p. 526 | WHAT A MOTHER DID

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Nov 24, 1881

WHAT A MOTHER DID.

SOME one who has noticed the influence of wives in promoting the good or evil fortunes of their husbands said: “A man must ask his wife’s leave to be rich.” We doubt not that a similar observation of the influence of mothers upon their sons would justify the remark: “A man must ask his mother’s leave to be great.” Years ago a family of four—a father, a mother, and two sons—dwelt in a small house, situated in the roughest locality of the rocky town of Ashford, Connecticut. The family was very poor. A few acres of stony land, a dozen sheep and one cow, supported them. The sheep clothed them, and the cow gave milk, and did the work of a horse in ploughing and harrowing. Corn-bread, milk, and bean-porridge was their fare. The father being laid aside by ill-health, the burden of supporting the family rested on the mother. She did her work in the house and helped the boys do theirs on the farm. Once, in the dead of the winter, one of the boys required a new suit of clothes. There was neither money nor wool on hand. The mother sheared the half-grown fleece from the sheep, and in one week the suit was on the boy. The shorn sheep was protected from the cold by a garment made of braided straw. The family lived four miles from the “meeting-house.” Yet every Sabbath the mother and her two sons walked to church. One of these sons became pastor of the church in Franklin, Connecticut, to whom he preached sixteen years. Two generations went from that church to make the world better. The other son also became a minister, and then one of the most successful of college presidents. Hundreds of young men were moulded by him. That heroic Christian woman’s name was Deborah Nott. She was the mother of Rev. Samuel Nott, D. D., and of Eliphalet Nott, D. D., LL. D., President of Union College.

“Honor and shame from no condition rise; Act well your part—there all the honor lies.”

But then a man who has and accepts his mother’s aid is more likely to “act well” his part, than one who has it not, or having, refuses to accept it.—Messiah’s Herald.