toward the cradle and the baby, and he said, "Oh, that mother's love is the prettiest thing I have seen on earth; I will carry that, too!" With the three treasures he winged his way to the pearly gates, and lit just on the outside, and said, "Before I go in I will examine my mementos," and he looked at the flowers and they had withered; he looked at the baby's smile and it had faded away; he looked at the mother's love and there it was in all its pristine beauty and fragrance. He threw aside the withered flowers and the faded smile and winged his way through the gates and led all the hosts of heaven together and said, "Here is the only thing I found on earth that would keep its fragrance all the way to heaven—a mother's love."—"Popular Lectures of Sam P. Jones."
(2106)
See Artifice; Prodigal, The; Wayward,
Seeking the.
MOTHER LOVE IN BIRDS
The loon, or great northern diver, is reported
to have displayed her mother love and
anxiety to a sportsman fishing in Sebago
Lake in Maine: He surprized the mother
with one young one near his canoe. She
was employing every artifice to call the little
one away, but the infant swam so near the
boat that the fisherman took him aboard
in his landing-net, and, holding him on his
knee, gently stroked his downy coat, to the
evident satisfaction of the youngster. Meanwhile
the mother was in an agony of distress.
At first, forgetting her native wildness and
timidity in her mother love, she boldly approached
the canoe, and, rising in the water
till she appeared to stand upon it, furiously
flapped her wings, uttering menacing cries.
Finding this of no avail, she pretended that
she was wounded, rolling over in the water
and finally lying still as if dead, evidently
to attract attention to herself and away
from the young one. The fisherman, touched
by these displays of motherly affection, put
the young loon into the water, upon which
the mother instantly came to life and again
tried to entice her little one to go with her.
(Text.)—Olive Thorne Miller, "The Bird
Our Brother."
(2107)
MOTHER, MEMORY OF
Lamar Fontaine, looking back after a long life of adventure, writes thus of a parting with his mother:
Those long-ago days now rise before me
in all their vividness. As I pen these lines,
nearing the seventy-seventh milestone in
life's rugged pathway, I feel the loving kiss
yet burning on my lips where she prest it as
she bade me "good-by." There are some
things in our life that time does not efface,
and this is one of them. They are like the
brand of red-hot iron that sears the tender
hide of the bleating calf; once burned in,
it lasts as long as life. I can see the last
wave of her hand as she watched us move
off across the prairie, and the picture is
branded in my brain.—"My Life and My
Lectures."
(2108)
MOTHER, PRAYER OF A
John Wesley might well be expected to become, as he did, the great religious leader of his day with such a mother behind him.
"His mother, with the finer prescience
that love gives to a mother, saw in her
second son the hint of some great, unguessed
future, and she writes in her diary under
the head of 'Evening, May 17, 1717, Son
John:
"'What shall I render to the Lord for all His mercies? I would offer myself and all that Thou hast given me; and I would resolve—oh, give me grace to do it!—that the residue of my life shall be all devoted to Thy service. And I do intend to be more particularly careful with the soul of this child, that Thou hast so mercifully provided for, than ever I have been; that I may instil into his mind the principles of true religion and virtue. Lord give me grace to do it sincerely and prudently.'"—W. H. Fitchett, "Wesley and His Century."
(2109)
Mothers as Protectors—See Father Animals Unparental.
MOTHER'S INFLUENCE, A
Grant's love for his family was one of
the strongest and most attractive traits of
his character. He never failed to appreciate
the worth of his mother's love, patience and
wisdom during his early years at Georgetown.
When she died in 1883, at Jersey City
Heights, New Jersey, the General, when at
the funeral, said to Dr. Howard Henderson,
her pastor: "In the remarks which you make,
speak of her only as a pure-minded, simple-hearted,
earnest, Methodist Christian. Make
no reference to me; she gained nothing by
any position I have filled or honors that
may have been paid me. I owe all this and
