XIII. THE WATCHFUL MOTHER.
Reading edition
No eye should be so wakeful and watchful as a mother’s.
I. Watch over your children in infancy.
Exod. ii. 8. 1 Sam. i. 23.
It is described as next to impossible for a woman to forget her sucking child. Isa. xlix. 15.
A well-watched infancy, under God’s blessing, avoids many future ills.
II. Watch over your children’s education.
Judg. xiii. 8.
In every minute particular.
Learning—clothing, &c. 1 Sam. ii. 19. Prov. xxxi. 21, 23.
Contrast the dirty, unmended clothes of the poor, uncared-for child, with the clean and neatly mended garments of him whose childhood is guarded by the watchful eye of a mother.
III. Watch them in times of sickness and death.
No eye so quick to discover a hidden ill.
2 Kings, iv. 19, 20. John, xix. 25.
IV. Above all watch over the precious soul.
Never lose sight of the soul, in care for the body.
1. Watch, as those that must give account. Heb. xiii. 17.
2. Watch, to detect sin, and check its growth.
Mark first sign of the plague spot.
3. Watch, for opportunity to lead to Christ. Prov. xv. 23. Deut. vi. 6, 9. Mark, x. 13.