The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1881-10-19
The Minister'S Wife.

The Minister'S Wife.
We were about getting new minister
"a difficult matter, as all can testify who
have tried it. He had preached for us a
Sabbath or two. He was earnest-that
was unquestioned; had consistent life
for his record, and that was great point
he was a good thinker and a fearless
advocate of what he believed, but his
voice was poor he was not quite so ia
nous as some wished and his bearing was
not sufficiently marked and dignifed,
some people said.
Yet as often as anything disparaging
was remarked somebody Immediately add
ed, But his wife is lovely" We thought
it was not the wife we were to settle
over us, but the man himself. Every
possible objection was overruled, howev-
er, because the wife was so beyond COM
parison.
He came and brought with him one
whom we were all eager to see and know
oneof 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 kind
ling interest for one and all that you could
not forget 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 locked in her own heart, and
never betrayed trust.
No one ever heard her speak i'll of an
other. She was approachable to every
body, yet we paid her Difference, both
from her position and because we loved
her. Men and women received alike
equal favors at her hands. We looked to
her as leader while she was in reality
a companion. We expected her home
and husband would be her first care, and
so they were.
She was interested in everything
cultured enough to talk with the learned
and not above the poorest and most ig-
norant of her flock. She never showed
irritability. If she had temper she con-
trolled herself by prayer. She was her
husbands best adviser.
Not everything went right with the
minister. He was able, not always wise :;
sometimes hasty, sometimes domineering,
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 unlettered. Some
said he was overambitious, that he was
not always unconscious to himself; 9TH
ers, 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 unit by her kindness
and Christian acts. A wife less sym
pathetic or less capable would have com
pletely altered the aspect of affairs.
A little child came into the minister's
home, and the young wife went out of it.
[ never saw church SO crushed. For
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 real
ize, as never before, how she had bright
ened and sustained him. The people
cared for the motherless child, because it
was her baby. A blessed revival fol-
lowed, and her death was the spiritual
life of a great number. The failings of
the minister were forgotten in the noble
work he did to win souls, and yet they
were not fully satisfied, and the paste
rate was changed.
Our pulpit since then has been filled
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 such power in our
midst We have said to each other often
in all these years, "Does not it, indeed,
make difference what kind of wife
the minister has?" All vastly more
than he thinks, when he chooses her as his
companion, vastly more than the people
imagine when he comes among them to
be their leader and guide Congregation
alt8t.