MOTHERHOOD.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 22, 26 January 1901, Page 2 (Supplement)

MOTHERHOOD.

"Moreover his mother made him a little coat, and brought it to him from year to year, when she came up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice. "—1 Sam. ii. 19. The stories of Deborah and Abigail are very apt to discourage a woman's soul. She says within herself, "It is impossible that I ever can achieve any such grandeur of character, and I 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 persons I just named. She was an ordinary woman, with ordinary intellectual capacity, placed in the ordinary circumstances, and yet, by extraordinary piety, standing out before all the ages to come, the model Christian mother. Hannah was the wife of Elkhanah, who was a person very much like herselfunromantie and plain, never having fought a battle or been the subject of a marvellous escape. Neither of them j would have been called a genius. Just what you and I might be, that was Elkanah and Hannah. The brightest time in all the history of that family was the birth of Samuel. Although no star ran aiong the heavens pointing down to his birth-place, I 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 all his family save Hannah, started up to Shiloh to offer sacrifices of thanksgiving. The cradle where the child slept was altar enough for Hannah's grateful heart, but when the boy was old enough she took him to Shiloh and took three bullocks, and J an ephah of Hour, and a bottle of wine, j and made offering of sacrifice unto the I .Lord, and there, according to a previous j vow, she left him: for there he was to j stay all the days of his life, and minister in the Temple. Years rolled on. and every year Hannah i made with her own hand a garment for Samuel, and took it over t.o him. The lad would have got along well without th.it garment, for I suppose he was well clad by the ministry of the Temple; but Hannah could not be contented unless she was all the time doing- something for her darling boy. Moreover, his mother made him a little coat, and brought it to him from year to year, when she came up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice." I.—Hannah stands before you, then, in the first place as an industrious mother. There was no need for her to work. Elkanah, her husband, was far from poor. He belonged to a distinguished family; for the Bible tells us that he was the son of Jeroboam, the son of Elihu, the son of John, the son of Zuph. "Who were they?" you say. I do not know; but they were distinguished people, no doubt, or their names would not have been mentioned. Hannah might have seated herself with her family,'" and, with folded arms and dishevelled hair, read novels from year to year, if there had been any to read; but when I see her making that garment and taking 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 possible 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 In this direction. The wrinkles on their brow, the pallor on their cheek, the thimble mark on their finger, attest that they are faithful in their maternal duties. The bloom and the brightness and the vivacity of girlhood have given place for the the grander dignity and usefulness and industry of motherhood. But there is a heathenish idea getting abroad in some of the families of Americans; there are - mothers who banish themselves from the ■home circle. For three-fourths of their maternal duties they prove themselves incompetent. They are ignorant of what their children wear, and what their children eat, and what their children read. They intrust to irresponsible persons these young immortals, and allow them to be under influences which may cripple their bodies, or taint their purity, or spoil their manners, or destroy their souls. From the awkward cut of Samuel 9 coat you know his mother Hannah did not make it. Out from under flaming chandeliers, and off from imported carpets, and down the granite stairs, there has come a great crowd of children in this day, untrained, saucy, incompetent for all practical duties of life, ready to be caught in the first whirl of crime and sensuality. Indolent and unfaithful mothers will make indolent and unfaithful children. You cannot expect neatness and order in any house where the daughters see nothing but slatternliness and upside-downativeness in their parents. . Let Hannah be TUle, and most certainly Samuel will grow up idle. Who are the industrious men in all our occupations and professions? Who are they managing the merchandise of the ■world building1 the walls, tinning- the roofs, weaving the carpets, making the laws, governing the nations, making the earth to quake, and heave, and roar, and rattle with the tread 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 flag their own chairs, and do their own work. The stalwarc men and the influential women of this day, ninetynine out of a hundred of them, came from such an industrious ancestry of hard knuckles and homespun. And who are these people in society, ■ light as froth, blown every whither of temptation and fashion—the peddlers of filthy stories, the dancing jacks of political parties, the scum of society, the tavern-lounging, the store-infesting, the men of low wink and filthy chuckle, and brass breast-pins, and rotten associations? For the most part they came from mothers idle and disgusting—the scandal-mongers of society, going from house to house, attending to everybody's business but their own, believing in witches, and ghosts, and horse shoes to keep the devil out of the churn, and by a godless life setting their children on the very verge of hell. The mothers of Samuel Johnson, and of Alfred the Great, and of Isaac Newton, and of St. Augustine, and of Richard Cecil, and of President Edwards, for the most part, were industrious, hard-working mothers. Now, while I congratulate all Christian mothers upon the wealth and the modern science which may afford them all kinds of help, let me say that every mother ought to be observant of her children's walk, her children's behaviour, her children's food, her children's books, her children's companionships. However much help Hannah may have, I think she ought, every year, at least, make one pfirment for Samuel. The Lord have mercy on a man who is so unfortunate n? to have had a lazy mother! A!?'"iT). Hnnnah stands before you a.3 an intelligent mother. From the way in v'-'rh she talked in this chapter, and f n tN> way she managed this boy, you U..jv/ she was intelligent. There are no

! persons in a community who need to be

so wise and well-informed us mothers. Oh, this work of culture in children for this world and the next! This child is timid, and i;. must be roused up and pushed out into activity. This child is forward, and he must be held back and Mmer] 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 enough in another. Whipping and a dark closet do not exhaust all the rounds o~" domsstic discipline. There have been children who have grown up and gone to glory without ever having had their ears boxed. (To be concluded.)