p. 12 | A Sermon for Mothers by Charles E. Jefferson

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 2, 1916

A Sermon for Mothers

By Charles E. Jefferson

FIERCE is the light which beats upon the modern home. The gaze of the world is fixed upon it. It has been discovered by the scientific students of social problems that nearly all our woes flow from defective homes. Our thorns and thistles are rooted in the family. Our tragedies are largely created by fathers and mothers unequal to their task. It is because family life is what it is that social life is what it is. It is because parents are what they are that children in thousands of instances fall far short of the world's expectations. Fathers are notoriously delinquent, and mothers are by no means guiltless.

Housekeeping is a fine and difficult art, and demands a large and trained intelligence. Thousands of mothers are distressingly ignorant. They do not know the elementary laws of health. They know nothing whatever of hygiene. No wonder they are semi-invalids and bequeath their infirmities to their children. They do not know how to cook, or sew, or keep house. They can do all these things bunglingly, but not superbly. Their ignorance of things psychological matches their ignorance of things physical. They understand neither the body nor the mind of a growing child. They do not know how to feed children, or how to manage them, or how to train them. Such ignorance is unpardonable. We live in a day of schools and books. Information on every department of a woman's work is abundant and within easy reach. If a home maker remains ignorant, it is due to intellectual sloth, or lack of ambition to fit herself for the work to which she is called.

Knowledge and Love

But knowledge is not enough. A mother may understand all mysteries and all knowledge, but if she has not love, she is nothing. Strange to say, some mothers seem to be deficient in love. At least their love is not the sort which enables them to lay down their lives for others. It is a divine law that only as one loses himself is it possible for him to find himself. Not a few mothers are afraid to lose themselves. They have lofty notions of their social or artistic or literary gifts, and strong ambitions to develop these to the utmost. They begrudge every moment they give to their children. They hand them over to nurses, and at the earliest possible moment send them off to school. In this way they rob themselves of that enrichment of affection and discipline of spirit which God has provided for mothers who faithfully perform their duties. They lose also the highest raptures which a mother's heart can know.

Mothers who are unwilling to be bothered by their children, cannot expect their children to know or love them. If in the morning a mother refuses to rise up and serve her sons and daughters, she will find in the afternoon that they will not rise up and call her blessed. Many a mother reaches the end of life with a lonely and hungry heart because, when she was young, she was too busy to knit the hearts of her children to her.

It is important that a mother should keep first things first. For instance, the children are first and the house is second. The house was built for the children, and not the children created for the house. If the carpets are more precious than the little feet which scamper over them, then later on the children are likely to be in the street. Some women's thoughts seem to revolve everlastingly around a dustpan and a mop.

First the body, and then the raiment. If the dress is put first, then the health is certain to suffer. The joy of living fades out as soon as life becomes a constant struggle with milliners and dressmakers.

First the life, and then the meat. If the serving of victuals is given precedence over the things of the spirit, then life is in danger of becoming a haggard worry over silver spoons and dishes, tablecloths and napkins.

First God, and then man. If man is placed first, then the child forms the fatal habit of listening to men rather than to God. A child's attitude toward the Eternal is determined in most cases largely by the attitude of his mother. If God is a real power in her life, the children all know it. . . .

A Great Soul, a Noble Heart

More important than anything that the mother does or says, is what she is. She must be a great soul, alert in intellect, noble of heart. Her outlook must be wide, and her sympathies generous and warm. To do her best work in the home, a woman needs to keep her eyes on the world. It is possible to devote oneself too exclusively to household cares. The woman who does this degenerates into a drudge. A drudge is never interesting either to herself or to any one else. The grinding routine of the days will, unless guarded against, leave the spirit jaded. The endless monotony

of commonplace duties is deadening to the higher powers of the soul. Every mother, therefore, needs the influence of the church. To the church the field is always the world. No other institution so liberalizes and broadens the mind. The church stands for service, and it is not service done in a corner, but service carried to the ends of the world. A wise woman is never too busy to take an active interest in movements looking toward the uplift of mankind. . . .

This, then, is essential to the ideal mother; she must be vital, glad, and strong. She must clothe her family with scarlet, and to do this she must herself be clothed with scarlet. She must be radiant. She must wage uncompromising war against worry and fear. These are two demons to be rigorously faced and irretrievably overwhelmed. She must not allow herself to become so cumbered with many cares that she becomes peevish. There is nothing else so destructive of the happiness of the home as a fretful and complaining woman. A woman is certain to become morbid and petulant unless she breathes the atmosphere of a large and varied world. She needs multiplied interests and a wide horizon to keep her brave and bright and true. When Paul wanted the Corinthians to give money to the needy Christians in Palestine, he got them to thinking first of the resurrection of the Son of God and the life eternal. The Hebrew poet made no mistake when he combined in the ideal woman loyalty to home duties and fidelity to outside obligations. The ideal home maker is the ideal philanthropist. She dresses her family with scarlet, and she reaches forth both hands to the great world which needs her. —Charles E. Jefferson, D. D., in the Woman's Home Companion for November.