Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1881-09-14
The MinISier's Wife.

! We were about getting a new minister
n difficult matter as all can testify who
have tried it He had preached for us a
Sabbath or two. He was earnest-that
was nnquest;oned; had consistent life for
his record, and that was great point: he
was good thinker and fearless advocate
of what he believed, hut his voice was
poor; he was not quite so famous as some
wished, and his bearing was not sufficiently
marked and digniied, some people said.
Yet as often as anything displraginp was
remarked, somebody Immediately added.
'but his wife is lovely" We thought il
was not the wife we were to settle over us.
but the man himself. Every possible OBJ
jeciion was overruled, however, because
the wife was so beyond comparison.
He came and brought with him one
whom we were all eager to see and know.
one of the sunniest, gentlost, vet strongest.
most useful women it has ever been NV
blessing to know and love. She was not
beautiful, but her face had such "a kin5lino
interest tor one and all that you could not
forgot its expression. She entered heartily
into his work. They were all her people,
her friends. She showed no partially.
No one of us ever felt that she liked one
above another. She kept our secrets lock.
ed in her own heart, and never BETRAYED n
trust
No one ever heard her speak i'll of an
other. She was approachable to everybody,
yet we paid her Difference, both from her
position and because we loved her. Men
and women received alike equal f,vors at
her hands. We looked to her rs a leader,
while she was in reality companion. We
eXp cted her home and husband would be
her first care, and so they were.
She was interested in evervthing-cul-
tured enough to talk with the learned, and
not above the poorest and most ignorant
of her flock She nevershowed irrtabiitv.
If she had temper she controlled herself by
prayer. She was her husbands best ad-
wiser.
Not everything went right with the
minister. He was able, not always wise,
sometimes hasty, sometimes domneernp
it seemed, sometimes saying things best
left unsaid, occasionally too frivolous, and
now and then too austere. Some said he
liked the rich better than the poor, the
cultured better than the uncultured. Some
said he was over ambitious, that he was
not always unconscious of himself; others,
that he lacked magnanimity in pecuniary
affairs and in the little things of everyday
life. But they liked his preaching, and
always added, He has such lovely
wife,"
She healed all differences, and really
kept the church a unit by her kindness
and Christian tract A wife less sympa-
thetic or less capable would have COM
pletety altered the aspect of affairs.
A little child came into the minister's
home. and the young wife went out of it,
never saw a church so crushed. For
weeksand months every face wore a wistful
look, as though they hoped in some unex-
planned way to meet her, perchance, and
feel again her cordial welcome. The pas.
tor, too, began to realize as never before,
how she hHd frightened and sustained
him. The people cared for the motherless
child, because it was her babe. A blessed
revival followed, and her death was the
spiritual life of Il great number. The fail
ings of the minister were forgotten in the
noble work he did to win souls and yet
they We're not fully satisfied. and the
pastOrate was changed.
Our pulpit since then has been filled
with able and eloquent men, who have had
pleasant wives, and our church has pros
pered, but our hearts nave nungereG again
and again for the lovely woman who came
to he such power in our midst. We have
said to each other often in all these years,
docs not it indeed make difference
what kind of a wife the minister has?"
All! vastly more than he thinks, when he
chooses her as his companion when he
comes among them to be their leader and
guide -COHgregHtj0@aRSt,