V.
The Sioux County Journal
VOLUME VI.
HAHKISOX, NEMiASKA, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1804.
NUMBER 21.
f
TALMAGES SERMON.
AN ELOQUENT DISCOURSE AND
UNIQUt TEXT.
How Mwn Wu Killed hy Jael -The Had
Mewa Hrought to HI Mother Bitting at
tha Iala- Window An Eulogy of tha
MaUa tuloui Mother.
Mother In IsraaL
This novel anil unique Hubjoet was
prosenud by Dr. Talm'age, Sunday
afternoon. Text, Judges v, 'M, "The
mother of Sisera looked out at a win
dow." Spiked to the ground of Jael a tent
lay the dead oorainanderin chief of the
Canaaoitish bout, General S'ttera, not
far from the river Kiiihon, which wan
only a dry bed of pebbles when in l!i,
in 1 aleHtine, we cm-wed it, but the gul
lies and ravines which ran into It. indi
cated the possibility of threat freshets
like the one at the time of the text.
General Sinora had gone out with !hm
Iron chariots, but he was defeated, and,
his chariot wheels interlocked with the
wheels of other chariots, he could not
retreat last enough, and so he leajwd to
the ground and ran till, exhausted, he
went into Jael's ient for safety. She
bad just been churning, and when he
atiked for water she gave him butter
milk, which In the Hast is considered a
most refresning drink. Very tired, and
aupixjsing he was safe, ho went to sleep
Ujion the floor, but Jael, who had re
solved uon his death, took a tent pin,
long and round and sharp, In one hand
and a hanrtner In her other hand, and,
putting the sharp end ol the tent pin to
the forehead of Sisera, with her other
hand she lifted the hammer and
brought it down on the head of the pin
with a stout stroke, when Sisera strug
gled to rise, and sho struck him again,
and he struggled to rise, and the third
time sho struck him, and the command
er in chief of the Canaanitish host lay
dead.
Meaning of tha TeiL
Meanwhile in the .distance Sisera's
mother sits amid surroundings of
wealth and pomp and scenes palatial
waiting for his return. Kvery mother
expects her son to lie victorious, ana
this ii, other looked out at the window
expecting to see him drive up in his
chariot followed by wugons loaded with
embroideries and al-o by regiments of
men vanquished and enslaved. I see
her now sitting at the window, in high
expectation, she watchestho farthest
turn of the road. Sho looks for the
flying dust of the swift hoofs. The
first Ilasli of the bit o! the horses bridle
she will catch.
The ladies of her court stand round,
and she tells them of what they shall
have when her son comes up chains
of gold and carcaneU of Ixsauty and
dresses of such wondrous fabric and
splendor as the Hihlo only hints at,
but leave us to imagine. "Ho ought
to bo here by this time," says h:s
mother. ''That Iwttle is surely over.
1 hojHi that freshet of the river Kishon
has not impeded him. I hope those
strange appearances we saw lust night
in the sky ero not ominous, when
the stars seemed to light in their
courses. So'. No'. He is so brave in
hat tie I know he has won the day. He
will soon bo here.'' Hut alas for the
disappointed mother! She will not
see the glittering headgear of the
horses at full gallop bringing her son
home from victorious battle. As a
solitary messenger arriving in hot
haste rides up to the window at which
the mother of Sisera sits, he cries,
"Your armies are defeated, and your
son la dead." There is a scene of hor
ror and anguish from which we turn
away.
Now you see the full meaning of my
short text, "The mother of Sisera
looked out at the window." Well, my
friends, we are all out In the battle of
life; it is raging now, and the moftt of
us have a mother watching and wait
ing for news of our victory or defeat.
If sho Is not sitting at the window of
earth, sho is sitting at a window of
Heaven, and she is going to hear all
alxmt it.
Hy all tho rules of war Sisera ought
to have been triumphant.' Ho had iHK)
iron chariots and a host of many thou
sands vaster than the armies of Israel.
But God was on the other side, and the
angry freshets of Kishon, and tho huil,
the lightning, and tho unmanageable
war horses, and the capsized chariots
and the stellar panic in the sky dis
comtitted Sisera. .loscphus in his his
tory describes the scene, in tho follow
ing words: "When thof were come to
a close fight, there came down from
Heaven a great storm with a vast
quantity of rain and hall, and the wind
blew the rain in tho faco of tho
Ganoanites and so darkened their eyes
their arrows and slings were of no ad
vantage to them, nor would the cold
ness of the air permit the soldiers to
make use of their swords, while this
storm did not so much Incommode tho
Israelites Imcauso it came on their
backs. They also took such courage
Uon the apprhenslon that God was as
sisting them that they fell Un the
very midst of their enemies and slew a
great number of them, so that some of
them fell by the Israelites, some fell
by their own horses which were put
Into disorder, and not a few were
killed by their own chariots."
