Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 July 1896 — TALMAGE’S SERMON. [ARTICLE]

TALMAGE’S SERMON.

HANNAH WAS AN OLD FASHIONED CHRLSTtAN MOTHER. V Yet Dr. Talmage Saya Her Industry. Her Intelligence and Her Christian ■'Devotion Refined Her for Heaven— A Plea for Our Mothers. An Ordinary Woman. This radical discourse will no doubt have its practicul result in mnuy homcsfoads throughout Christendom. Ihe text was 1.. Samuel ii., 13. “Moreover his mother made h’m a little coat and brought it to him from year to year when she came up With her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice.” The stories of Deborah and Abigail are wry apt to discourage ft woman’s soul. She says within herself,’“lt is impossible that I ever acnieve any such grandeur of character, and 1 don’t mean to try,” as though a child should refuse to play the eight notes because he cannot execute a ■“William Tell.” This Hannah of the text differs from the person's I just named. She ■was ’an ordinray woman, with ordinary intellectual capacity, placed in ordinary circumstances, and yet by extraordinary piety standing vut before all the ages to come tin 'mode. Christian mother. Hannah was.lhe wife of Elkanah, who was a person very much like herself —unromantic and plain, never having fought a battle or been the subject bf a marvelous escape. Neither of then, would have been called a genius. Just what you and 1 might be, that was Elkanah and Hannah. The brightest lime .n ah the history of that family was th' birth of Samuel. Although no -tar ran niong the heavens pointing down to his birthplace, 1 think the angels of God Stooped at the coming of so wonderful a prophet. As Samuel'had been given in answer to prayer. Elkanah and al! his family, save Hannah, started up to Shiloh to oft'e- sacrifices of thanksgiving. The cradle Whetc the child slept was altar enough for Hannah's grateful heart, but when the boy was old enough she took him to Shiloh amt took three bullocks and an cphuh of flour and a bottle of wine and made offering of* sacrifice unto the Lord, nod there. according to a previous vow, she left him, Cot there he' was to stay all the days of hit life and minister in the Bonctnary. Years rolled on, ami every year Hannah made with her own hand a garment for -Snnund and toos dt o|ento him. The lad would hnve go *■ along Weil- without that garment, for 1 suppose he was well clad by the ministry of the temple, but Hannah.could not b? contented unless she was all the time do ng something for her darling hoy. "Moreover his mother made him' u little coat and brought it to him from year to year when slie'came up with her husband t.o offer the yearly, sacrifice.”

Hannah's Jntnstrr. Hannah stands before you, then, to-dny, in the first place, ai an industrious moth er. There was no need that she work. Elkanah, her husband, was far from poor. He belonged to a distinguished family, for the Bible tells us that ho was the son of .Teroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tobit, the son of Zupb. “Who wore they?” you say. Ido not know, but they w ere distinguished people, no doubt, or their names would not have been mentioned. Hannah might have seated herself in her family, nnd, with folded arms and disheveled hair, read novels, from year to year, if there had been any to rend. “But when I sec libr making that garment and inking it over to Samuel, I know she is industrious from principle as well as from pleasure. God would not have a mother become a drudge or a slave; he would have her employ all the helps possibly in this day in the rearing of her children. But Hannah ought never to be ashamed to be found making a coat for Samuel. Most mothers need no counsel.iii thio direction. The wrinkles on their brow, the pallor on thhir cheek, the thimble mark on their finger, attest that they are faithful in their maternal duties. The bloom and the brightness nnd the vivac’ty of girlhood have given place to the grander dignity nnd usefulness nnd industry of motherhood. But thoFe-isut heatiuinisli.ideir getting abroad in some of the families of Americans. There are nn'hers who banish themselves from th > home circle. For threefourths of t.heir maternal duties they prove themselves incompetent. They are ignorant of u i.nt their children wear, and what their children eat, ami what their children lead. They intrust to irresponsible persons these young immortals and allow then to lie under influences which may cr’pple their bodies, or taint their purity, or spoil their manners, or destroy their souls. From the awkward cut of Samuel's coat you knowdus mother Hannah did not make it. Out from under flaming chandeliers, and off from imported carpets, and down the granite stairs there is coming a groat crowd of children in this day untrained, saucy, incomi'itent. for all the practical duties of life, ready to bo caught in the first whirl of cr me and sensuality. Indolent and unfanhfn! mothers will make indolent and unfaithful children. You cannot expect neatness and order in any house where the daughters see nothing but Mlutternjim »-s nnd upside downativeness in their parents'. Let Hannah be idle, and most certainly Samuel will grow tip idle. Who are the industrious men in all our oeciipat’ous and professions? Who’ ar" they building the walls, tinning the roofs, weaving the carpets, making the laws, governing the nations, making the earth to quake nnd heave nnd ronr nnd rattle with tin trend of gigantic enterprises? Who are they? For the most part they descended from Industrious mothers, who in the old homestead used to spin their own yarn and weave their own carpets and plait their own doormats and ting their imvii chairs and do their own work. The stalwart tnen and the influential women of this day, ill) out of 10t» of them, came from such an Illustrious ancestry of hard knuckles and homespun. And who are these peoplein society—light froth, blown every whither of temptation aud fashion—the peddlers of filthy •fortes, the dancing jacks of political parties, the scum of society, the tavern lounging, store infesting, the men of low wink and filthy chuckle and brass breastpin and rotten associations? For the most part they came from mothers idle nud disgusting, the scandal mongers of society, going from homie to bouse attending to everybody’s business but their own, believing in witches and ghosts, and horseshoes to keep the devil out of the churn, nnd by a godievs life setting their children on the very verge o*f hell. The >o|herH of Bn.nufl Johnson, nnd of Allred the Great, and of Isaac Newton, nnd of Nt. Augustine, and of Richard Cecil, and of President Edwards, for the most pnrt were industrious, hardworking mothers. Now, whi’e I congratulate all Christian mothers upon the wealth nnd the modern science which mny afford them sill kinds of help, lot me soy that every mother ought to be observant Of her children's walk, her children’s behavior, her children’s food, her children's books, her children's companionships. However much help,Hannah mny have. I think she ought every year at least make one garment for Samuel. The Ixird have metey on the man who in so unfortunate as to &•▼* had a lax/ mother!

