The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-02-24
THE DAILY TRIALS
TALMAGE TELLS HOW HOUSEHOLD
PERPLExITIEs BRING BLESS.
INGS
The Manifold Duties of the Wife and
Mother Are Not Fully Appreciated.
Reward That Comes From Patient
and UnseIfsh Service

Copyright, 1893, by American TEeSs AS
sociation.)
This discourse of DR.. Talmage seems
to open all the doors of home life and
rouses appreciation of work not
ly recognized; text, Luke X, 40: Lord,
dost thou not care that my sister hath
left me to serve alone? Bid her therefore
that she help me-"
Yonder is a beautiful village homestead.
The man of the house is dead and his
widow has charge of the premises. 1t is
Widow Martha OF Bethany. Yes, L Will
show you also the pet OF the household.
1t is Mary, the younger sister, with a
book under her arm, and in her face no
sign of care or anxiety about anything.
Company has come. Christ appearing at
the outside of the door a some ex-
citement inside the door. The sisters set
back the disarranged furniture, arrange
their hair, and in a flash prepare to open
the door. They do not keep Christ wait
ing outside until they have newly ap-
uareled themselves of deliberately ar
ranged their tresses, and then with affect
ed surprise come out and, pretending not
to have heard the two or three previous
knockings, say, why, is that your No,
they were ladies, and always presenta-
BILE, although perhaps they mad not on
their best. None of us always nave on
our best. Otherwise very soon our best
would not be worth having on. They
throw open the door and greet CHRIST.
They say: Good morning, Master! come
in and be seated!' Christ brought a com
pany of friends with him, and the ln11ux
of so many city visitors, you DO not
wonder, threw the country nome INTO
some perturbation. l suppose the walk
from the city had been a keen appetizer.
The kitchen department that day was a
very important department, and l think
as soon as Martha had greeted her guests
she went to that room. Mary had no anx-
fety about the Inner. She had full con-
fidence that her sister Martha could get
up the best dinner in bethany, ana she
division of labor. Martha, you cook and
I'll sit down and learn
The same difference you now some
times see between sisters. There is Mar
tina, industrious, painstaking, a good
manager, ever inventive of some new
pastry, discovering something in mousse
hold affairs. Here is Mary, fond of con-
Versation, literary, so full OF questions
of ethics she has no time to discuss
questions of household welfare. 1t is
noon. Mary is in the parlor. Martha is
in the kitchen. 1t would have been bet
ter for them to have divided the toll,
and then they could have divided the
opportunity of listening to Christ. But
Mary m~onopolizes Christ, while Martha
swelters before the fire. 1t was very
important hat they have a good dim
ner that day, for Christ was hungry,
and he did not often have luxurious en-
t~ertainment. Alas, me-, if all the respon,
sibility of that entertainment had rested
with Mary! What a repast they Wouid
have had! But something went wrong In
the kitchen. Either the fire would not
burn or the bread would not bake or
something was turned black that ought
to have been only turned brown, or Mar
tina Scalded herself, and, forgetting all
the proprieties of the occasion, with be-
cuZna fnI ThrnUV che rushed out OIL the
kitchen into the parlor, perhaps with
tongs in one hand and pitcher In the 9th
er, and she cried out: Lord, dost thou
not care mat my sister has left me to
serve alone? Bid her therefore that she
help me-" Christ scolded not a word.
If it were scolding, 1 would rather have
him scold me than anybody else bless
me. There was nothing acerb in the
Saviour's reply. He knew that Martha
had been working herself almost to death
to get him something to eat, and he ap-
preciated her kindness, and he pr2ctl-
caliy said: My dear woman, do not Wor-
ry. Let the dinner go. Sit down here on
this couch beside your younger sister,
Mary. Let us talk about something else.
Martha. Martha, thou are careful and
troubled about many things, but one
thing is needful.'
AS Martha throws open the door L look
in today, and l see a great many house
hold anXieties, perpleXities, fatigues and
trials, and about them I am going to
speak if the Lord and Mary and Martha
and Lazarus will help me by his grace.
HOUSEHOLD PERPLEXITISS AND
TRIALS.
AS I look into that door, in the first
place, l see the trial of nonappreciation.
That was what made Martha so VeXed
at Mary. Mary, the younger sister, had
no proper estimate of the elder sisters
fatigue. Just as now men having an
oyanc of store and factory and shop,
or at the Stock Exchange, come home at
might and hear Of some household an
noyance and they say: 90, that's moth
ing! You ought to be in a factory a day
and have ten or fifteen or twenty or 100
subordinates. Then you would know
something about annoyance and trou-
BILE" oh, man, let me tell you that a wife
and a mother has to conduct at the same
time a university, a clothing establish
ment, a restaurant, a laundry, a library,
and has to he health officer, police and
president of the whole realm! She has to
do q thousand things, and to do them
well, in order to make things go smooth
ly, and that is what puts the aWfuI AK
on a woman's nerves and a woman'S
brain. 1 know there are exceptions to
the rule. Sometimes you will find a wo-
man who can sit in the armchair Of the
tarry on the belated pillow, and all the
cares of the household are thrown Upon
%rvant who have large wages and great
experience; but that Is the exception. l
speak of the great masses Of houSekeep-
ers, to whom life is a struggle, and who
at so years of age look as though they
were 40. The fallen at Chalons and Aus
terlitz and Gettysburg and Waterloo are
a small number in comparison with those
who nave gone down under the Arranged
don of the kitchen. Go out to the coun-
try and look over the epitaphs on the
tombstones. They are all beautiful and
poetic, but if the tombstones could tell
the truth thousands of them would say
Here lies a woman who was killed by
too much mending and sewing and bak-
ing and securing and scrubbinS.' and
the weapon with which she was killed
was a broom or a sewing machine or a
ladle.
The housewife rises in tho morning
half rested. At an ir-evocable hour she
must have the morning repast ready.
What if the fire will not burn. what If
the clock stop, what If the marketing
has not been sent in? Nc matter that:
1T must be ready at the irrevocab.e hour.
Then the children must be got ready for
school. But what If The garments be
torn? What if they do not know their
lessons? What IL the hat or sash is lost?
They must be ready. Then you a the
duty Of the day. or perhaps several days,
to plan out. But what If the butcher
sends meat unmasticab.e? What If the
grocer furnishes your articles of food
adulterated? What If the piece OF silver
be lost, or a favorite cha.ice be broken,
En1A