Hence, my hearers, tho bad news
iwought to the mother ot Sisera look
ing out at the window. And our
mother, whether sitting at a window
of earth or a window of Heaven, will
hear the news of our victory or defeat
- not according to our talents or edu
cational equipment or our opiiortunl
tloa, but according as to whether God
Is for us or against us.
"Where mother'"' is the question
most frequently asked In many house
holds. It Is asked by tho husband a
' well aa the child coming in at night
fall, "Where's mother'!"' It 1 naked
by the little one when they get hurt
and come In crying with pain,
"Where'. mother'i"r It Is asked by
tboM who have seen some grand sight
or beard tome good news or received
some beautiful gift, "Where's mother'"'
She sometimes feels wearied by the
question, for they all ask it and keep
asking it all the time. She is not only
the first to hear every case of per
plexity, but sho is the judge in every
court of domestic appeal. That is what
puts the premature wrinkles on so
many maternal faces and powders
white so many maternal foreheads.
You see, it is a question that keeps on
for all the years of childhood.
If that question were put to moit of
us this morning, we would have to say,
If we spoke truthfully, like Sisera's
mother, she is at the palace window.
She has Isscome a Queen unto GikI for
ever, and she is pulling back the rich
folds ot the King's upholstery to look
down at us. We are not told the par
ticulars about the residence of Siisra'
mother, but there is in that scene in
the book of Judges so much about em
broideries and needlework and ladies
in waiting that we know her residence
must have been princely and palatial.
So we have no minute and particular
description of the palace at whoso win
dow our glorified mothersits, but there
isso much in the closing chapters of
the good old book about crowns, and
pearls big enough to make a gate out
of one of them, new songs and marriage
suppers, and harps, and white horses
with kings in tho stirrups, and golden
candlesticks that we know the heaven
ly residence of our mother is superb, is
unique, is colonnaded, is domed, is em
Ixiwered, is fountainod. Is glorified be
yond the power of pencil or pen or
tongue to present, and in the window
of the palace the mother sits watching
for news from the battle. What a con
trast between that celestial surround
ing and her once earthly surround
ings! What a work to wing up a
family, in the old tirno way, with but
little or no hired help, except perhaps
for the washing day or for tiie swine
slaughtering, commonly called "the
killing day:''
Old Fa.lilonrd Mother..
There was then no reading of elalK
rato treatises on the best modes of
rearing children, and then leaving it
a'l to nired he! p, with one or two vis
its a day to the nursery to see if tho
principles announced are being carried
out. The most of those old folks aid
the sewing, the washing, the mend
ing, the durning, the patching, tho
millinery, the munt.ua making, the
housekeeping, and in hurried harvest
time helped spread the hay or tread
down the load in the mow. They were
at the same time caterers, tailors, doc
tors, chaplains, and nurses for a whole
household all together down with
measles or scarlet fever, or round the
house with whooping coughs and
croujw and runround fingers and ear
aches and all tho infantile distempers
which at some time swoop upon every
large household. Some of these moth
ers never got rested in this world. In
stead of the self-rocking cradles of our
day, which, wound up, will go hour
after hour for tho solaco of the young
slumlierer, it was weary foot on tho
rocker sometimes half the day or
half the night -rock -rock-rock
rock. Instead of our drug stores filled
with all the wonders of materia med
ica and called up through a telephone,
with them the only aHthocary short of
four miles' ride was tho garret, with
its bunches of peppermint and penny
royal and catnip and mustard and cam
omile flowers, which were expected to
do everything. Just think of it! Fifty
years of preparing breakfast, dinner,
and supper. The chief music they
heard wus that of spinning wheel and
rocking chair. Fagged out, headachy,
and with ankles swollen. Those old
fashioned mothers -if any person ever
fitted appropriately into a good, easy,
comfortaulo Heaven, they were tho
folks, and they got there, and they are
rested. They wear no spectacles, for
they have their third sight-as they
lived long enough on earth to get t heir
second sight - and they do not have to
pant for breath after going up tho em
erald stairs of the Ktormtl palaeo. at
whoso win low they now sit waiting for
news from the battle.
tiiit if anyone keeps on asking the
question "Whcro'o mother?'' 1 an
swer, Sho is in your present character.
