Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1879-03-19
The Usefulness of Retired Lives.

Retired and uneventful lives are not to be
lightly esteemed. The flower which blooms
in the sheltered valley may have as fair a
growth and as sweet a perfume as that which
stars the edge Of precipice. Lives which
are not lifted by any sharp tragedy out of the
common level of existence may still in their
appointed ways reach and partake of the
highest experiences of the human soul.
They may have childhood's happy protec-
tion loves young dream, the crowning bliss
of reciprocal affection, the delights of equal
friendship, the hope of the parental heart
and the Gethsemane shadow of bereavement
and pain. They may have leisure for intro
spection and for the hallowed solitude in
which the loving spirit communes with its
Redeemer. Forty, fifty, seventy quiet years
may have very much more of heaven begun
in their onward passing than as many spent
in the rush and sweep and the turbulent stir
of the worlds forefront of battle.
have sometimes heard mothers at home
with their little children lament that they
had no special endowment of genius or talent.
With half-sorrow they would sigh for the
artists pencil, the poets pen, or the singers
silvery voice. These other spheres seemed
wilder than their own, and the vocations
nobler. No mistake could be greater than
this. The quiet life in the household gives
scope to the highest ambition and calls forth
the steadiest energy There is room in it
for self.sacrifce, for dignity, and for con-
slant cultivation of all that is good. The
first years of family life, when the boys and
girls are still little ones, obedent to the
mothers eye aud tones, running to her in
their gladness and their griefs, are the most
important in their influence on character.
The home is then determining the future
standard Of society and the future prosperity
of the state. Neither social nor civil pro-
gress can ever rise higher than the ideal it
furnishes. The mothers quiet line upon
line, precept upon precept, are imperceptible
in their molding, but they are not lost Not
single little lesson by the fire, not hymn
nor verse taught, nor prayer at morning
or evening, is in vain. Even when mother
is early removed from her children, if they
have had her faithful teaching, impressions
have been made which will never be lost.
Retired lives are useful in another way.
Nobody, in however obscure station, can
be uniformly sincere, patient, gentle and
conscientious without exerting a positive
influence on friends aud neighbors. The
modest, unobtrusive girl, timid to fault,
but loyal to her convictions, and therefore,
brave, wields a scepter stronger than she
dreams. The self-questioning, humble
minded matron who thinks that she is not
so much as known beyond her own hearth,
is often a comfort and source of strength
to others who have taken notice of her con-
sistency, and rested upon her straightfor-
ward, unerring perceptions of right. 1t is
not possible for any one of us TO measure
the extent of our personal influence but OF
one thing we may be sure, that what we are
is of more consequence than what we do.
There is always grace bestowed on those
who sit at the Saviour's feet.-Mdrgaret E.
Sdn1sier