The Brookhaven leader., 1886-04-15
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
Thirteenth Discourse of the Series
on "The Marriage Ring"
The Trials OF Modern HousekesplnC-The
Weight Of ResposiLility Attend
Forced Economy and the Pangs
of Non-Appr citation.

Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage, having re.
turned from his Western trip, occupied
the pulpit Of the Brooklyn Tabernacle for
the delivery Of his thirteenth discourse of
the Marriage Ring" series. the subject of
which was "The Trials of Housekeeping"
and the text:
Lord. dost Thou not care that my sister
hath left me to serve alone? Bid her, there
tore. that she help me.-Luke X. 40.
Yonder is q beautiful village homestead.
The man of the house is dead, and his
widow is taking care of the premises.
This is the widow Martha Of Bethany.
Yes. l will show you also the pet of the
household. This is Mary, the younger sis
ter, with a book under her arm, and her
face having no appearance Of anxiety and
perturbation. Company has come. Christ
stands, outsids the door, and, of course,
there is good deal of excitement inside
the door. The disarranged furniture is
hastily put aside, and the hair is brushed
back, and the dresses are adjusted as well
as in so short time Mary and Martha can
attend to these matters. They did not
keep Christ standing at the door until they
were newly appareled or until they had
deliberately arranged their tresses, then
coming out with their affected surprise
as though they had not heard the
two or three previous knock
ings, saying: "Why, il that YOU"
No. They were ladies, aud were always
presentable, although they may not have
always had on their best, for none of us
always have on our best; If we did, our
best would not be worth having on. They
throw open the door and greet Christ
They say: GOOD morning. Master; come
in, and be seated" Christ did not come
alone; He had a group of friends with
Him, and such an influx of city visitors
would throw any country home into
perturbation. suppose also the walk FROM
the city had been a good appetizer. The
kitchen department that day was very
important department. and l suppose
that Martha had no sooner greeted the
guests than she fed to that room Mary
had no anxiety about household affairs.
She had full confidence that Martha could
get up the best dinner in Bethany. She
seemed to say: "Now let us have di-
vision of labor. Martha, you cook, and Ill
sit down and be good" So you have often
seen great difference between two sisters.
There is Martha, hard working, painstak-
some new pastry, or discovering some
thing in the art of cooking and housekeep-
ing. There is Mary, also, fond of CONVEX
Sation, literary, so engaged in deep ques-
tions Of ethics she has no time to attend to
the questions of household welfare. 1t is
noon. Mary is in the parlor with Christ
Martha is in the kitchen. 1t would have
been better If they had divided the work,
In, 4 loI h.
portunty II listening to Jesus; but Mary
monopolIzas Christ while Martha swelters
at the fire. 1t was a very important thing
that they should have a good dinner that
day. Christ was hungry, and he did not
often have a luxurious entertainm ent.
Alas, me! if the duty had devolved upon
Mary, what repast that would have
been. But something went wrong in the
kitchen. Perhaps the fire would not burn,
or the bread would not bake, or Martha
scalded her hand, or something was burned
black that ought to have been made brown;
and Martha lost her patience, and for
getting the proprieties of the occasion,
with besweated brow, and perhaps, with
pitcher in one hand and tongs in
the other, she rushes out of the
kitchen into the presence of Christ,
saying "Lord, dost thou not care
that my sister hath left me to serve
alone:" Christ scolded not word. If it
were scolding, should rather have his
scolding than anybody else's blessing.
There was nothing acerb. He knew Martha
bad almost worked herself to death to get
him something to eat, and so he throws a
world of tenderness into his intonation as
h seems to say: "My dear woman, do not
worry; let the dinner go; sit down on this
ottoman beside Mary, your young er sister.
Martha. Martha, thou art careful and trou-
bled about many things, but one thing is
needfu." AS Martha throws open that
kitchen door, look in and see a great
many household perplexities and ankle
ties.
First, there is the trial of non-apprecia-
ton. That is what made Martha so mad
with Mary. The younger sister had no
estimate of her older sisters fatigues. AS
now, men bothered with the anxieties of
the store, and Office and shop or coming
from the Stock Exchange, they say when
they get home: ooh, you ought to be in
our factory little while; you ought to
have to manage eight, or ten, or twenty
suhordinates, and then you would know
what trouble and anxiety are" Oh, sir!
the wife and the mother has to conduct at
the same time university, a clothing es-
tablishment, a restaurant, a laundry,
library, while she is health officer, police
and president of her realm. She
must do a thousand things, and do
them well, in order to keep things
going smoothly; and so her brain
and her nerves are taxed to the utmost.
l know there are housekeepers who
are so fortunate that they can sit in an
arm chair in the library, or lie on the be-
lated pillow, and throw off all the care
upon subordinates who, having large
wages and great experience, can attend to
all of the affairs of the household, Those
are the exception. l am speaking this
morning of the great mass of hOusekeep-
ers-the women to whom life is a struggle,
and who, at thirty years of age, look as
though they were forty, and at forty look
though they were fifty, and at fifty look
as though they We're sixty. The fallen at
Chalons, and Austerlitz, and Gettysburg,
and Waterloo, are a small number COM
pared with the slain in the great Arma.
geddon of the kitchen. You go out to the
cemetery, and YOU viii see that the tomb
stones all read beautifully poetic; but if
those tombstones would speak the truths,
thousands of them would say: Here lies
a woman killed by too much mending,
and sewing, and baking, and scrubbing,
and securing; the weapon with which she
was slain was a broom, or a sewing ma
chine, or a ladle." You think, oh man
of the world that Won hava all the caras