The probability is that your physical
features suggest her If there he seven
children in a household at least six of
them look like their mother, and the
older you get tho more you will look
like her. Hut I speak now especially
of your character and not of your looks.
This is easily explained. During tho
first ten years of your life yon wero
almost all the time with her, and your
father you saw only mornings and
nights. There are not years in any
life so important for Impression as the
first ten. Then and there is the im
pression made for virtue or vice, for
truth, or falsehood, for bravery or cow
ardice, for religion or skepticism.
Suddenly Htart out from behind a door
and frighten the child, and you may
shatter his nervous system for a life
time. During tho first ten years you
can tell him enough spook stories to
make him a coward till no dies. Act
before him as though Friday were an
unlucky day, and It wero baleful
to have thirteen at the table, or see
tho moon over the left shoulder and ho
will never recover from tho idiotic su
perstitions, You may give that girl be
fore sho Is 10 years old a fondness for
dress that will make her a mere "dum
my framo," or fashion plate, for -to
years, Kzeklel xvi, 44, "As Is the mother
so is her daughter." He fore one decade
has passed you can decide whether
that boy shall bo a Shylock or a
George I'eabody. Hoys and girls are
generally echoes of fathers and
mothers. What an Incohorent thing
for a mother out of temper to punish
a child for getting mad, or for a
father who smokes to shut his boy up
In a dark closet bocuuse he has loiind
him with an old stump of a cigar in
his mouth, or for that mother to re
buke her daughter for staring at herself
too much In the looking glass when tho
mother has horown mirrors so arranged
as to repeat her form from all slues!
The great Knlish poet's loose moral
character was decided before he loft
the nursery, and his schoolmaster
In the schoolroom overheard this
conversation: "Uyron, vour mother Is
a fool," and he answered, "I know it."
You can hear through all the heroic
life of Senator Sam Houston the words
of his mother when she in the war of
MZ put a musket in his hand and
said: "There, my son, take thhl and
never disgrace it, for remember I had
rather all my sons should fill one hon
orable grave than that one of 4hem
should turn his back on an enemy, Go
and remember, too, that while the
door of my cottage is open to all 'iirave
men it is always shut against -'cowards.
" A grippina, the mother of Nero,
murderess, you are not surprised that
her son was a murderer. Give that
child an overdose of catechism, and
make him recite verses of the Hi We as
a punishment and make Sunday a hore,
and he will become a stout antagonist
of Christianity, impress him witu the
kindness and the geniality and the
lovliness of religion, and he will Im its
advocate and exemplar for all time and
eternity. i
Tha fiarrile Enthroned. ' 5
The trouble with Sisera's mother
was that, while sitting at the window
of my text watching for news of her
son from the battlefield, she had, the
two l ad qualities of beingdissolute nd
being too fon I of personal adortfment.
The Hiblo account says: "ilea' wise
ladies answered her yea. She re
turned answer to herself: 'Have tKey
not sped':' Have they not divided the
prey to every man a damsel or two, to
Sisera a prey of divers colors, a fey
of divers colors of needlework, o . di
vers colors of needlework on liath
Hides''" She makes no anxious utter
ance about the wounded in battle, about
the bloodshed. alout the dying. i)bout
the dead, alxiut the principles involved
in tho battle going on, a battle so Im
portant that the stars and the freshets
took part, und tho clash of swords was
answered by the thunder of the skies,
What she thinks most of is tho brigtot
colors of tho wardrobes to be captured
and the needlework, lo Siseraaprey
of divers colors, a prey of divers uolors
of needlework, of divers colors of
needlework on both sides."
Ail Ajotrophe to Mother.
But if you still press tho question,
"Where's mother?" I will toll you
where she is not, though once sho was
there. Some of you started with" her
likeness in your face and her principles
in your soul. Hut you have cast hot"
out. That was an awful thing for you.
to do. but you have done it. That hard,
grinding, dissipated look you never got
from her. If you hud seen any one
strike her, vou would have struck him
down without much care whether thoj
Plow wus just bumcient or latui; irli,,
my boy, you have struck her dqwt -struck
her innocence from your fuce A
struck her principles from your skV'1.
You struck her down! Tho 'ent.-n
that Jael drove three times into the
skull of Sisera was not so cruel as the
stab you have made more than three
times through your mother's heart.
