The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1892-01-09
THE MINISTER'S WIFE.
Everybody Hnows Her, but Few are En-.
Nous of Her.

Everybody nows Her, but Few are En-
Sous of Her
The minister's wife-you know her,
but you do not envy her, The world is
full of love and charity for these whom
it has no cause to envy. She is such as,
lnoffensive target for the arrow Of criti
cism, and the world-her world-of
critics is very magnanimous one and
full of virtue.
1t is an important position, that of the
minister's. It is something to be the
queen of the congregations; it is some
thing to be the contidante OF the abused
| in the parish, to be asked to lend an ear
to their troubles; it is something to be
| the mother of the minister's proveriai
| family, to have the numerous we'll wish
| ing members of the parish feel an unset
fish interest in your personal affairs; in
short, to have no affairs of your own; to
have your housekeeping aud your pre-
serve closet under the surveillance of the
Ladies' Aid Society: to have your button
flannels and your breakfast hour under
the eagle eye of the foreign mission com
| mittee; to have each additional offspring
regarded as a personal offense By the
| board of finances. 1t is something to be
amiable through all this, to smile and
smile, and not be a villain.
The min ister's wife must be sy mpa
| thetic woman, and her tear wells must
be near the surface, that she may weep
readily with the repentant sinner, the
godly Pharisee and for the errng world,
when called upon to do so. She must be
something of theologan, in order that
she may lend a timely suggestion to her
husband when he requests it.
| She must be able to offer a prayer
worthy of emulation, and to be president
of the Church Aid Society. While she
sews for foreign missions, and makes
stocking supporters and ear muffs for
the cannibals, she must guard well the
suits and trappings of the parsonage
| inmates, lest the eagle eye of some self
| imposed deputy discovers evidences of
| her neglect.
She must cultivate feeling of graft
tude to the church vigilance committee,
who walk in occasionally to count up the
broken crockery and Inspect the wall
paper previous to a donation. She must
| be somewhat of a cook, in order that
she may send broth and blanc mango to
the afflicted, and somewhat OF an authr-
ity on disease, to prescribe paregoric and
| liniment to the needy.
OF her the world expects so much and
gives so little in return. Her iudvidu.
atty is entirely swallowed up by those
whom she serves She is not even re-
sponsible for the proverbial minister's
son who ''goes to the bad" she is
accountable for neither virtue nor vices
in the family, but in the battle field of
her own existence she stands an I'M
has conquered city.
Not all women would be successful as
ministers wives. To fill the role salts
factorily requires stronger traits of char
acter than the pulpit often demands of
its occupauts-the strength of humility
and unsetish pride in the greatness of
another, to which greatness she is oft
times the key.
The crown may be denied her In this
world, but in another world-better than
this-there awaits a crown, brighter
| than human eyes ever beheld, and
| signet of royalty, awarded only to the
humble, unrecognized heroes and hero
ines of this temporal existence