The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1898-01-05

change to mount celestial equipageI
And if your life on earth was do
mestic martyrdom, oh the Joy Of
eternity in which you shall have
nothing to do except what you
choose to do? Martha has had no
drudgery for 1s centuries / quarrel
with the theologians who want to dis
tribute 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
houselseepers. Oh, what a change
from here to there-from the time
when they put down the rolling-pin
to when they take up the scepter! If
Chatsworth Park and the Vanderbilt
mansion were to be lifted into the Ce-
lestial City they would be considered
uninhabitable rookeries, 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 the women of the
land are more or less invalids. The
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 oh, to do the
work of life with worn-out constitution,
when whooping cough has been raging
for six weeks in the household, making
the night as sleepless as the day-that
is not so easyl Perhaps this comes
after the nerves have been shattered
olation in every room of the house, and
set the crib in the garret, because the
occupant has been hushed into slum-
Der which needs no mothers lullaby.
Oh, she could provide for the whole
group great deal better than she can
for part of the group, now the rest
are gone! Though you may tell her
God is taking care of those who are
gone, it is motherlike 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-fash-
ioned religion of Jesus Christ that will
take a woman happily through the
trials of home life. At first there may
be romance or novelty that will do
for substitute. The marriage hour
has just passed, and the perplexities of
the household are more than atoned by
the joy of being together, and by the
fact that when it is late they do not
have to discuss the question as to
whether it is time to go!
But after while the romance is all
gone, and then there is something to
be prepared for the table that the book
called Cookery Taught in 12 Lessons"
will not teach. The receipt for making
it is not handful of this, cup of
that, and spoonful of something else
1t is not something sweetened with
ordinary condiments or favored with
ordinary flavors, or baked in ordinary
ovens. 1t is the loaf of domestic hap,
piness; and all the ingredients come
down from Heaven, and the fruits are
plucked from the tree of life, and it is
sweetened with the new 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 600; and he says,
writing out of his own experience:
"Better is dinner of herbs where lovo
is, than stalled OK and hatred there
with"
How great are the responsibilities of
housekeepers! Sometimes an indigesti-
BILE article of food, by its effect upon a
king, has overthrown an empire. A
distinguished statistician says of 1000
unmarried men there are 3S criminals,
and of 1000 married men only IS are
criminals What suggestion of home
influences! Let the most be made of
them. Housekeepers by the food they
provide, by the couches they spread, by
the books they introduce, by the infu-
ences 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 was Florent 9
Nightingale's life; that was Payson's
life; that was Christs life We admire
it in others; but how very hard it is for
us to exercise it ourselves
One of the most affecting reminis-
cences of my mother is my remembrance
of her as Christian housekeeper. She
worked very hard and when we would
come in from summer play, and sit
down at the table at noon, remember
how she used to come in with beads of
perspiration along the line of gray hair,
and how sometimes she would sit down
at the table and put her head
against her ,wrinkled hand and
say: "Well, the fact is, I'm too tired
to eat" Long after she might have
delegated this duty to others, she
would not be satisfied unless she at
tended to the matter herself. In fact,
we all preferred to have her do so, for
somehow things tasted better when
she prepared them. Some time ago, in
an express train, shot past that old
homestead / looked out of the win
dow and tried to peer through the
darkness. While l was doing so, one
of my old schoolmates, whom / had
not seen for many years. tapped me on
the shoulder and said: "De Witt, see
you are looking at the scenes of your