But she is waiting yet, for mothers are
slow to give up their boys-waiting at
some window on earth or at some win
dow in Heaven. All others may cast
you olf. Your wife may seek divorce
and have no more patience witli you.
Your father may disinherit you and
say, "Let him never again darken the
door of our house." But there aro two
persons who do not give you up -God
and mother.
How many disappointed mothers
waiting at the window! i'erhaps the
panes of the window are not great
glass plato, bevel edged and hovered
over by exquisite lambrequin, but tho
window is made of small panes, I would
say about six or eight of them, in sum
mer wreathed with trailing vine and
in winter pictured by the Kupheals of
the forest, a real country window. The
mother Bits there knitting, or busy with
her noodle on homely repairs, when
sho looks up and sees coining across
the bridge of the meadow brook a
stranger, who dismounts in front of
the window. He lifts and drops the
heavy knocker of tho farmhouse door.
''Come in!" is the response. Ho
gives his name and says, "I have
come on a sad errand.'' ''There is
nothing the mutter with my son in tho
city, .is there?" she asks. "Yes!"
he says. "Your son got into an un
fortunate encounter with a young man
in a liquor saloon last night and Is
badly hurt. The fact is he cannot get
well. 1 hate to tell you all. 1 am
sorry to say he is dead. "Dead!" she
cries as she totters back. "Oh, my
son! my son! my son! Would God I
had diod for thee!" That is tho end
ing of all her cares and anxieties and
good counsels for that boy. That, is her
pay for her self sacrifices in his behalf.
That is the bad news from the buttle.
So the tidings of dereloct or Christian
sons travel to the windows of earth or
tho windows of Heaven at which
mothers sit.
"But," says somo one, "aro you not
mistaken ahout my glorified mother
hearing of my ovildoing since sho
went away?" Says some one else, "are
you not mistaken alsjut my glorified
mother hearing of my self sacrifice and
moral bravery and struggle to do
right?'1 No! Heaven and earth are
in constant communication. There
aro trains running every five minutes
trains of Immortals as.'ondingund de
scending spirits going from earth to
Heaven to live there. Spirits de
scending from Heaven to earth to min
ister and help. They hear from us
many times every dav. lo they hear
good news or fiad news from
this battle, this Sedan, this
Tliormopyl.i'. this Austerilt., In
which every one of us is light
ing on the right side or tho wrong sldo.
o God, whoso 1 am, and whom lam
trying to sorvo, as a rosult of this ser
mon, roll over on all mothers a new
sense of their responsibility, and upon
all children, whethor still in tho nur
sery orouton tho tremendous Esdraolon
of middle life or old age, the fact that
their victories or defeats sound clear
out, clear up to the windows of sympa
thetic maternity. Oh, 1b not this tho
minute when tho cloud of blessing
filled with tho exhaled tears of anxious
mothers shall burst In showers of
mercy on this audience?
There is one thought that is a' most
too tender for utterance. I almost fear
t
to start it least I have not enough con
trol of my emotion to conclude it. Aj
when we were children we bo often
came in from play or from a hurt or
from some childish injustice practiced
upon us, and as soon as the door wan
open we cried, "Where's mother V"
and Bhe sai 1, "Here I am," and we
burled our weeping face in her lap, so
after awhile, when we get through with
the pleasures and hurts of this life, we
will, by the pardoning mercy of Christ,
enter the heavenly home, and among
the first questions, not the first, but
among the first, will be the old question
that we used to ask. the question that
is lx ing asked in thousands of places
at this very moment -the question,
"Where's mother?" And it will not
take long for us to find her or for her
to find us, forshe will have been watch
ing at the window for our coming, and
with the other children of our house
hold of earth we will again gather
round her, and she will say: "W dl,
how did you get through the liattle of
life? I have often heard from others
about you, but now I want to hear it
from your own souls. Tell me all about
it, my children!" And then we will
tell her of all our earthly experiences,
the holidays, the marriages, tho birth
hours, the burials, the heartbreaks,
the losses, the gains, the victories, the
defeats, and she will say: "Never
mind, it Is all over now. I see each one
of you has a crown, which was given
you at the gate as you came through,
Koweastit at the feet of the Christ
who saved you and saved me and saved
us all. Thank God. we are never to
part, and for all the ages of eternity
you will never again have to ask,
'"Where's mother?"
ltousHcau'fl Defects.
