1 Samuel 2:18-19 But Samuel ministered before the LORD, being a child, girded with a linen ephod.… 1. Hannah stands before you, then, today, in the first place, as an industrious mother. There was no need for her to work. Elkanah, her husband, was far from poor. She is industrious from principle as well as from pleasure. God would not have a mother become a drudge or a slave; He would have her employ all the helps possible in this day in the rearing of her children. But Hannah ought never to be ashamed to be found making a coat for Samuel. Most mothers need no counsel in this direction. The wrinkles on their brow. the pallor on their cheek, attest that they are faithful in their maternal duties. Indolent and unfaithful mothers will make indolent and unfaithful children. You cannot expect neatness and order in any house where the daughters see nothing but slatterness and upside-downativeness in their parents. The mothers of Samuel Johnson, and of Alfred the Great, and of Isaac Newton, end of Saint Augustine, and of Richard Cecil, and of President Edwards, for the most part were industrious, hardworking mothers. 2. Again: Hannah stands before you today as an intelligent mother. From the way in which she talked in this chapter, and from the way she managed this boy, you know she was intelligent. There are no persons in a community who need to be so wise and well-informed as mothers. O, this work of culturing children for this world and the next. This child is timid, and it must be roused up and pushed out into activity. 3. Again: Hannah stands before you today as a Christian mother. 4. Again, and lastly: Hannah stands before you today the rewarded mother. For all the coats she made for Samuel; for all the prayers she offered for him; for the discipline she exerted over him, she got abundant compensation in the piety, and the usefulness, and the popularity of her son Samuel; and that is true in all ages. Every mother gets full pay for all the prayers and tears in behalf of her children. (T. De Witt Talmage.) Parallel Verses KJV: But Samuel ministered before the LORD, being a child, girded with a linen ephod.WEB: But Samuel ministered before Yahweh, being a child, clothed with a linen ephod. |
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