Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1879-12-14
The Ministers Wife-A True Story.


We were about getting a new min
ister-a difficulty matter, all can tes-
tify who have tried it. He had preach
ed for US a Sabbath or two. He was
earnest-that was unquestioned had
consistent life for his record, and
that was great point was a good
thinker, and a fearless advocate OF
what he believed, but his voice was
poor, he was not quite SO famous as
some wished, and his bearing was
not sufficiently marked and digni-
fed, some of the people said.
Yet, as often as anything disparag
/ ing was remarked, somebody i'm me-
diately added, "but his wife is love-
ly!' We thought it was not the wife
we were to settle over US but the man
himself Every possible objection
was oyerruled, however, because the
wife was so beyond comparison.
He came and brought with him on Q
whom we were all eager to see and
know, one of the sunniest, gentlest,
yet strongest, most useful women it
has ever been my blessing to know
and love. She was not beautiful, but
her face had such a kindling interest
for one and all, that you could never
forget its expression.
She entered heartily into Lis work.
They were all her people her friends.
She showed no partiality. No one of
US ever felt that she liked one above
another She kept our secrets locked
in her own heart, and never betrayed
trust.
No one ever heard her speak i'll of
another. She was approachable to
every body, yet we paid her Difference,
both from her position and because
we loved her. Men and women receiv-
ed alike equal favor and honor a. her
hands. We looked to her as leader,
while she was in realitya companion.
We expected her home and husband
would be first in her care and her az
fections. and SO they were.
She was interested in every thing
cultured enough to talk with the
learned and not above the poorest and
most ignorant Of her flock. She never
showed irritability. If she had temper,
she controlled herself by prayer. She
was her husbsnds best adviser.
Not everything went right with the
minister. He was able, but not always
wise; sometimes hasty, sometimes
domineering, it seemed; sometimes
saying things better left unsaid, occa-
sionally too frivolous, and now and
then too austere. Some said he liked
the rich better than the poor; the
cultured better than the unlettered.
Some said he was over ambitious;
that he was not always unconscious
of himself Others that be lacked
magnanimity in pecuniary matters
and in the little things of every day
life. But they liked his preaching,
and always added: He has such a
lovely wife,
She needed all differences and really
kept the Church unit by her kind
ness and Christian tact. A wife less
sympathetic or less capable, would
have completely changed the aspect
of affairs.
A little child came into the min
listers home, and the young wife went
out of it. | never saw Church SO
crushed. Fer weeks and months every
face wore wistful look, as though they
hoped, in some unexplained way, to
meet her, perchance, and feel again
her cordial welcome. The pastor,
too, began to realize, as never before,
how she had frightened and sustained
him. The copied cared for the
motherless child, because it was her
baby. A blessed revival followed.
and her death was the spiritual life of
a great number. The little failirgs
of the minister were forgotten in the
noble work he did to win souls, and
yet they were not fully satisfied, and
the pastorate was changed.
Our pulpit since then has been filed
with able and eloquent men, who have
had pleasant wives, and our church
has prospered, but our hearts have
hungered again and again for the
lovely woman who came to be power
in our midst. We have said to each
other often in all these years,
"Dosen't it, indeed, made difference
what kind of wife the minister has?"
All, vastly more than he thinks, when
be chooses her as his companion, and
vastly more than the people imagine
when he comes among them to be
their leader and guide.-Congrega-
tiondliSt.