Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1878-12-18
Our Social Obligations.

In the cool shadow of New England hill
there nestes a little cottage, bare within OF
all but necessary furniture, and destitute
without of any such adjuncts of the beauti-
full as vines and flowers afford, yet neverthe-
less very inviting place. The door, the
summer long, is wide open, at on its sunny
threshold stands the old ush-bottomed easy
chair of the goodman of the house, a thin,
sturdy, weather-beaten specimen of far
mer past his eighty-sixth birthday, but &C.
tive and CHEEKY still. A little farther back
on the painted kitchen floor and beside the
window is the rocker of the wife, her knit
ting on little stand beside it, and not far
away her large printed Bible and spectaces.
She is plump, brown, unwrinkled, and at
eighty does her own work, and dries apples
from her own tree for sale.
These old people are regarded highly by
all their neighbors. The guest from the
city is taken TO call upon them. The village
lovers, sauntering toward the river bank at
sunset, like to stop moment and rest on
their broad stone doorstep, and take a
draugbt of water from their crystal-clear
WELL The busy matron, overburdened with
cares, finds very pleasant a moment of gos-
sip now and then with the dear old woman
who has lived through her troubles aud en-
tered the evening land of peace; for the
gossip is always kindly, and the dry and
witty criticisms are never malicious. The
farmer, going to market, stops to discuss the
price of hay, and the probable value of the
apple-crop with the old man, who has keen
eye to a bargain, and has never been known
to be cheated. The children of all ages go
with their little joys and sorrows to these
two, who somehow meet them on level,
ill., l..
always room around those chairs for the
boys and girls.
Thinking of the helpful lives uncon-
sciously lived by this aged couple, have
been led to some medtations on the lives
we usually lead. Apart from our own i'm
mediate home circles, are we trying to be as
agreeable and as influential as we can
among our friends and neighbors What
are your worth and mine in society Do
people seek us when they are tried, sad
overtaken by calamity, or tormented by
temptation ? Are we living in earnest and
to some good purpose every day, doing in
our own allotted place all we can toward
bright ming the world and filling il with
happy and thankful hearts
In our own town, our own street and our
own church we have certain obligations
which we should not desire to shirk. You
do not enjoy making calls, perhaps. 1t
seems to you waste of time, and there is
your sewing to do, or your sister from the
West to entertain; your letters to write;
half hundred things, in fact, crowding
upon you, with but six days to the working
week, and twenty-four hours apiece to them.
+" If CALL" you say, " will go where can
do some good, or where, from my going,
some good may accrue to me-"
Do not permit tine uDgenerous reflection,
which the latter part of that thought i'm
plies, to have any weight with you. The
Saviour's words stand: He that saveth
his life shall lose it, Even in so small
matter as your going forth for an afternoon
call, if you deliberately choose to visit
lady from whom you expect something in
return, some invitation, or recognition, or
social uplifting, and you go for this selfish
end only, you will fell. You will find, and
that soon, that you have spent your money
for that which is not bread, and your labor
for that which satistieth not.
What am suggesting is, that we ought
not to undervalue our ordinary and usual
means OF cultivating acquaintance and
friendship with the average people whom
we meet every day. We are not wasting
time, but using it well, when we sit half
hour with friend in her house or our own
We are not culpable if we send the sweet
flowers from our garden, not merely to the
flower mission or the hospital, but TO some
gentle lady, who needs their bloom to be
her comfort on a weary day. We are not
forgetfu OF duty if we keep aud cultivate a
fellowship with hearts, brotherly, chivalric,
sisterly and congenial.
Likewise, as we grow a little older, We
shall do wisely to initiate the New England
pair with whom | began, and hold fast to
young friends and to children. 1t is worth
while to make pleasant times for them when
we can, and to put ourselves, if need be, to
some inconvenience, that they may have en-.
joyment and improvement Every age has
beauty of its own, and the glory of the
mature woman lies, not in her cheeks, tinted
like sea-shell, nor in her eyes beaming
with light, so much as in the spirituality
and the winsome hopefuness which show
that, while she walks with God she blesses
all who surround her.-Christian at Work.