The Penn's Grove record., 1899-02-17

tudes of bousekeepers. Let me say to
such, 1t is a part Of the divine discipline.
III 1t were best for you, all you would have
to do would be just to open the front win
dows and the ravens would fly in with
food, and after you had baked fifty times
from the barrel in the pantry, like the
barrel of Zarephath, the barrel would be
full, and the ehildren's shoes would last as
Icing as the shoes OF the Israelites in the
wilderness-forty years.
Oh, my friends, all these trials and
fatlgues OF home life are to prepare you
for heaven, for they will make that the
brighter in the contrast A dying soldier
was asked by a friend, Have you any
message to send to your father" eyes,"
said he; "tell him / rave gone home"
"Well," said the friend, "have you any
message to send to your wife9" Eyes; tell
her / have gone Tome" "You rave other
friends. Would you like to send a message
to them2" Eyes; give them the same mes
sage. They will understand 1t. Tell them
| have gone home" And that heavenly
home will compensate, will fully atone, for
all the hardshlps and the trials and the
annoyances and the yexations of the
earthly home. In that land they neyef
hunger, and consequently there will be no
nuisance OF catering FOR appetite. In that
land of the white robes they rave no mend
ing to do, and the air of that billy country
makes them all well. No rent to pay there.
Every man owns his own house, and a
mansion at that. 1t will not be so great a
change to step into the chariot Of the skies
II on earth you rode. 1t will not be so
great a change IL on earth you had all
~luxuries and satisfaetions. 1t will not be
so great a change for you to sit down on
the banks OF the river Of life II on earth
you had a country seat.
But oh, the Joy Of the weary feet when
they step into the celestial %equippage, and,
oh, for the Joy of those to whom home was
a martyrdom on earth when they go into
that home where they will never have to
do anything they do not want to dol What
a change from the time she put down the
rolling pin TO the time she took up the
scepterl II Chatsworth Park and the Van
derbilt mansion were fitted into the celes-
tial city, they would be looked at as unin-
habltable rookerles, and Lazarus himself
would be ashamed to be seen going In and
cut of them, so great are the palaces
awaiting Gods dear children, and so much
grander the heavenly architecture than
the earthly. 1t is often not only the toll
Of the housekeeping, but 1t is the sickness
and the sorrow that go along. 1t Is a SIM
pie fact that one-half Of the women OF the
land are invalids. The mountain lass who
has never had an ache or a pain may con-
slider household work OF no very great
wearlness, and at the eventide may
skip out to the fields and drive the cat
tie home, and until 10 o'clock at night
may fill tho cabin with laughing racket;
but, oh, to do the hard work Of the house
hold with u shattered constitution-after
six weeks ~whooping cough has ragged in
the household, making the nights as sleep
less as the days-then it Is not so easyi
And then this work of the house has often
to be undertaken when the nerves are
shattered with some bereavement that has
put desblatlon In every room of the house
and sent tho crib into the garnet because
Its occupant has been hhshed into a slum-
Der that needs no mothers lullaby. oh, 1t
was a great deal easier for her to brood
the whole flock than to brood a part Of
them ow that the rest have gonei You
may tell her that her departed children are
In the bosom of a loving God, but, mother
like, she will brood both focks, putting
one wing of care over the flock in the
house. putting the other wing of care over
the flock in the grave. Nothing but the
old fashioned religion OF Jesus Christ can
take a woman happily through home trials.
All these modern religions amount to moth
ing. They do not help.
Solomon wrote out of his own miserable
experience-he had q wretched home; no
man can be happy with two wives, much
less with zoo, and out of his wretchede xper-
fence he wrote-"Better is a dinner of
herbs where love is than a stalled OK and
hatred Herewith" Oh, the responsibilities
of housekeeperst Kings by their indiges-
tion have lost empires and generals
through indigestion have lost battles. One
of the great statlsticians says that out of
1000 unmarried men thirty were criminals,
and out of 1000 married men only eighteen
were criminals, showing the power of home.
And, oh, the responsibility resting upon
housekeepersl By the food they provide,
by the couch they spread, by the books
they introduce, by theinfuence they bring
around the home, they are helping to de-
eide the physical, the Intellectual, the
moral, the eternal welfare Of the human
race. Oh, the responsibility
That woman sits in the house OF God to-
day perhaps entirely unappreclated. She
is the banker of her home, the president,
the cashier, the teller, the discount clerk,
and ever and amor there isl panic. God
knows the anxleties and the cares, and he
knows that this Is not a useless sermon,
but that there are multitudes OF hearts
waiting for the distillation of the divine
merry and solaee in their hour of trials
and their home duties and their own IA
| tigues. The world hears nothing about
them. They never speak about them. You
could not with the agencies OF an inquisi-
tion bring the truth out OF them. They
keep 1t stlll. They say nothing. They en-
dure and will until God and the judgment
right their wrongs.
1t is the self sacrificing people that are
happy, for God pays so largely, so glori-
ously, so magniacently, in the deep aud
eternal satisfactions Of the soul. Self sa-
cri1cel We all admire 1t in others. How
little we exercise of 1T How much would
we endure? How much would We risk for
others? A very rough schoolmaster had a
poor lad that had offended the laws of the
school, and he ordered him to come up,
sNow," he said, ''you take off your eoat
instantly and receive this whip" The boy
declined, and more vehemently the teacher
said, 81 tell you, now, take oil your coat.
Take it off instantly" The boy again de-
clined. 1t was not because he was afraid
Of the lash; he was used to that in his cruel
home. But it was for shame. He had no IN
dergarments, and when ut last he removed
his coat there went up q sob OF emotion all
through the school as they saw why he did
not wish to remove his coat, and as they
saw the shoulder blades almost cutting
through the skin. As the schoolmaster
lifted his whip to strike a roseate, healthy
boy leaped up and said; stop school
master; whip me. He is only a poor chap:
he can't stand 1t. Whip me-" "oh," said
the teacher, 'it's going to be a very severe
scourgingl But II you want to take the
position of a substitute, you can do it,"
The boy said: ~ don't care; whip me.
III take it; he's only a poor chap.
Don't you see the bones almost come
through the flesh? Whip me-" And
when the blows came down on the boys
shoulders, this healthy, robust lad made
no cutlery; he endured it all uncomplaining-
ly. We all say 'Bravo!" for that lad.
Brayol That is the spirit OF Christi Splen-
did How much scourging, how much
ehastisement, how much z will you
and | take for others? Oh, that we might
have something OF that boys spirit Aye,
that we might have something of the spirit
of Jesus Christ; for in all our occupations
and trades and businesses, and all our
hfe-home life, foreign life-we are to re-
member that the sacrifice for Others will
soon be over.