St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1882-06-24
to-do than by those who live from hand

tO-dO imam by tnOSe VINO i've from nand
to mouth.
The same line of remark applies as
well to houses and eqtipages as to
clothing. Our houses, the best of them,
are continually getting out of repair and
need mending. Hinges break and get
loose, plastering crumbles and falls,
doors settle and become hard to open
and shut, cracks open in the walls, leaks
start in the roof, window-panes are
broken, paint grows rusty, pickets drop
from the fences, and, unless constant
and careful repairs are made, a look Of
decay and deterioration creeps over the
premises. ITO keep up a place, as
the phrase goes, requires constant ex-
pen diture of time, labor and money.
Our bodies, no less than our houses,
need frequent repairs. Invisible enc
mics, in the shape of germs, bacteria,
and the like, are always at work under
mining our health our dead selves are
always at war with our living selves,
and the fight against dirt and disease
ends only with our lives, with which it
began. We often mistake grievously
in trying to mend up our bodies by
means of drugs and tonics and stimu-
lants, when we should use foods and
est and sleep instead.
Doubtless there are few of us all but
might mend Our ways with profit to our
selves and our fellows. Good and evil,
light and darkness, life and death, God
and Satan, wage an incessant conflict
on the battle-ground of our hearts, and
not in this life may we hope this conflict
will ever cease. When we would do
good evil is present with us, in one or
other of its Protean forms. The charity
that thinketh no evil, the love that work
eth no evil to its neighbor, the con-
science void of offense toward God and
man, perfect obedience to the Divine
law, perfect conformity to the Divine
pattern-these must be daily striven for
as we daily strive for physical cleanl-
ness, for physical clothing, for physical
nutrition. In this warfare nothing but
faithfulness unto DEATH will entitle
us to the crown of life In orderto mend
with neatness and dispatch, we must be
well supplied with materials for the
purpose. The provident housewife has
her work basket well-stocked with every
requisite for mending. She has her
rolls of pieces where she can easily put
her hand on them, and she never al
lows garment to be put away in
dilapidated condition, unless it is past
wearing. The week mending is done
as regularly as the weeks washing.
. The thrifty householder has his chest
of tools and keeps his house, his out
houses and his fences from going to
pieces. A nail driven here, brace
placed there, a screw put in a sagging
hinge, a lost picket replaced, swing
ing window-blind fastened back, sash |
little things go long
way in making place look tidy and in
keeping it from going to pieces.
The wear Of our bodies can be best
withstood by attention to what we are
often disposed to call little things-diet,
rest, clothing, pure air, congenial sur
Under fayoring circum-
stances, men and women of normal
can do an immense amount
of work through a long succession of
years, and then enjoy serene old age
But in order to do this they must take
care of themselves and "keep them
selves up as they keep up their
houses, by constant attention to all
little repairs, by avoiding stimulants,
drugs. overwork, worry, and providing
everything necessary to comfort.
For the renewal of our spiritual
strength we have the Bible and access
to the infinite source of wisdom and
power and goodness and love.-N. r
Tribune.