He is a remarkable example of the
thinker In whom nans on is forever
I taking the place of reason, who liv s
upon hull-truths. A single lllustra-
tion will be enough, and we will take
It from "The Discourse on Ine ual
ity" : "The riot which ends in the
death or deposition of a .sultan is as
lawful as the acts by which he could,
the day lieforc, dispose ot the for
tunes and lives of his subjects. As
his ppsitioQ was maintained only by
! force, so by force only he is he over-
thrown. Thus everything happens
according to the law of nature: and
whatever maybe the oiitonu; of
these frequent and sudden revolu
tions, nobody has the right to com
plain of the injustice of his fellows,
but merely of his own indiscretion or
ill luck."
To a generation that Is acquainted
with the political uses of dynamite,
.those words of Kousseau ma;, appear
mild; letjit, however, be remembered
that he was not a salaried assassin,
but an original thinker and a man of
genius. The wretches who commit
crimes for political purpores usually
drift Into the hands of the execu
tioner, and the busiuess is at an end;
but Rousseau's influence did not end
at his death.
Now if. in the ordinary course of
human affairs, these words of Rous
seau may with justice be put in prac
tice, it follows thatCharlottc Corday's
act in killing Marat may not have
been a crime: it was such teachings
as liousseau's (whether she was con
scious of it or not) that gave her the
inspiration. Charlotte Corday's act
was a crime; only a perverted moral
sense will dock it out with fine
phrases. Mactuillan's Magazine.
Artificial Ice Surfaces.
A sueessful system of producing
artificial Ice surfaces has been inau
ratod In Paris, and is available in
large areas at all seasons of the year.
As explained, the machinery consists
of two ammonia ice machines, driven
by two llftv-horse power steam en
gines; tills ice apparatus has pumps
which force auimonical gas into water
cooler condensers, liquefying the uas,
which then passes into large reser
voirs, where it expands with the pro
duction of cold, the same gas being
pumped back ;md uscu continuously.
In the appl cation of this system for
the formation of a skating surface, a
rink has been constructed sixty by
one hundred and thirty, feet having
a floor of cork and cement, upon this
being laid three miles of connected
iron pip ; through this pipe cir
culates a solution of chloride of cal
cium, an uncongo liable liqu d which,
by passage through spirals in the re
frigerating reservoirs, is cooled to
some live to twenty degrees below
zero. The water over the pipe is
thus kept frozen, and daily sweeping
and flooding insures smoothness.
A Ncorplon-l'roof I Alitor.
A pachydermatous editor of the
southern citrus belt affords conclusive
evidence of the Important fact that
"the devil takes care of his own."
lie puts it In another way, however,
as follows:
"A remarkable proof of the pro
tection of Innocence, (savs tho Azusa
I'omotroplc, ) occurred at the editor's
home last week. When his good wife
was making up the bed In tho morn
ing she found a hug.- scorpion almost
crushed to death, upon which the
writer had reposed all night The
poisonous reptile had been lain upon
so solidly all night that It couldn't
elevate Its stinging machine, and
by morning had almost lost lt war
like habits. It had been carried In
from the bushes on a pillow and died
without aveng ng Its own death,"
AE appears to Increase the value
of everything except women and
butter.
Pkoi-le have become so good lately
that there Is no one on the chain
gang.
THE-
COMMERCIAL BANK.
ESTABLISHED 1888.
Harrison, Nebraska.
B. B. BitiwfiThR,
President.
D. H. GRISWOLD, Cashitr.
AUTHORIZED CAPITAL. $50 000.
Transacts a General
CORRESPONDENTS:
Amxbicaa Ezchanoi National Bank, New York,
Ui-.ted States National Bank, Omaha,
First National Bank, Chadraa.
Interest Paid on
"DRAFTS SOLD ON
THE PIONEER
P harmacy,
J. E. PHINNEY, Proprietor.
Pure Drugs, Medicines, Paints,
Oils and Varnishes.
WARTIBTS' MATERIAL.
School Supplies.
Prescriptions Carefully Compounded
Day or Night.
SIMMONS & SMiLEY,
Harrison, Nebraska,
Real Estate Agents,
Have a number of bargains in
choice land in Sioux county.
Parties desiring
estate should not fail to
call on them.
School Lands
leased, taxes paid for
non-residents; farms rented, eta
CORRESPONDENTS SOLICITED.
C. F. Corns,
Vica-PrMltat.
Banking Business.
Time Deposits.
ALL PARTS OF EUROPE.
'id-
BTBRUSHES.
to buy or sell real
i -
