The Indianapolis journal., 1886-04-11


| Abigail. and Grandmother Lois. and Elizabeth
/ Fry, and Hannah Moore is the God Of the house
keeper. Jesus was never married that he might
be the especial friend and conidante OF whole
world OF troubled womanhood blunder; Christ
was married. The Bible says that the church is
| the Lambs wife, and that makes me know that
all Christian women have right to go to Christ
and tell Him of their annoyances and troubles.
since by His oath Of conjugal hdelity DE ls
sworn to sympathize. George Herbert, the
Christian poet, wrote two or three verses on THIS
| subject.
| Thy servant by this clause
Makes drudgery divine;
| Who sweeps room, as for Thy laws.
Makes this and the action hne
| Again. there is the trial of severe economy:
Nine hundred and ninety y-nine households out OF
the thousand are subjected to it--some unoer
more, and some under less stress of circum-
stances. Especially if man smoke very expen-
sive cigars, and take very costly dinners at the
restaurants, he will be severe in demanding do
mestic economies. This Is what kills tens OF
| thousands of women-attemptng to make So 90
the work of 81. How the bills come in! The
woman is the banker of the household; she Is
the president. the cashier, the teller, the dis
count clerk: and there is panic every few
weeks! This thirty years war against nlgn
| prices, this perpetual study OF economies, this
| lifelong attempt to keep the outgoes less than
the income, exhausts millions of housekeepers
| y my sister! this is part of the divine dlsci-
pine. II it were best for you, all you would have
| the ravens would fly in with food, and after you
had baked fifty times from the barrel IN the
| pantry, the barrel, like the one or
| zerepath, would be full and the
| shoes OF the children would last as
long as the shoes of the Israelites in the wilder
ness-forty years Besides that, this is going 10
make heaven the more attractive in the contrast
They never hunger there, and consequently
there will be none OF the nulsances or catering
for appetites. And In the land OF the white
robe they never have to mend anything and the
air in that bill country makes everybody we'll
There are no rents to pay; every man
owns his own house, and mansion
at that. It will not be so great q
change for you to have chariot in heaven it
you have been in the habit of riding In this
world. 1t will not be go great change for you
to sit down on the banks of the river OF lie II
in this world you had country seat but II you
have walked with tired feet in this world what a
glorious change to mount celestial equlpage; ana
If your life on earth was domestic martyrdom,
o, the JOY of an eternity In which you shall nave
nothing to do except what you choose to 40.
Martha has had drudgery for eighteen CEN
Lturies! lquarrel with the theologians who want to
distribute all the thrones of heaven among the
John Knoxes, and the Hugh Latimers, and the
Theban Legion. Some OF the brightest thrones
of heaven will be kept for Christian housekeep-
ers o, what change from here to there-from
the time when they put down the rolling pin to
when they make up the scepter If Chatsworth
park ana the Vanderbilt mansion on Fifth ave-
were TO De iILeQ INTO the celoSbldl CITY tuoy
would be considered uninhabitabe rookerles.
and glorified Lazarus would be ashamed to be
going in and out of either of them.
There are many housekeepers who could get
along with their tolls if it were not for sickness
and trouble. The fact is, one-half of th6wom
en- of the land are more or less invads. Inc
mountain lass who has never had an ache or
pain may consider household toll inconsiderable,
and toward evening she may skip away miles to
the fields, and drive home the cattle; and she
may. until 10 O'Clock at night, fill the house with
laughing racket; but, o to do the work OF life
with worn out constitution when whooplng-
cough has been raging for six weeks 10 the
household, making the night as sleepless as the
day-that is not so easy. Perhaps this comes
after the nerves have been shattered by some
! bereavement that has left Gesolation in every
room of the house, and set the crib In the gar
ret, because the occupant has been hushed into
sumber which needs no mothers lullaby Oil
she could provide for the whole group great
deal better than she can for part OF the group,
now the rest is gone Though you may tell her
God is taking care of those who are gone, 1t is
mother-like to brood both flocks; and one wing
she puts over the flock in the house, the other
wing she puts over the flock in the grave.
There is nothing but the old fashioned religion
of Jesus Christ that will take woman through
the trials of home life. At first, there may be a
romance a novelty that will do for substi-
tute. The marriage hour has just passed, and
the perplexties of the household are more than
atoned by the joy of being together, and by the
cuss the question to whether it is time to 60!
The mishaps of the household instead of being
matter of anxiety and apprehension, are a matter
of merriment-the loaf of bread turned into
geological specimen; the slushy custards; the
jaundiced or measly biscuits. 1t Is very bright
sunlight that falls on the cutlery and the mantel
ornaments of a new home.
But after awhile the romance is all gone, and
then there is something to be prepared for the
table that the book called Cookery Taught in
Twelve Lessons will not teach. The receipt for
making it is not handful of this. d cup OF that,
and spoonful Of something else. 1t is not
something sweetened with ordinary condiments
favored with ordinary favors, or baked in or
dnary ovens. 1t is the loaf of domestic happi-
ness; and all the ingredients come down from
heaven, and the fruits are plucked from the tree
of life. and it is sweetened with the wine OF
the kingdom, and it is baked in the oven of home
trial Solomon wrote out OF his own experience.
He had wretched home A man cannot be
happy with two wives, much less six hundred;
and he says writing out of his own experience:
Better is dinner of herbs where love is than
a stalled OK and hatred Herewith.
How great are the responsibilities of house
Keepers Sometimes an indigestible sarticle of
food by its effects upon commander or king,
has defeated an army overthrown an empire.
Housekeepers by the food they provide, by the
couches they spread, by the books they intro
duce, by the influences they bring around their
home; are deciding the physical, intellectual,
moral, eternal destiny of the race. You say
your life is one OF sacrifice. know it. But.
my sisters that is the only life worth living.
That Florence Nightingale's lfe that was
Payson's life that was Christ's life. We admire
it in others; but how very hard it is for AS to
cultivate ourselves. When in this city young
DIR. Hutchinson, having spent a whole night in a
diphtheretic room for the relief of patient be-
came saturated with the poison and died, We all
felt as il we would like to put garlands on his
grave: everybody appreciates that. When, in
the burning hotel at st. Louis, young man on
the fifth story broke open the door where his
mother sleeping and plunged in amid
smoke and fire. crying: Mother. where are you?"
young man. But how few of us have the Christ
like spirit-a willingness to suffer for others. A
rough teacher in school called upon poor.
half-starved lad, who had offended against the