Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1889-09-12
SACRIFICES TO THE DEVIL.
Some Hints Which II Carried Out
May Go Far to Make Home


scarcely home where an altar has
not been built that daily sacrifice may
be offered TO the princes, potentates
and powers OF darkness.
1t is surprising to observe in how
many different forms and in how many
different names these sacrifices are Of
fered and how little appreciation the
vast majority OF persons seem to have
OF the nature, purpose, or extent of
these sacrifices.
The ennuied men and women whose
bodies arc housed and whose souls are
restlessly wandering in highways and
byways of hope, despair Renaissance,
or mere endurance are "heart- bare,
hearthungry, very poor" simply be-
cause of the sacrifices to the devil that
are made in their homes.
That which ought to De spent for
love, Joy, and the illumining of heart
and home is spent in ill-humor, chronic
fault-fnding, foolish sensuality, love of
display, or some other sacrifice to the
evil at once costly and unsatisfactory.
The woman who has bright
thought, a tender story, or pretty
sentiment which she is longing to
share W it'll her husband finds often that
he can not appreciate, can not respond
can not even listen, simply because he
! is too tired TO talk, too cross to smile,
too much absorbed in the business he
should leave behind him for the one or
two hours he spends with his wife even
to listen to what she is saying.
He has been in the world all day and
she has been alone. She has anticipat-
ed his Homecoming as respite from
her lonliness. She u les to be at her
brightest and tenderest and sweetest;
but he has sacrifice to offer TO his love
of money or love OF ease or love of
power, and he has nothing left for the
poor little god of love that has taken
his wife's heart captive-not so much
because OF any special attraction on his
part as because OF her own abundant
nature full aud overlooking with native
tenderness.
To Incidence, worry, or work beyond
his strength the husband has sacrificed
all the finer forces of his nature and he
has nothing left over for that soul COM
munion which is his wife's dream OF
heaven.
Sometimes it is not the husband who
makes these sacrifices 10 the devil. 1t
is the wife who makes them. She is
absorbed in clothes. in 1.-The neigh
bors," in petty gossip or commonplace
comment on subjects that make life
amending monotony.
He tells story and she doesn't see
the point.
He ventures bonmot and she won
ders where the laugh comes in"
He brings TO her u thought that is
! dearer to him than even he knows, and
she interrupts him to wonder if that
isn't Mrs, Smith across the street with
a new bonnet on and her husband not
able 10 pay his debts"
He tries reading to her. but she
yawns so dismally that he soon loses
hope OF interesting her in this way and
retires into himself a gloomy and dis
satisfied man who, after time, carries
in his face the lonely and despairing
look by which the worlds people de-
clare that in their homes all their sub
ebtUCO 10 NOobSu Ai W VIC
devil.
1t is wonderful to notice how many
women are pale, care-worn and unin-
teresting, not because they might no t
be well, merry-hcarted, and clear
headed-if only their forces were
turned in the right direction-but be-
cause they have lost sight OF the essen
tials OF life and are madly chasing
non-essentials and so h ave not rest to
gain health, nor leisure for mental inn
provement, nor force to make their
presence n brightness and a benedic-
ton.
They have "no time to read, but
they have time to gossip, time for
stupid dawdling, time to study the
fashions and plan how to seem richer
than their neighbors.
They are too busy to follow any line
of thought or listen to any rational con-
versation. but they waste themselves
in a thousand pretenses supposed to
add to their social position" but in
reality adding to nothing but their own
folly and fatigue.
They will spend day and count its
loss gain if they can achieve ''an eff
ecu III Juelr lOllSJ, ycJ Oho NJ vi VI
day spent in thinking about wiser
methods OF living would seem to them
"most visionary" They will tell you
that they could enjoy that sort of
thing" that they are weary, weary OF
victuals and clothes, yet If you offer
them but one leaf from the tree OF
knowledge they consider it an eccen-
tricity on your part and waste of time
on theirs.
So they become narrowed to a pretty
round of small observances supposed
TO be "a mark of good society,"" but in
reality merely an indication OF mental
imbecility. Their "formal calls" have
brought them merely other formal
calls.
Their high teas or kettledrums, re-
ceptions or luncheons have been so
many sacrifices OF time, strength,
money, temper, an opportunity for
which they have gained the patronage
OF their superiors, the envy OF their
equals, and the undying hatred OF their
interiors.
They invite not these whom they
love nor those whom they could enjoy,
but those TO whom they are "under