St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1898-03-12

or.
Moses, doing good thing, an impor-
tant. a glorious thing, when she
watched the boat. woven of river plants
and made water-tight with asphaltum,
carrying its one passenger? Did she
not put all the ages of time and Of q
coming eternity Under obligation when
she defended her helpless brother from
the perils aquatic. reptilian, and ravens
Gus? She it was that brought that
wonderful babe and his mother to-
gether, so that he was reared to be the
deliverer of his nation, when other
wise, if saved at all from the rushes OF
the Nile, he would have been only
one more of the uod=defying Pharaohs:
for Princess Thermutis of the bathing
house would have inherited the crown of
Egypt; and as she had no child of her
own, this adopted child would have
come to coronation. Had there been
no Miriam there would have been no
Moses. What garland for faithful
sisterhood! For how many lawgiver,
and how many hero, and how many a
deliverer, and how many saint are
the world and the church indebted to a
watchful, loving, faithful. godly sister.
Come up out of the farm houses. come
up out of the inconspicuous homes,
come up from the banks of the Hudson
the Penobscot, and the Savannah. and
the Mobile. and the Mississippi, and all
the other Niles of America, and let us
see you, the Miriams who
watched and protected the leaders
in law, and merchandise, and art.
and agriculture, and mechanics, and
religion! If should ask all physicians.
and attorneys, and merchants. and
ministers of religion, and successful
men of all professions and trades. who
are indebted to an elder sister for good
influences and perhaps for an ednca-
tion or prosperous start, to let 1t be
known. hundreds would testify. God
knows how many of our Greek lexicons
and how much of our schooling was
paid for by money that would other
wise have gone for the replenishing of
sisters wardrobe. While the brother
sailed off for resounding sphere. the
sister watched him from the banks of
self-denial.
Miriam was the eldest of the family;
Moses and Aaron. her brothers, were
younger. Oh the power of the elder
sister to help decide the brothers char
actor for usefulness and for Heaven!
She can keep off from her brother
more evils than Miriam could have
driven back waterfowl or crocodile
from the ark of bullrushes. The older
sister decides the direction in which
the cradle boat shall sail. BY gentle
ness, by good sense. by Christian prin-
ciple she can turn it toward the palace,
not of wicked Pharaoh, but of a holy
God; and brighter princess than
Thermutis should lift him out
of peril, even religion whose
ways are ways of pleasantness 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 brothers.
And if there is anything that excites
my sympathy, it is a little girl Juggling
around a great fat child and
getting her ears boxed because
she can not keep him quiet? BY
the time she gets to young woman
hood she is pale and worn out. and
her attractiveness has been sacrificed
on the altar of sisterly fidelity, and
she is consigned to celibacy, and socie-
ty calls her by an unfair 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 because she
is worn out with the cares of home
that can not afford to hire help, and
the last because she is spoiled as pet.
Among the grandest cquipages that
sweep through the streets of Heaven
will be those occupied by sisters who
sacrificed themselves for brothers.
They will have the finest of the Apoca-
lyptic white horses, and many who on
earth looked down upon them will
have to turn out to let them pass, the
charioteer crying: ''Clear the way! A
queen is coming.'
Let sisters not begrudge the time
and care bestowed on a brother. 1t is
hard to believe that any boy you know
SO well as your brother can ever turn
out anything very useful. Well, he
may not be another Moses. There is
only one of that kind needed for 5000
years. But l tell your brother will
be-either a blessing or a 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 a nation, but he may, after your
father and mother are gone, be
the deliverer of household. What
thousands of homes to-day are piloted
by brothers. There are properties now
well invested and yielding income for
the support of sisters and younger
brothers because the older brother rose
to the leadership from the day the
father lay down to die. Whatever you
do for your brothers will come back to
yod again. If you set him an ill-na-
tured, censorious, unaccommodating
example. it will recoil upon you from
his own irritated and despoiled nature.
If you. by patience with his infirmities
and by his nobility of character, 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 and
wade out and upset the ark Of the bull
rushes. Don't tease him. Brothers
and sisters do not consider it any harm
to tease. That spirit abroad in the
family is one of the meanest and most
devilish. There is teasing that is
pleasurable, and is only another form
of innocent raillery; but that which
provokes and irritates and makes the
eye flash with anger is to be repre-
hnplaI l,l lxe 4.