Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 February 1877 — The Long-Buried Mother. [ARTICLE]

The Long-Buried Mother.

That life must be a strange and sad one indeed that can obliterate the recollections of a childhood passed under the influences of home piety. As a rule, early-good impressions mast bear fruit —though the harvest be so long deferred that Time seems to have forgotten it. A poor but praying widow died, leaving an only child. Alone and destitute, the orphan found no smiles to welcome him, and few hands to aid him, in the world where henceforth he must make his way by his own exertions. But a sacred agency had appealed on high for him —the forethought of a devout mother’s love. Dying, she had committed him to God’s keeping; and God opeired a path for the lad, and gave him opportunities and friends. His health was good, and he worked hard and well, and found favor with all who employed him, so that he never knew actual want. By the time he came of age he was in successful business. Years of prosperity followed, and he became a rich man. fje was not a Christian; but he had not forgotten his Christian mother. His thoughts went back to her loving life, and lingered round her humble grave. He was not satisfied that her remains should rest so far away, and he determined to remove them to the handsrtme cemeteiy where he had bought a lot for his family. He employed men, and went himself to superintend the disinterment. The coffin had crumbled. Dust had almost returned to dust. The sad duty with which the man had charged himself filled him with solemnity; and when it was over he could not shake off the thousand memories it awakened. “My good mother! How truly she loved me; how faithfully she toiled for me! She was anxious for my earthly future, but her heart’s great wish was that I might live not for this world, but for heaven. The first part of her prayer is answered. Why is not the last?” The thought melted him. He sought his mother’s God, whom he had so long neglected, and in penitence, consecration ana love found acceptance with Him. A voice out of silence had called the rich man to a new life and nobler duty. It was the voice of a mother twenty years buried in the ground.— Youth's * Companion. ‘