Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1919-10-03


mon this afternoon paid a beauti-
full tribute to motherhood. He
praised her pluck, her love OF
truth, her virtue, and on the other
hand denounced the ill-tempeFed,
fauIt-fnding faddist, booze-fght-
ing, discontinued, unreligious moth
er. Excerpts from his sermon fol-
low:
Now 1 have learned some lessons
! and here is one of them. A moth
er is remarkably plueky. Every
! thing may be against her, but
/ she would not give up; her heart
never fails.
The mother is always brave
when the safety of her children is
concerned, and / would stand up
more than some of you mothers do
when some little tango lizard, bull
eyed, Weazel-eyed sort of lobster
came around to take your daugh-
ter away. Tell him to go to the
devil l would drown him. Give
| him some "rough-on-rats" and but
| termilk
Mothers are always brave.
Fathers too often give up. Get
the blues, go to hitting the booze,
commit suicide. take a header from
the pier; but mother stands by the
little brood, and manicures her fin
ger nails over washboard to keep
them out of the poorhouse.
1t is the greatest work in the
world. Ii is so far-reaching that it
is above everything else. It is her
task to mold and shape the great
est human beings on earth.
If you want to find real. true
greatness do not go to the throne,
toward the White house, toward
the halls of learning; do not go to
some great factory, my friends
but go toward the cradle.
When Jesus Christ was on earth
and He wanted to give His disci-
pies a great object lesson, He call
ed all the little children, and plac-
ing them in the middle of them,
He said. Unless you become con-
verted and become as a little child.
you can in no wise enter the king
dom Of heaven"
Jesus saiG, unless you have
faith in Me, such as the little child
has faith in his parents, and be-
come converted as little children,
you cannot enter the kingdom of
heaven"
So there is something for you to
learn.
o. you want your boy to be So
Der and to pray and to love God
and hate evil. Oh! that is better
than to launch a battleship and
wreck a kingdom.
To launch a girl who will live
for Jesus and truth and that will
hold firm for God Almighty and
her virtue; what is more noble in
the universe than that?
When God sends a great man
into the world He sees to it that
he gets the right kind of a mother.
Most any kind of a stick will do
for a father; but God Almighty is
mighty particular. And the great =
est need of this or any country is
good mothers. I believe we have
more good mothers in America
than any land on earth, although
all of them are not good.
We have a lot of them who are
good for nothing. If George Wash
ington had a mother like Happy
Hooligan he would be running
around with an oyster can on his
head and saying, 1T gifts on me
noives."
There may be poetry in it, but
it is true that the hand that rocks
the cradle moves the world" And
if every cradle was rocked by a
good Christian mother, the world
would be filled with noble and
good men and women. And if ev-
cry boy had a good Christian moth
er, those dirty. rotten, sinking
God-forsaken hell-holes of damna-
ton that vomit and spew with the
damnation that makes drunkards
and brutes of men would be in
hell before this meeting is over.
Example versus Theory.
want to tell you one ounce OF
example will outweigh an ounce
OF theory and all that, and if your
mothers live as you should live.
we preachers would not have so
much to do as we have.
l think it is mighty small bust
ness being a king or a priest com
pared to being a mother or the
teacher of children These fill
places so great that l will bet there
is not an angel up in heaven who
could change places with you.
To teach a child to love the truth
and hate a lie, to love virtue and
hate vice, and to love the truth
and hate faIsehood. Oh! that is
greater than to be able to make
flying machine that can go to the
moon and back again.
In so doing you start powers in
motion that will never, never end.
You help to bring the world OF
harmony out OF a chaos.
You talk about greatness You
wait until the mountains of eter
nifty are reached and you will read
the mothers names that sit in
Gods hall of fame. There will be
many a scrub-woman on earth
whose name will be in Gods hall
of fame
Chasing the phantoms of pleas
ure which might be molding the
character of an Individual that
would be a benefactor to the world.
To plant a thought in the minds
Of a girl or boy and have it stay
there and grow, that is better than
putting in a big crop, my friend,
or it is greater than to build a
railroad or a great factory.
How do you know but the
angels watch you with as much
interest? How do you know but
that God Almighty has elected
that your boy or your girl shall
baconne His moufhniece 10 the gen