MATERNAL AFFECTION

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Nov 15, 1899

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 25, No. 46.

MATERNAL AFFECTION.

MEN talk of the silver cord of friendship, of the silken ties which bind young lovers together, of the pure affection of husband and wife, as if they were as durable as adamant and as pure as the love of angels. But a hasty word, a thoughtless action, or a misconstrued expression may break the first; a slight neglect, some inconsistency, or a trifling favor denied may sunder the second; and even the last may be destroyed, for the green-eyed monster may find some entrance and blight the fairest flowers of this sweetest earthly paradise.

But there is a love which neglect can not weaken, which injury can not destroy, and which even jealousy can not extinguish. It is the pure, holy, enduring love of a mother. It is as gentle as the breeze of evening, firm as the oak, and ceases only when life's last gleam goes out in death. During all the vicissitudes of this changing world, in sickness or in sorrow, in life or in death, in childhood's halcyon days, in youth's untroubled hour, or in manhood's vigorous prime, the mother clings with the same unwearied affection to her child.—Selected.