1 Kings 2:19-20 Bathsheba therefore went to king Solomon, to speak to him for Adonijah. And the king rose up to meet her, and bowed himself to her… Nearly twenty times the Book of Kings makes mention of the names of mothers as connected with the good or evil deeds of their sons. We are not always told what was the character of these mothers, nor how far it was due to their influence that their sons turned out as they did, but the introduction of their names in such close connection with the good or evil, is sufficiently significant. "His mother's name was Jecholiah; and he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord." The sacred penman adds no more, and yet we can scarce restrain the natural exclamation of the heart, "Blessed art thou among women!" so certain are we that the youth who honoured God had enjoyed the care of a good mother. In contrast, what unenviable notoriety is given to Abijah's name when the mention of it is accompanied with the painful record, "he walked in all the sins of his father" (1 Kings 15:2). Maachah, the mother, may have been a good woman herself, in spite of her husband's evil ways; yet what volumes are expressed in that embalming of her name — and only hers — in connection with the wrong-doings of her son! Alas! the agonies of the wretched parent's heart, in this world and the next, concerning whose offspring the record must be made, "he did evil all his life; he did evil because of his mother's neglect to teach him better!" St. , and Gregory of Nazianzen, are striking examples, which cry aloud, "Christian mothers, pray on in faith!" , and , and were instances almost as remarkable. General Harrison, not long before taking his place at the head of the Government, visited his old home in Virginia, and turned his steps at once to his "mother's room," where, as he said, he had seen her daily reading her Bible, and where she had taught him to pray. Fame and glory became dim before him as the pleasant light burst forth from the scene of his earliest and best impressions. Where is the son so wayward and so cruel, who would not promptly answer, like Israel's king, when besought by her who had nursed him in helpless infancy, "Ask on, my mother, for I will not say thee nay"? "My mother asked me never to use tobacco," remarked Senator Thomas H. Benton, "and I have never touched it from that time to the present day. She asked me never to gamble, and I never have. She admonished me against hard drinking, and whatever usefulness I have attained in life, I owe to my compliance with her pious wishes." The Christian mother who thus loves her children may be sure of their sincerest affection in return. An old man, wasted with disease, was struggling feebly with death. His family and friends stood by, rendering every kind office which they could, but still there was one thing which he longed for, and which all their tenderest affections failed to supply. He rolled his head in agony, and faintly whispered, "I want mother!" She had been dead for fifty years! As a child, he had carried his little sorrows to his mother, and she had always proved his ready comforter, and now, after all this lapse of time, forgetful, for the moment, that wife and children and grandchildren were with him, he remembered no one but his mother! A noted infidel was once suddenly brought under religious influences, and cried aloud, in his agony, "God of my mother, have mercy on me!" When a lady once told Archbishop Sharpe that she would not trouble her children with instruction about religion until they had reached the years of discretion, the shrewd prelate answered, "If you do not teach them, the devil will!" (J. N. Norton.) Parallel Verses KJV: Bathsheba therefore went unto king Solomon, to speak unto him for Adonijah. And the king rose up to meet her, and bowed himself unto her, and sat down on his throne, and caused a seat to be set for the king's mother; and she sat on his right hand. |
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