National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1886-03-15

Miriam was the oldest OF the tamlly,
Moses and Aaron, her brothers, and
younger. Oh, the power OF the elder sister
to help decide the brothers character for
usefulness and for heaven She can keep
off from her brother more evils than Miriam
could have driven back waterfowl or croco-
die from the ark of bulrushes. The older
sister decides the direction I'm which the
cradle boat shall sail. BY gentleness, by
good sense, by Christian principle she can
turn IL toward the palace, not Of wicked
Pharaoh, but of holy God; and a brighter
princess than Thermutis shall lift him out
OF peril, even religion, whose ways are ways
Of pcasantness and all her paths are peace.
The older sister, how much the world owes
her Born while yet the family was In
limited circumstances, she had to hold and
take care Of her younger brother. And IL
there Is anything that excites my sympathy
1t Is a little girl Juggling around great fat
because she cannot keep him quiet.
By the time she gets to young
womanhood she is pale and worn
out, and her attractiveness has been sacri-
feed on the altar Of slsterly fidelity, and
she is consigned to celibacy and society
calls her an ungallant name, but in heaven
they call her Miriam. In most families the
two most undesirable places in the record
Of births are the first and the last, the first
home that cannot afford to hire help, and
the last because she is spoiled as a pet.
Among the grandest equipages that sweep
through the streets of heaven will be those
occupied by sisters who sacrificed them
selves for brothers. They will have the
finest Of the Apocalyptic white horses, and
many who on earth looked down upon
them will have to turn out to let them
pass.
Let sisters not begrudge the timennd care
bestowed on brother. 1t is hard to be-
lievc that any boy that you know so well as
your brother can ever turn out anything
very useful. Well, he may not be a Moses.
There is only one Of that kind needed for six
thousand years. But tell you what your
brother will be-elther blessing or curse
to society and candidate for happiness or
wretchedness. lie will, like Moses, have
the choice between rubies and living Goals,
and your influence will have much to do
with his decision. He may not, like Moses,
be the deliverer Of nation, but he may,
after your father and mother are gone, be
the deliverer Of household. What thou
sands Of homes to-day arc piloted by broth
ers There are properties now well invested
and yielding income for the support Of sis
tiers and younger brothers, because the older
brother rose TO the leadership from the day
the father laid down to die. Whatever you
do for your brother will come back to you
again. II you set him an ill-natured, cen
serious, accommodating example IL will
recoil upon you from his own irritated and
despoiled nature. II you, by patience with
all his infrmitles and by nobility of char
acter, dwell with him, in the few years of
your companionship, you will have your
counsels reflected back upon you some day
by his splendor Of behavior In some crisis
where he would have failed but for you.
Don't snub him. Don't depreciate his
ability. Don't talk discouragingly about
his future. Don't let Miriam get down off
the bank Of the Nile aud wade out and up
set the ark Of bulrushes. Don't tease him.
Brothers and sisters do not consider 1t any
harm to tease. That spirit abroad in the
family is one Of the meanest and most devil
ish. THERE'S teasing that is pleasurable,
and is only another form Of innocent rail-
lery, but that which provOkes and irrltates
and makes the eye flush with anger is to be
rcprehended. 1t would be less blameworthy
to take bunch Of thorns and draw them
across your sisters cheek, or to take q
knife and draw its sharp edge across your
brothers. hand till the blood spurts, for
that would damage only the body, but
teasing is the thorn and knife scratching
and laceratiDg the disposition and the soul,
II is the curse of innumerable households
that the brothers tease the sisters and the
sisters the brothers. Sometimes 1t is the
| color OF the hair, or the shape OF the
features, or an affair of the heart. Some
| gestive look, or guffaw, or an "ahem p
| Tease Tease Tease! For Gods sake, quit
| It. Christ says: "IIe that hateth his brother
| is q murderer Now, when you, by teas
ing, make your brother or sister hate, you
turn him or her into murderer or muir
deress.
Don't let jealousy ever touch sister:
soul, as II so often does, because her brother
| gets more honor or more means. Ever
by that evil passion of jealousy. She had
| possessed unlimited influence over Moses
and now he marries, and not only so, but
| marIies black woman from Ethiopia, and
Miriam is so disguised and outraged al
Moses, first, because he had married at all
and next, because,he had practiced misceg
nation, that she is drawn into frenzy and
| then begins to turn white, and gets white q!
corpse, and then whittier than a corpse. He
complexion is like chalk; the fact is, she
has the Egyptian leprosy, And now til,
brother whom she had defended on thu
| Nile comes to her rescue, in prayer tina
brings her restoration. Let there be nj
room in all your house for jealousy eithe
TO sit or stand. 1t is leprous abomination
Your brothers. success, . sisters, is you
success. His victories will be your victo
vocal music after the crossing Of the Rel
sea, Miriam, the sister, with two glitterinI
sheets Of brass, uplifted and glittering II
the sun, led the instrumental music, clap
ping the cymbals till the last frightet
neigh of pursuing cavalry horse wa
smothered in the wave, and the last Egyp
tian helmet went under.
How strong 1t makes family when al
the sisters and brothers stand together, AM
what an awful wreck when they disinte
crate, quarreling about fathers will an,
making the surTogate's Office horrible wit
their wrangle. Better when your were lii
tie children in the nursery that with you
playhouse mallets you had accidental
killed each other fighting across you
cradle, than that having come to the age O
maturity and having in your veins an
arteries the blood Of the same father an
mother, you fight each other across tn
parental grave In the cemetery.
IL you only knew II, your interests ar
identical. OF all the families OF the cart
that ever stood together perhaps the mos
conspicuous is the family Of Rothschilds
AS Mayer Anselm Rothschild was about I
die in 1912, he gathered his children abou
him, Anselm, Solomon, Nathan, Charles
and James, and made them promise tina
they would always be united on 'ChangC
Obeying that injunction they have bee
the mightiest commercial power on earth
and at the raising or lowering Of thei
scepter nations have risen or fallen. Tha
illustrates how much, on large scale an
for selfish purposes, united family ma
achieve. But suppose that instead of
magnitude of dollars as the object, It b
doing good and making salutary imprel
sion and raising this sunken world, hoy
much more enrolling Sister, you d
your part, and brother will do his part.
Miriam will lovingly watch the boat on til
Nile, Moses will help her when leprous dii
asters strike.
When the father and mother are gone
and they soon will be, If they have NJ
already made exit, the sisterly and fratcrnl
bond will be the only ligament that wi
hold the family together. How many re,
sons for your deep and unfaltoring airectlo
for each other Rocked in the same cradle
bent over by the same motherly tenderness