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MOTHERS OF THE WISE AND GOOD: Anecdotes and Essays on the Incredible Influence of Mothers Throughout Church History
Jabez Burns
"This book answers the very questions that today's women are asking. The engaging anecdotes and instructive essays are wonderful. I have looked for a book like this for many years. Every mother, grandmother, and spiritual mother - in others words, every woman - will find great help and hope in this book." - Susan Hunt
This book was written in 1846 to honor the role of a mother. Brief biographical sketches are given of such wise and good men as Augustine, John Newton, Jonathan Edwards and many others with special emphasis upon the way that their mothers were used of God in their lives. Susan Hunt says that this is the book she has been seeking for many years to give young mothers to encourage them in their task. Elisabeth Elliot and Nancy Wilson commend this work very highly.
"It is a useful and valuable work, replete with instruction and encouragement...it deserves to have a wide circulation." - John Angell James
"One of the great helps to the modern church is the reprinting of old books by saints of a previous generation. This book has much to offer us in our day where motherhood is not given the honor it deserves." - Nancy Wilson
"The writer has been powerfully struck by the fact, that there are few good works which are directly adapted to give the information, and supply the help which is needed. Good thoughts and interesting facts on this subject are scattered abroad through the length and breadth of our moral and religious literature; but thus it is almost unavailable to those whose benefit and encouragement should be chiefly aimed at.
The plan designed in this volume has been to furnish within a portable and convenient size, a series of delightful instances of the success of pious maternal influence, interspersed with various striking incidents, both in prose and verse, calculated to interest and improve the mind, and followed by short essays on the various duties and responsibilities of the Christian mother.
To collect and arrange has been the chief duty of the Author, being satisfied that it would have been impossible, for him, at least, to have provided original articles of equal value, and as directly adapted to the end contemplated. That the book may prove instructive, edifying and useful, under God's blessing, to that most numerous, important, and influential class for whom it is chiefly designed, is the earnest and prayerful desire of the Author."- Jabez Burns, March 1846
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Additional Information
• Table of Contents
• Author's Preface
• Sample
• Commendations
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Recollections of a Mother by Her Elder Son |
The days of my childhood have long since passed away; but the remembrance of them, though sometimes mingled with sadness, is often soothing and refreshing to my spirit. The recollections of an honored, intelligent, affectionate, and pious mother I love most to cherish, because they not only delight, but elevate and purify my heart. From the earliest dawnings of intellect and affection, my attachment to her was strong, and her influence unbounded. Nor did they diminish with my advancing childhood and youth; for they were sustained and strengthened by a tenderness, a prudence, and a piety, the most uniform and watchful. Even now I seem, at times, to feel the gentle movements of my kind and anxious mother, as, amid the shivering cold of a northern winter, she came night after night to my lowly bed, long after my eyes were closed in sleep, and scarcely waked me from my slumber, while she carefully pressed the warm covering around my feet and limbs.
Nor can I soon forget the impression oft made upon my childish heart, when the door of the sitting-room opened upon me, while engaged with my morning's book or play, and I looked up and saw my mother enter, with her Bible in her hands, and her face still wet with her tears. I needed none to tell me what had been her employment, or whence she came. More than once, in the pursuit of her I loved, I had followed her to the place of her retirement, found her upon her knees, and listened to her tones of fervent tenderness, while, with many tears, she prayed God to have mercy upon me and keep me from evil, and to bless those she loved. On such occasions--kneeling or standing beside my praying mother--I had a strange but affecting sense of a present God, who heard her prayer, and thought and felt that I could not, must not grieve or disobey such a tender, godly mother.
When some ten or eleven years of my life had rolled quietly away, I was thrown, at school, into the company of boys who did not fear to take God's name in vain, and learned to imitate their examples so far as to use improper, if not profane language. My ever watchful mother soon learned my danger and my sin, and calling me privately to a seat by her side, warned and reproved me with a grief and tenderness which I could not resist. She reminded me that she had dedicated me to God, and even before my birth had devoted me to his service; that I was the Lord's child. Punishment I could, perhaps, have borne, but her words and her tears broke my heart, though proud and rebellious.. She made me feel that I had sinned against a good and holy God, and that my wickedness was greatly increased, because of the vows which were upon me, and because she had so often consecrated me to God. I felt ashamed and distressed that I had wounded a heart so pious and so affectionate, and probably while memory lasts I shall never forget the time and the place, the expressive countenance, and the earnest manner of my mother.
From my earliest childhood I had been taught, and in some degree accustomed, to pray, and now began seriously to seek the salvation of my soul. In my mother I had confidence, and from her I sought counsel. As she lay upon her sick-bed she turned to me and said, with a seriousness of manner, and with a tone of emotion which impressed the words upon my inmost soul, "Strive, my son, agonize, to enter in at the strait gate." Before my thirteenth year I was permitted, with others of my own age, to approach the table of the Lord, and took upon myself those baptismal vows of consecration to God, which had been often present to my heart and conscience.
My mind had been sometimes powerfully impressed by the fervor and tenderness of my mother's prayers, when she assembled her children around the family altar,and supplicated the protection and blessing of God upon us and our absent father. Now I was more deeply affected when on a similar occasion my mother turned to me and said, "Henceforth, my son, we shall expect you to lead the devotions of the family in your father's absence." In the following year I left the home of my childhood, to pursue my studies in a distant city, and was afterward only an occasional inmate in my father's house. But my mother's influence, the remembrance of her example and prayers, still followed me, as a guardian angel, to preserve me from the many dangers and temptations which were around my path.
During one of my college vacations I was called to take charge of my father's school. After two or three days I was somewhat tried by the misconduct of several boys but little younger than myself, and at dinner gave vent to my feelings by the remark, "I do not know but I shall have to kill some of those boys." My mother turned upon me her full, dark eyes, kindled and yet softened by the emotions of her soul, and twice repeating my name, with a look and a tone strongly expressive of surprise and grief, conveyed to my heart gently, but effectually, the deserved rebuke. I soon sought my chamber, there to weep over my impatient spirit, and to ask forgiveness for my sin against God, and my unkindness to my mother.
During the years that have since glided swiftly away, I have ever felt myself more indebted to my mother than to any other human being for whatever I have attained or enjoyed. The remembrance of her instructions and reproofs still excites me to be consistent, more happy as a disciple and a minister of Jesus Christ, and I praise God that she yet lives to bless me with her counsel, her example, and her prayers. Nor has the blessing been confined to myself; all my brothers and sisters, except my youngest brother, have become pious, as we trust, in very early life. May very many who read the "Mothers of the Wise and Good," through its influence, and by the abundant grace of God, become such blessings to their children.
