The Covington leader. (Covington, Tenn.) 18??-current, 1917-05-17

Mother o nine, u Mother talils}
IF i were damned Of body and soul,
Mother O. mine, @, Neither O. minel
I know whose prayers would make me
Mother q mine, o, Mother o minel
When the eyangelistic singer, +. A..
Mills, well known for years N Central
New York, was called to part with MS
mother, he sang with deep feeling at
her funeral:
ooh. mother, when I think Of thee,
IT'S but step to Calvary.
Thy gentle hand upon my brow
is leading me to Jesus now"
Just before he left by special train
to visit his dying mother, President
Mckinley wrote a telegram which
probably has done more for the king
dom Of God than any other single act
of his life. The message read, TEL
mother I'll be there" Rev. Charles M.
Fillmore, of indianapolis, read the
message and saw the possibilities that
Law in it, so he wrote that famous
hymn. "Tell Mother TIL Be There.
Numberless instances Of conversion
have followed the trail Of this mother
song. Strong men have heard it and
have been broken. Prodigals have
heard it and have come home. The
song has been criticized and torn to
shreds, but it does its work.
Twenty-three years ago, twenty
thousand people gathered in old Castle
Garden, New York, to hear Jennie Lind
sing. After singing some of the sub
lime compositions of the old masters,
she began to pour forth "Home, Sweet
Home. The audience could not stand
it. An uproar Of applause stopped the
music. Tears gushed from thousands
like rain. The word 'home" touched
the fiber of every soul in that immense
throng. And home means mother. A
boy was asked where his home was.
He answered, where mother isl.
That is home to us all. We never get
SO old that this is not true.
There are some mothers of the bible
/ want to call your attention to briefly
this morning. We will notice first
Hannah, the praying mother. A child
can have no greater blessing than
praying mother. The history of Han
nah is soon told. She was married
well, enjoyed the advantages of a
good home and loving and pious
husband. God pity the woman who is
married to goddess man. But there
was no child to gladden. Hannah's
heart, no little feet to patter on the
floor, no little lips to give her the
good night kiss; but, in answer to her
earnest prayer, the Lord gave her a
son whose name we know to be SAM
uel. When the child was only few
years old she took him to the house
of God and left him, giving him up
entirely to the service Of God. We
don't see her much after this, but her
son comes into view.
MY dear mothers and fathers, you
may not be able to do much for your
children in the way of a finished edu-
cation, you may not be able to leave
them a large fortune, but the greatest
wealth you can give them is a good
example, a Christian influence, God
ly heritage. My father and mother
were poor and were not able to give
their children an education; those of
us who got it had to work it out for
ourselves; they did not leave their
children any Of this worlds goods, but
best of all they left US a godly heri-
tage.
Let's notice another mother of the
bible Elizabeth, the pious mother.
She, too, had bright and happy
home. She was woman of deep pi-
ETY. and it was her lot to be married
to a man of faith and prayer. Oh!
that we might have more homes where
husband and wife are united in their
purposes to serve Christ and make
their homes religious, and if God
blesses them with children to train
them for God and the right.
! want to say to you, my friends,
that it takes something to make a
home besides money 1t takes some
thing to make happiness besides the
pleasures that money can bring. My
dear women, you are the home makers
of this land, and it takes something
besides carpets, pictures, upholstery,
books on the shelves, silver and cut
glass in the dining room and the finest
on furniture to make home. You
may have these things, and, in addi-
ton, you may have gardens, lawns,
and everything to charm the eye and
please the sense, but they can not
touch the heart, mold the life, and
bless the home like the love of sin
cere, gentle, pious wife and mother.
A house without the sincere faith,
lowly piety, and gentle influence of
cody woman is much like landscape
without the sunshine, like a dark
night with no star to break its gloom,
like a garden with no beautiful flowers
in it, like a bird with broken wing
or like harp broken or unstrung.
Every mother and wife in this land
can be pious and ought to be. We
might congratulate Elizabeth on her
son, John the Baptist, but we had bet
ter congratulate him on his mothers
One other mother in the bible claims
our attention at this time, and that is /
Eunice, Timothy's mother. Great fam
lies of England are proud Of their
noble ancestry, and in many cases
they may well be, for their names are
of all that is brave, true
and honorable. They have their pic
ture galleries, etc, and they are anx-
ious to preserve such intact. But
there is a blessing which these things
IAN mt c11rrn &c md thncn hInr 81, g