The Madisonian. (Richmond, Ky.) 1913-1914, 1913-06-24
DIVINITY OF WORLD
Nothing Can Be More Worthy OF
Worship Than the Mothers
of Men.

We shall sometime find out that the
real divinity of this world is the moth
er. A few know it now, but the most
prefer strange gods.
Because men always have and still
do worship, it is fair to assume that
they always will.
Every man exalts something or
some one to whom he pays homage.
Every man has some one place more
sacred than all the rest, where he
stands in awe.
No man can worship without taking
upon himself the image and likeness
of the being or thing which he adores.
Every heart that loves has the divine
right to be the first wooed and won.
The man who said that God COM
mands men to love Him did not under
stand the nature of the human heart.
The old religion and the old worship
have done about all they can for this
world. The old themes are thread
bare, they make no impression. 1t is
probable that for every man who read
the Bible this morning there were
thousands who read the newspapers.
OuTTenI GNenLS tHISTSSI.
What the editors and correspond
ents. who are on earth now say today
is of more interest to the average man
than what Paul or Habakkuk said the
day before yesterday. The current re-
| ligion is archaic 1t belongs to the
past. The time has arrived for new
divinity, and that divinity is THE
Mother" Men have worshiped vari-
Gus and useless things. There is
nothing more worthy than the moth
ers of men.
1t requires but the slightest effort
to adapt all we think or fancy of God
to what we know of the mother. Men
speak of God as being mystery,
providence and power, author and
| preserver Of life, the inspirer and help
er. We do not know that he is any
of those things, we do not know what
he is. But those terms are applicable
to the mother of men. She is the vast
and sacred mystery, the keeper of the
miracle and sanctity of life
| Lying beneath her loving heart in
| the mysterious birth sleep, fashioned
by Natures deft and unseen hand, life
awaits the moment when with sur
| prised and startled cry it comes upon
the shores of this strange world.
! If there is anything about our
thought of God that we cannot trans
fer and adopt to our thought of moth
er and motherhood then our idea of
God is poor and mean and our idea OF
motherhood is meaner still. The Di-
vine Providence is a theory-a theory
that is not warranted by the facts OF
life and the world. The maternal
providence is a fact without which
mankind would perish from the earth,
All that they claim for Christ, all and
more, may be claimed for the mother.
Sufferings of Mother.
They say he suffered for US; that
he died that we might live. But the
suffering upon the cross has been
more than matched thousands OF
times. The sufferings of the man
that was crucified was less than the
suffering of the mother who stood over
there in the darkness and heard the
agonized cry, and then. when her son
was dead, knelt at the cross and
clasped his feet and covered them
with kisses and tears.
The deeper and more tragic pain is
that which the heart feels. The moth.
ers of men have tasted death for
every man."
The old religion has much to say
about the necessity of forgiveness AS
a matter Of fact, most of the sins OF
this world consist of wrongs commit
ted against mothers and the children
of mothers. If motherhood were hon
ored as divine, If throughout the so
cial the industrial and the business
world no injustice was done, no wrong
committed against mother nor her
child, sin would disappear from the
! earth
We should not then build cathedrals
and temples for the gods, and poor
houses for women and children.
The time will come when we will
4 take our divinity from the skies and
having domesticated it, make for it a
house in the world that is now
/ Our Christian civilization will then
be succeeded by humane civiliza
ton. All that is of value in this world
all of virtue and excellence, all of per
manent good, depend upon the respect
the reverence, the alteration in which
the sons of men hold the mothers OF
] men.--Rev. John Emerson Roberts.
Essence of the Divine.