“MOTHER’S DAY”

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18089, 16 May 1933, Page 12

“MOTHER’S DAY”

SERVICE IN WAIROA NAOMI’S MISERIES (Herald Correspondent.) Speaking in St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, Wairoa, on Mother's Day upon the subject of “A 'Woman With a Bitter Experience/’ the Rev. G. J. Mackay dealt with the text in Ruth I: 11, and said that changes of fortune were the common lot of both j men and women; but, because women had a deeper emotional life than men, the cup of experience often seemed to be more bitter than it was in reality, j Wo are all apt to forget that others! in the past had to drink the cup of: bitterness to tho dregs. Such was the experience of Naomi, ; a mother in Israel; and, as she drag- 1 ged her weary steps back to her native village of Bethlehem after be- j ing bruised and broken on the wheel of fate, it was with a mind disillu- 1 sioned by experience, and a soul soured by bereavement that she cried out bitterly to her old time friends: ‘Call me not Naomi, call me (Mara: for the Lord hath dealt very bitterly with me." Naomi’s bitter complaint found an echo in many hearts to-day. All had their misfortunes and setbacks; and on this Mother’s Day attention was to bo directed to the catalogue of Naomi’s miseries, and tlio cause. In the catalogue of, Naomi’s miseries there were the tragic facts that in .10 years in the . land of Moab she had been brought to poverty and widowhood, and bereaved of all her family as well; but perhaps ; worst of all she had the feeling that somehow life had been a failure in ( spite of all that had been done for \ the best.

The first 10 or 15 years of Naomi’s life in Bethlehem were years of peace and security. Then came the drought and the famine, and her life was torn up by the roots and planted in tho foreign laud of Moab. For ono who had been so well sheltered, it was a new and hard experience to have to cut the old ties, and break up tho old home, and begin life all over again in a new land; but, Naomi seemed to have put up with it in that give and take spirit which mothers had to learn so well.

No doubt as she hurried off to Moab she felt the thrill of excitement, but at the end of 10 years, if not. long , before it, she was ready to admit that under all the anticipation, excitement, and external novelty, there lay want, affliction, and disappointment. First, her husband, worn out by the drought and famine, sickened and died. Then her two sons followed one another in quick succession to the grave, and Naomi was left alone and friendless in a foreign land. Perhaps it was little wonder that she complained bitterly about her fate. Such a bitter experience was not always a mother’s lot, but it illustrated the harder side of a mother’s life; for when poverty and sickness came to the homo it was the mother who felt it most acutely. The children had to be fed and clothed and shod, and their needs were always before her eyes ; and in the long stretches of sickness which preceded tlio sweep of tho Grim Reaper’s scythe it was tho mother who wore out her life day and night in tlio sickroom, and suffered mental agony The mother’s j heroism was seen in the toil year after year, washing, cooking, mending, sewing, knitting, and sometimes .suffering in silence when things went wrong; but her most bitter experience was not the i sacrifice she had to make, but tbo fact : that sometimes there was no recognition j from the family. DUTY ON YOUNG PEOPLE

“All young people,” added Mr. j Mackay, “should see to it that their ; mother is' not left to wear out her days < in silent suffering and sacrifice without : some token of appreciation for all her love and care. The chief desire of every ! mother is not that her sacrifices should j cease, but that her children should lie : worthy of her'in the eyes of the world. I “In these days when young people had little money to buy tokens of appreciation, they could bo a tremendous help •ind inspiration to mother, by letting her feel that they had an understanding and sympathetic mind and were ready to he help; and would never add to her , burdens by their indiscretions.” The preacher then spoke of the cause ot Naomi’s miseries, and finished with a word about the Divine Providence which was behind them. The human cause was doubtless emigration from Bethlehem in the days of the drought and famine. The days when tho judges ruled were proverbial as the days of weakness and failure in Israel. Droughts and famines were sent by Providence as a punishment for spiritual declension: and when Elemelech emigrated, lie actually ran away from the discipline of life. They went out full. There was no need to go. ' They could have lived on their savings and trusted God to see them through. It was a mistake to make decisions which took one away from among the oeoplo of God. They went to an idolatrous country for materialistic reasons. Providence, however, turned it all out for the best in the end; for Ruth the Moabitess became the ancestress of Jesus the Messiah, according to the genealogy of Jesus in the Gospels. Bitter experiences often had a Divine purpose behind them. Naomi's consciousness of being under Divine discipline was doubtless correct, but it had a good purpose behind it. "We should not allow ourselves to hecome bitter because of life’s hard experiences,” concluded the preacher. “Often there is some splendid reason for difficult days. We must know the whole before we can know tho part. The weaver stands behind our life. Wc are all as clay in the hand of the potter. We to-day can see the reason for Naomi’s miseries, but they were a gireat problem to her.”