Hann*h*a Intelligence. Again, Hannah stands before you as an intelligent mother. From the way.’ in which she talked in this, chapter and from the way she managed this boy you know she was intelligent. There are no persons in a community who- need to be so wise and veil, informed as mothers. Oh, this work of culturing children for this world and the next! This child is timid, and it‘must be roused up and pushed out into activities. This child is forward, and-he must be held back and tamed down into modesty and politeness. Rewards for one, punishments for another." That which will make George will ruin John. The rod is necessary in one case, while a frown of displeasure is more than cnoughin another. Whipping and a dark closet do not exhaust all the rounds .of domestic discipline. There have been children who have grown up nnd gone to glory without ever having had their ears boxed. Oh, how much care and intelligence are necessary in the rearing of children! But in this day, when there are so many books on this subject, no parent is excusable in being ignorant of the best mode of bringing up a child. If parents know more of dietetics, there would not be so many dyspeptic stomachs and weak, nerves and inactive livers among children. If parents knew more Of physiology, there would not be so many curved spines and cramped chests and inflamed throats and diseased lungs as there are among children. If parents knew more of art, and were in sympathy with all that is beautiful, there would pot be so many children coming out in the world with boorish proclivities. If parents knew more of Christ and practiced more of his religion, there would not be so many little feet already starting on the wrong road, and ail around us voices of riot and blasphemy would not come up with such ecslasy of infernal triumph. The eaglets in the eyrie have no advantage over the eaglets of 1,000 years ago; the kids have no superior way of climbing up the rocks than the old goats taught them hundreds of years ago; the whelps know no more now than did the whelps of ages (igo—t .icy are taught no more by the lions of the desert, but it is a sUhme that in this day, when -rnere are so many opportunities cf improving ourselves in the best manner of culturing children, tjiat so often there is no more advance-, ment in this respect than there has been among the kids and the eaglets and theWhelps.

