CHRISTIAN MOTHER
The Lord has entrusted to parents a solemn, sacred work. They are to cultivate carefully the soil of the heart. Thus they may be laborers together with God. He expects them to guard and tend carefully the garden of their children's hearts. They are to sow the good seed, weeding out every unsightly weed. Every defect in character, every fault in disposition, needs to be cut away; for if allowed to remain, these will mar the beauty of the character. {AH 200.1
The mother is the queen of the home, and the children are her subjects. She is to rule her household wisely, in the dignity of her motherhood. Her influence in the home is to be paramount; her word, law. If she is a Christian, under God's control, she will command the respect of her children. {AH 232.1}
The children are to be taught to regard their mother, not as a slave whose work it is to wait on them, but as a queen who is to guide and direct them, teaching them line upon line, precept upon precept. {AH 232.2}
No work can equal that of the Christian mother. She takes up her work with a sense of what it is to bring up her children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. How often will she feel her burden's weight heavier than she can bear; and then how precious the privilege of taking it all to her sympathizing Saviour in prayer! She may lay her burden at His feet and find in His presence a strength that will sustain her and give her cheerfulness, hope, courage, and wisdom in the most trying hours. How sweet to the careworn mother is the consciousness of such a friend in all her difficulties! If mothers would go to Christ more frequently and trust Him more fully, their burdens would be easier, and they would find rest to their souls. {AH 204.3}
The God of Heaven Hears Your Prayers.--You cannot bring up your children as you should without divine help; for the fallen nature of Adam always strives for the mastery. The heart must be prepared for the principles of truth, that they may root in the soul and find nourishment in the life. {AH 205.1}
The sphere of the mother may be humble; but her influence, united with the father's, is as abiding as eternity. Next to God, the mother's power for good is the strongest known on earth. {AH 240.1}
A Christian mother will ever be wide awake to discern the dangers that surround her children. She will keep her own soul in a pure, holy atmosphere; she will regulate her temper and principles by the word of God and will faithfully do her duty, living above the petty temptations which will always assail her. {AH 241.2}
TESTIMONY
A True Christian Mother
It may be feared that Christian mothers of our generation do not pray with then children as in former days. When we see sons and daughters in Christian households growing up with worldly hearts, and swerving from the faith of their parents, we always fear that a mother's heart has not been burdened by their sins, and a mother's prayers and faith have not led them to Christ. Dr. McCrie, the celebrated biographer of Knox, records with filial love and reverence the fidelity of his mother, in training him to a Christian life. One incident in his experience is of rare beauty. {December 19, 1865 UrSe, ARSH 19.2}
In his sixteenth year he left home to attend the classes of Edinburg University, and his devoted mother, apprehensive of the temptations to which he would be exposed in city life, walked with him a part of the way, to give him her last words of counsel. She parted from him in Coldingham Moor, Before bidding him farewell, she led him to a rock at a little distance from the road, and kneeling behind it, with her hands upon his head, implored, in a fervent prayer, that God would shield him from danger, and make him an intelligent and zealous Christian, useful to the church in his generation. {December 19, 1865 UrSe, ARSH 19.3}
Such a mother's faith could not go unblessed. Such prayers must secure God's blessing. In a year from that time the mother slept, but the son, over whom she had yearned and prayed, was not forgotten of God. He was converted, and became one of the eminent ministers of Scotland, and the biographer of some of her greatest worthies. {December 19, 1865 UrSe, ARSH 19.4}
A curious incident is told of his closing life, connected with this prayer of his mother at the roadside. Nearly fifty years had passed. He had lived a life of toil and trial, and success. He was ripe in years, and service and experience. One night, in a dream his mother appeared to him, standing behind the rock on the moor, and beckoned him to follow. He promised to obey her, and the vision passed. Dr. McCrie was not a weak or superstitious man, but he regarded the dream as a warning that his work was nearly done. In a few weeks he was called away, and the mother and son at the Archangel's trump will be united forever in a better world.-Christian Press. {December 19, 1865 UrSe, ARSH 19.5}
"Galilean, thou hast Conquered." Such was the dying exclamation of Julian, the Roman emperor. Though once a professed Christian, he apostatized from the faith, and employed all his energies for the overthrow of the religion of Jesus and the establishment of idolatry. He shut up Christian sanctuaries, re-opened and patronized heathen temples, and in face of the positive assertion of Christ, that the Jewish Temple at Jerusalem should remain in ruins, impiously attempted to rebuild it. But he contended against One far mightier than himself, and was forced to submit. Wounded in battle by a Persian lance, he took a handful of his blood, and casting it towards Heaven cried, "O Galilean, thou hast conquered!" {December 19, 1865 UrSe, ARSH 19.6}
Ev.Benard Odhiambo
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