With Mother’s Day coming, I would just like to use this opportunity to pay tribute to mothers and motherhood, quoting from various sources. I hope it will be a blessing to all who read.
“They talk about a woman’s sphere as though it had a limit; there’s not a place in earth or heaven, there’s not a task to mankind given; there’s not a blessing nor a woe, there’s not a whispered “yes,” or “no;” there’s not a life or death or birth, there’s not a feather’s weight of worth, without a woman in it.” (unknown)
“I did not have my mother long, but she cast over me an influence which has lasted all my life. The good effects of her early training I can never lose. If it had not been for her appreciation and her faith in me at a critical time in my experience, I should never likely have become an inventor.” (Thomas Edison)
The great preacher G. Campbell Morgan had four sons. They all became ministers. At a family gathering a friend asked one of the sons, “Which Morgan is the greatest preacher?” The son looked at his father and promptly replied, “Mother!”
Our church, Thompson Road Baptist Church in Indianapolis, has supported Bible Tracts, Inc., for decades, a ministry founded by the late evangelist Paul Levin who preached and traveled with his blind singer Bob Findley. Paul eloquently wrote once about his darling mother: “My mother went home to glory March 21, 1959, at age 91. To this day it is impossible for me to adequately describe her godly life and all her memory means to me. She gave me to God before I was born, and as soon as I was able to understand the plan of salvation, she led me to the Savior. My mother never graduated from high school, but she taught me many things I could never have learned in our highest institutions of learning. She never sang in our choir, but at home—where it really counted—her life was a constant song. She was sweet, cheerful, and supremely happy in the Lord.”
Song writer John Peterson said of his mother, “I could always count on my mother’s prayers. When I was a small boy, she would take me by the hand and say, ‘Let’s pray,’ then she’d start—and I mean she would pray! Many times I’ve watched the tears stream down her face as she’d intercede for the salvation of her children. She loved the Bible…she wasn’t perfect. No human being is. I never heard her swear. She did not read dirty books or magazines. I heard her pray. I heard her feed on Scriptures. She took me to Sunday School and church and made me sit still. Mother took me to church Sunday nights, too, and also to the midweek prayer services…and when there were special meetings…while mother didn’t leave us a lot of worldly goods, she left behind something that all the bulging bank accounts of all the world couldn’t buy—faith in God as taught by a sweet, godly Christian mother.”
Some of these choice testimonies I have copied from sources probably 50 years or so ago, and am not sure of the credits; this one is from a publication that was known as “Back Country Evangelism.” I think you will find it interesting:
“Amazing Grace” was written by John Newton, who was known as “London’s sailor
preacher.” He reached Thomas Scott, a cultured scholarly, moral man, who through
his tongue and pen swayed thousands for Jesus. He in turn reached William Cowper, the reverse of Scott: young, dyspeptic, melancholy, —who wrote ‘A Fountain Filled with Blood.’ He in turn reached Wilberforce who inspired the empire to free its slaves. Wilberforce touched a man who was a vicar in the Church of England by the name of Richmond, who knew the story of a milkman’s daughter who had the unusual touch of the power of God. He wrote the book, “The Dairyman’s Daughter” which was translated into forty-odd foreign languages, reaching into peasant’s huts and king’s palaces. All of this came about because an old gray- haired, bent back washer woman prayed for her wayward son John’s safe return from the sea.
Well, there are many more special tributes that could and should be paid our mothers, but I will close this post with this one:
A builder builded a temple, He wrought it with grace and skill; Pillars and groins and arches, all fashioned to work his will. Men said, as they saw its beauty, “It shall never know decay; Great is thy skill, O Builder! Thy fame shall endure for aye.” A mother builded a temple, with loving and infinite care, Planning each arch with patience, laying each stone with prayer. None praised her unceasing efforts, none knew of her wondrous plan, For the temple the mother builded was unseen by the eyes of man. Gone is the Builder’s temple, crumpled into the dust; Low lies each stately pillar, food for consuming rust. But the temple the mother builded Will last while the ages roll, For that beautiful unseen temple Was a child’s immortal soul. Hattie Vose Hall
“Honor thy father and thy mother; (which is the first commandment with promise); that it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.” (Eph.6:2,3)
YOU and GOD 