Hannah’s Piety. Again, Hanrali stands before you today ns a Christian mother. From her praters, and f:om the way she ebnseern ted her! boyto God, 1 -know she- woa good; .A motliffTHKyltavc the tlnest culw ture, the most brilliant surroundings, but she is not fit for her duties unless she be a Christian mother. There may be well read libraries in the house, and exquisite music in the parlor, and the canvas of the best artists adorning the walls, and the wardrobe be crowded with tasteful apparel, and the children be wonderful for their attainments nnd mnke the house ring with laughter and innocent mirth, but there is something woefully lacking in that house if it be not also the residence of a Christian mother. I oless God that there are not many prnyerless mothers. The weight of responsibility is so great that they feel the need of a divine hand to help, and a divine voice to comfort, and a divine heart to sympathize. Thousands of mothers halve been led into the kingdom of God by the hands of their little children. There are hundreds of mothers to-day who would not have been Christians had it not been for the prattle of their little ones. Standing some dny in the nursery they bethought themselves: “This child God has given me to raise for eternity. What is my influence upon it? Not being a Christian myself, how can I ever expect him to become a Christian? Lord, help me!” Oh, are there anxious mothers who know’ nothing of the infinite help of religion? Then I commend to you Hannah, the pi' us mother of Samuel. Do not think it is absolutely impossible that your children come up iniquitous. Out of just such fair brows and bright eyes and soft hands and ’nnocent hearts erime gets its victims—extirpating purity from the heart. and rubbing out the smoothness from the brow' and quenching the luster of the eye, and shriveling up and poisoning and putrefying nnd scathing nnd scalding and blasting and burning with shame and woe. Every child is a bundle of tremendous possibilities, and whether that child shall come forth in life, its heart attuned to the eternal harmonies, and after a life of usefulness on earth go to a life of joy in heaven, or whether across it shall jar eternal discords, and rfter a life of wrongdoing on earth it shall go to a home of impenetrable darkness and an abyss of immeasprablo plunge, is being decided by nursery song and Sab’>nth lesson and evening prayer and walk nnd ride nnd look And frown and smile. Oh, how many children in glory, crowding nil the battlements anti lifting a million voiced hosanna—brought to God through Christian parentage! One hundred and twenty clergymen were together, and they were telling their experience and their ancestry, and of the 120 clergymen, liow many of them do you suppose assigned us the means of their conversion the influence of a Christian mother? One hundred out of the hundred and twenty! Philip Doddridge was brought to God by the Scripture lesson on the Dutch tile of the chimney fireplace. The mother thinks she is only rocking a child, but at the same time she may be rocking the destiny of empires, rocking the fate of nations, rocking the glories of heaven. The same maternal power that may lift ft child up mny press n child down. A daughter camo to a worldly mother and ■said she wits anxious about her sins and she had been praying all night. The mother said: “Oh,- stop praying! I don’t believe in praying. Get orcr all those religions notions and Igive you a dress that will cost .fo’XI, nnd you may wear it next week to that party.” The daughter took the dress, and she moved in the gay circle, the gayest of a’l the gay tlpit night, and, auro enough, r.ll religious impressions wore gone anti she stop(>ed praying. A few months after she enme to die, nnd tn her closing moments said. “Mother, I wish you would bring me that dress that cost ?500.” The mother thought it was a very strange request, but.she brought it to please the dying child. “Now,” said the daughter, ’ mother, hang that dress on the foot of my bed.” And the dress was hung the.e on the foot of the bed. Then the dying girl got up on one elbow and looked at her mother and pointed to the dress and said, “Mother, that dress is the price of my soul!’ Oh, what a momentous thing it is to be a mother! Again and lastly, Hannah stands before you to-day the rewarded mdthcr. For all the coats she made for Samuel, for all the prayers she offered for him, for the discipline she exerted oVcr hltn, she got abundant compensation in the piety and the usefulness and the popularity of her son Samuel, nnd that is true in all ages. Every mother gets full pay for nil the prayers and tears in behalf of her children. That man useful in commercial life, that man prominent In the profession, that master mechanic—why, every step ho takes in life lute an echo of gladness in the old heart that long ngo taught him to lie Christian and heroic nnd earnest. The story of what you have done or what you have written, of the influence you have exerted, hns gone back to the qld homestead, for there is sonic one always ready to curry good tidings, nnd thnt story makes the needle in the old mother's trem-

ulous hand fly xjuicker and thejlail in the. father's hand >.otne down upma the barn floor with, a more vigorous thump. Parents love to hear good news from their children. Do yc.u send them good news always? Look out for the young man who speaks of his 'ather ns the “governot?” the “squire” or the “bld chap.” Look out for the young woman who calls her mother her “maternal ancestor” or the “oid woman.” “The eye that mocketh at his father ind refusetb to obey his mother the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it." God grant that all these parents may have the great satisfaction of seeing their children grow up Christians.. But, oh, the pang of that mothey who, after a life of street gadding and gossip retailing, hanging cn her children the fripperies and follies of this world, sees thosechildren tossed out on the sea of life like foam on the wave of nonentities in Ja world where only brawny and’stalwart can stand the shock! But blessed be the moi her who looks upon her children as sons and daughters of’the Ivord Alniighty. Oh, the satisfaction of Hannah in see.ng Samuel serving at the altar, of Mother Eunice in seeing her Timothy learned in the Scriptures! That is the mother’s recompense—to see children coming up useful in the .world, reclaiming the lost, healing the sick, pitying, the ignorant, earnest and useful in every sphere. That throws a new light back on the old family Bible whenever she reads it, and that will be ointment to soothe the aching limbs of decrepitude rtnd light up the closing hours of life's day. with the gloriea es an autumnal sunset! There she sits, the old Christian mother, ripe for heaven Her eyesight is almost gone, but the splendors of the celestial city kindle up her vision. The gray light of heaven’s morn has struck through the gray locks wh’eh are folded back over the wrinkled temples. She stoops very much now under th<? burden of care she used to carry lor her children. She sits at home to-day too old to find her way to the house of God, but while she sits there nil the past comes back, and the children that forty yeais ago trooped around her armchair with their little griefs and joys and sorrows, those children are all gone now —some caught up into a better realm, whbre they shall never die, and others out in the broad world attesting the excellency of a Christian mother’s discipline. Her last days are full of peace, and calmer and sweeter will her spirit become until the gates of life shall lift and let the worn out pilgrim into eternal springtide and youth, where the liisbs never ache, and the eyes .never grow dim, and the staff of tlje exhausted nnd decrepit pilgrim shMl become the palm of tho I athlete.