74 THE MOTHER AT HOME. CHAPTER VIII. THE MOTHER AT HOME. The Morning and the Evening Star-Scripture-The Reign of Love-Responsibility -Weak Things confounding the Mighty-A Mother's Province-Her Honour -The Apollo-The Laocoon-Mingled Anguish and Joy-Godless MothersWorldly Mothers-Hyena Mothers-Ambitious Mothers-Ostrich MothersGodly Mothers-The Countess of Carberry-A Mother's Grief-Hope-A Time for Repentance--The Motherless-Examples-Alfred the Great-The Poet Gray-Dr Doddridge-Lord Bacon-Sir Isaac Newton. Ir is true to nature, although it be expressed in a figurative form, that a mother is both the morning and the evening star of life. The light of her eye is always the first to rise, and often the last to set upon man's day of trial. She wields a power more decisive far than syllogisms in argument, or courts of last appeal in authority. Nay, in cases not a few, where there has been no fear of God before the eyes of the young-where His love has been unfelt and His law outraged, a mother's affection or her tremulous tenderness has held transgressors by the heartstrings, and been the means of leading them back to virtue and to God. At the outset of this section, we are warned by the faithful and the true Witness, in many portions of His Word, that the mother, for the most part, decides the character of the son. For example, was the life of Samuel long and devout? Was he early a holy child, and honoured to work for God? That stands connected with the significant fact, that the mother of that boy had said—“ As long as he liveth, ILLUSTRATIONS FROM SCRIPTURE. 75 he shall be lent to the Lord." The surrender of that believing mother's heart was ratified in heaven, and proved a blessing to her as well as to succeeding generations. On the other hand, was Rehoboam a foolish king? Did his conduct at length rend his kingdom in twain? The Word of God explains these things by saying, "His mother's name was Naamah, an Ammonitess." That is, she was an Idolater, and he was habituated to idolatry and its maxims in youth. Rehoboam, on a throne, was hence prepared to be a scourge to his kingdom. Or did Amaziah "do that which was right in the sight of the Lord ?" Then his mother is said to have been of Jerusalem. She was trained there in the truth, and, like other Jewish mothers who had felt its power, she succeeded in planting that truth in the heart of her son. Or farther. The name of Hezekiah is closely linked with that of his mother, Abi. The same is true of Josiah, of Jehoiakin, and others, both wicked and righteous, among the kings of the Jews; and if we are to learn, not merely from what the Scriptures say, but often also from the connexion in which they say it, there are both warnings and encouragements contained in such brief allusions to a mother's ascendancy and power. The secret of her influence is this-A mother's reign is pre-eminently one of love— "Here woman reigns; the mother, daughter, wife, Strew with fresh flowers the narrow vale of life. An angel guard of loves and graces lie.' With such power for her sceptre, she can sway and mould; she can repress and encourage; she can build up or destroy 76 66 THE DIVINITY OF INFANCY." -next to Omnipotence hers is the strongest moral influence known upon earth. By her quick intuition she is "Ready to detect The latent seeds of evil: to encourage All better tastes and feelings, and to fling So bright a radiance o'er a life of virtue That children seek it as God's glorious gift." As the prophet spread himself upon the body of the dead child, applying limb to limb till life returned, a mother can take man's whole nature under her control. She thus becomes what she has been called, "The Divinity of Infancy." Her smile is its sunshine, her word its mildest law, until sin and the world have steeled the heart. She can shower around her the most genial of all influences, and from the time when she first laps her little one in Elysium by clasping him to her bosom "its first paradise"-to the moment when that child is independent of her aid, or perhaps, like Washington, directs the destinies of millions, her smile, her word, her wish is an inspiring force. A sentence of encouragement or praise is a joy for a day. It spreads light upon all faces, and renders a mother's power more and more charm-like, as surely as ceaseless accusing, rebuking, and correcting, chafes, sours, and disgusts. So intense is her power, that the mere remembrance of a praying mother's hand, laid on the head in infancy, has held back a son from guilt when passion had waxed strong. By its gentle violence on the side of what is good and true, it has prompted the words "O say, amid the wilderness of life, What bosom would have throbb'd like thine for me? The plastic power which is thus placed in a mother's hands, no doubt, involves a tremendous responsibility, but when guided by heavenly wisdom for heavenly ends, it can do every thing but make us new creatures in Christ. Science has sometimes tried to teach us that if a pebble be cast into the sea on any shore, the effects are felt, though not perceived by man, over the whole area of the ocean. Or, more wonderful still, science has tried to shew that the effects of all the sounds ever uttered by man or beast, or caused by inanimate things, are still floating in the air: its present state is just the aggregate result of all these sounds; and if these things be true, they furnish an emblem of the effects produced by a mother's power-effects which stretch into eternity, and operate there for ever, in sorrow or in joy. Every word, or every look is a power, as every drop augments the flood. True, a mother's look, a smile, or word may seem small and insignificant, yet who that reflects will acquiesce in the opinion?—Is it little to fashion an immortal spirit after a heavenly model? Is it a little thing to develop infant powers, and bring to light all that seems hidden in the soul, to train the ear by sweet sounds, the eye by lovely colours? Is it a little thing to teach the use of what is, perhaps, the most wondrous gift of God, next to existence and a Saviour, namely, language, and form what is emphatically called our mother tongue? Is it a little thing to notice the first articulate utterance, or rather to create and call it forth? Is it little, in short, to get from God an immortal being, not merely in a state of nonage, but utterly helpless, so that, if forsaken, it would hasten to die, and to stamp on it the love of the noble, the heavenly, the pure, as a Christian mother will ever seek to do? Were things seen in the light of eternity, or judged 78 THE TRUE AMBITION. by the standard of the sanctuary, these would seem engrossments enough for the most intense activity, or gratification enough for the most soaring ambition-and all these are placed by God in the hands of a mother. All that influence she may wield, if only she take the will of God to guide her, and lean upon His power to sustain. "The glow-worm, though itself unseen, Glads with the lustre of its tiny lamp Its little neighbourhood of blade and flower;" and in like manner, the humblest Christian mother may radiate joy around her. "Her face is the first object on which her child's wandering eye learns complacently to settle: her tones lull it to repose, and mingle with its dreams— with its being. Her eye discourses with its infant mind, while yet words are to it mere inarticulate sounds. Her every movement gives to it a new sensation. And thus, at the moment of its birth, its education begins, and from that moment never knows a pause.' " * Now, when reason and conscience control this ascendancy, and not mere blind affection, the blessings are unspeakable. Such a mother will enter into her little one's sports, yet repress his way wardness-will tenderly anticipate every want, or screen the opening bud, yet judiciously incline or mould the whole to favour the pure and the good. The glaring errors which one often witnesses on the part of mothers in their flattering, their pampering, their neglecting their children, lessen our wonder when we see home unhappy. But that does not diminish a mother's power, whether it be wielded for good or for ill. * Sce "Patriarchy," by Dr Harris, p. 200. There are many exquisitely beautiful allusions to a mother's power scattered throughout that volume. See examples in Abbot's "Mother at Home," Chap. v. |