TALKING WITH MOTHER—A SERMON STORY TO TEACH ABOUT
PRAYER

John and Jennie were sent to a school far away from their home. They did not mind anything, except being away from their good, loving mother. And yet their mother did the best she could to keep them from being homesick. She sent them all sorts of good things, and pretty things, and useful things from home, and she wrote them hosts of letters. Then, too, John and Jennie could often talk to each other about their mother, and one day they tried to think up how many ways their mother had of talking with them, though she was so far away.

“There are the letters,” said John. “That’s one.”

“There are all these beautiful presents she keeps sending us,” said Jennie. “I’m sure every one of them keeps talking to me all the time, and says, ‘I love you, I love you.’”

“Yes, that’s two,” said John. “And then, do you know, I often remember things mother used to say to me, and when I think of her I can hear her saying the same things. I sat in a draught the other day, and I could hear her say, ‘Move your chair or you’ll take cold,’ just as plain!”

“That’s three,” agreed Jennie; “and here’s the fourth. It’s when you tell me that you know mother wouldn’t want me to do this, and would want me to do that. I can almost hear mother saying the same things.”

“But after all,” said John, “there’s one way of talking with mother that’s better than all, and that’s right face to face. O, when will the last day of school come?”

Let the speaker explain to the children how these five ways in which children may talk with their absent mother correspond with ways in which we talk with our Father in heaven. The letters correspond to our Bible. The presents correspond to the gifts of food God sends us, and of raiment, and of all the lovely and useful things in the world. Then, when we think about what God would like to have us do, and remember his commands and promises, we are enjoying the third way of talking with God. And others may talk with us about God, and tell us what he would have us do, just as John and Jennie talked with each other about their mother.

But, after all, the fifth way is the best,—talking face to face with God. And for that we do not need to wait to go to heaven, as John and Jennie must wait to go home to talk with their mother, because God is everywhere, and is always ready to talk with us, whenever we wish to pray to him.