Good Women                                                                                    5/10/42

 

Scripture:  Philippians 4: 1-7

 

Text:  Philippians 4:  3;  “Those women who labored -- in the gospel.”

 

A great deal of sentiment enters into the observance of Mother’s day -- sometimes so much that some living mothers must feel just a little burdened with the unusual number of tributes paid to them (like a traveler laden with too many leis on a hot day.)  One wonders what might be the effect if some of the overt expressions of affection offered to our mothers once a year were spread over the weeks throughout the year.  I suspect that it would be good.

 

And yet, we allow our lives to be so crowded with a number of things that we seem to require special emphases to call our attention to matters worth observing.  There may be, and probably are, in this world where so much evil exists with the good, some women who are unwilling mothers, who have no real love for their own, or anybody else’s, children.  One can only view with pity those occasional cases and hope that they are rare.  The tributes of this day are not for such as they.

 

Most mothers are more than worthy of the best we can say of them.  Most of our mothers are women who have found joy in the midst of the pain and struggle of rearing us - women who have no regrets about being mothers - women whose chief reward is in the successful and right living of their children.  I would suggest that the highest tribute which we can pay to our good mothers on this day, whether they see us here or look from beyond the borders of the unseen, is not in what we can say in verse or prose, in essay or sermon.  Most of us could pay a higher tribute in our determination to live so as to justify the pride and hopes our mothers have had in us.  If each one of us in this room were to resolve, actively, that from this day forth we shall be finer, and accomplish more in really good living, than ever before there would be more cause for joy among our mothers than over a great deluge of flowers and greetings, appropriate though that deluge be.

 

And I want to suggest today that the qualities which we recognize as precious in our mothers are common to many women who are not mothers except in spirit.  The was one whose lover fell in a great battle of the United States civil war.  With his death a door was quietly but firmly closed in her heart, for she loved no other as long as she lived.  The joy of being mistress of her own home and mother of her own family she was never to know.  But she had an invalid sister whose children needed care.  Upon them she lavished all the love and care which brimmed out of her own overflowing heart.  Not till years had passed did her friends understand why.

 

Then there was a teacher who gathered boys of a needy neighborhood together - boys who lacked training, opportunity, understanding.  They met as a Sunday school class and in her home in the evenings.  And she set in their hearts the desire to know, to understand.  Through her they were roused to high quests.

 

Another teacher, from a home of culture, spent her life in a little college, teaching country youth and maidens - not just classroom subjects.  Through the classroom, she taught them to explore through the doors of that college into the country of great thoughts.

 

I think that women like these are also deserving of recognition on this day!

 

While writing to the Philippians, Paul spoke with fine appreciation of those who had worked with him there in the teaching of the gospel of Christ, and the ministry to people.  He mentioned some by name, and he asked that they remember and “help those women who labored” with him in the gospel.  “Those women” who have helped to make mankind what it is - those mothers, teachers, neighbors in the Good Samaritan sense.

 

For this season, I would suggest that we let Mother’s Day be for us a day of Good Women, a day of recognition for the fine influences upon our lives of all women who have cared for us enough to bother with what we have thought or hoped or planned or achieved. 

 

You remember an incident in the terrible tale of Jesus’ crucifixion.  Amid the agony of body and soul through which he was passing, he recognized his mother standing broken-hearted but loyal near his feet.  Another whom he loved was there also - the disciple, John.  Loving thoughtfulness shone through agony as Jesus said “Woman, behold thy son.”  And to the disciple, “Behold thy mother.”  We are accustomed to think of those words as committing his mother to the car of John.  It is likely that there was much more in Jesus’ mind than that.  After all, Mary had a family.  Jesus had brothers in the family who might be expected to see that the mother did not want.  Jesus must, therefore, have recognized that John needed the influence of his mother.  Jesus loved this “Son of Thunder” - impetuous, not prudent, unwise, hasty - loved him because he knew him for what he was.  He knew John’s possibilities, moreover, possibilities that the years of ripening experience were later to reveal.  And so he sought his mother’s care for this beloved disciple of his.

 

Balanced lives seem to need the influence of both father and mother.  Much of whatever good qualities of character we may develop we owe to the qualities of our parents.

 

The mothers who have been responsible for the strength of character in the nation’s manhood and womanhood are those who have struggled and worked along with their men folk.

 

A revealing thesis is set forth in Ferrero’s “Women of the Caesars.”  The author maintains that the fall of Rome was due in large measure to its women.  The decay of Roman life began with the decay in morals and manners of the Roman woman - when she ceased to be the helpmeet, the companion in work and struggle, of her husband, and became his plaything, sharing and caring for only the man’s lighter moments.  When that happens it is always for evil.

 

The women whom we honor are those who are made of sterner stuff, whose gentleness, even, comes from strength.

 

Two stern women did much to shape the life of Washington - Mary, his mother, and Martha, his wife.

 

We have Lincoln’s own word for what he owed to his mother.  And we know that she was no sofa pillow playmate.  She was a woman of the frontier.  She was used to struggle, hardship, work - lots of it - severe winters with pinching times of cold and hunger, crude living quarters, sickness, danger.  These things she had shared fully with her pioneer husband.  There was no time to dwell on foolishness.  Only that which was genuine could be tolerated.  The fortitude which her son learned from her was to be his mainstay in many a dark day of crisis.

 

Those who live north of the Mason-Dixon line know of the home life of Lincoln better than that of some of the Southern patriots.  But the great leader of the Confederacy, General Robert E. Lee came naturally by his strength of character.  His father, a gallant gentleman in battle, was a poor businessman.  When unwise speculation threw him heavily in debt, he fled to escape debtor’s prison.  Ann Lee was left to rear her little family in comparative poverty.  Those who study the character of Robert E. Lee trace much of its development to the thoughtful, unselfish, devoted care of his struggling mother.

 

It is a dark day in our own world when ruthless despotisms are seen thrusting women back into kitchen drudgery alone, away from the interests where they might share the strength of much constructive effort  with the men of their households and country.

 

There is no accident in the fact that the Gospels place such emphasis on Mary, the Mother of our Lord.  Some in later time have gone to the extreme of worshipping her.  But the attention to her is a tribute to her influence with her Son and upon her Son!

 

Do you mothers realize what a power is in your hands? a power which some of us sons and daughters only partially recognize?  Are you an inspiration and an encouragement to the men and women and the men-and-women-to-be whose lives you touch?  This is a day of woman’s opportunity.  Her rights and her worth are recognized in this land.

 

It is the day also of definite reminder, moreover, for all men who have known the care of kindly women and for whom woman’s prayers have been said.

 

Paul praised a young friend in perilous time for “the unfeigned faith that is within thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice, and I am persuaded that is in thee also.  Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God that is in thee!”  [II Timothy 1: 5].

 

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Dates and places delivered:

 

            Pilgrim Church, Honolulu, May 14, 1939  AM

            Wisconsin Rapids, May 10, 1942