faithful in prayer and wnsome ex-
ample, should behold what DIR. Horace Bush
nell called ''the out-populatng power Of the Chris
tian stock" The family would become the nur-
sery and training school of religion The home