The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-12-04

about how they got their death while
standing in attire of cause. waiting
for h carriage on a raw night, on the
front steps While in their lifetime
they possessed all the ability for the
relief of pain AND impoverishmeni. yet
they W no time for visitation Of the
poor or TO win the blessing of such as
comes upon those who administer to
those who are ready 10 perish. Enough
flowers in their dining halls to bewitch
a prince, but not one tuft or heliotrope
to perfume the room Of the rheumatic
on the back street, to whom the breath
of one flower would be like the open
ing OF h front door of heaven. Find
me one man or n woman who in all
the rounds of pleasure and s~elfishneSs
has found a piece of happiness as large
as that half dollar which the benevo-
lent and Christ like soul puts into the
palm OF the hand of that mother whose
children are crying for bread. Queen
Victoria, riding In triumph through
London at her jubilee was not SO sub
line a figure as Queen Victoria in a hut
near Balmoral castle reading the New
Testament to a poo dying man. Let
all the gadabouts for happiness know
that in kindness and usefulness and
self abnegation are to be found a sat-
isfaction which all the gayeties of the
world aggregated cannot afford.
NEGLECTING ONES HOME.
Among the race OF gadabouts are
those who neglect their homes in order
that they may attend to institutions
that are really excellent and do not so
much ask for help as demand It, 1 I'm
acquainted, as you are, with women
who are members of SO many boards of
direction of benevolent institutions, and
have to stand at a booth in so many
fairs, and must collect funds for so
many orphanages and preside at so
many philanthrophic meetings, and are
expected to be in so many different
places, at the same time and that their
children are left to the care of irrespon-
sible servants, and IL the little ones
waited to say their prayers at their
mothers knee they would never say
their evening prayers at all. Such a
woman makes her home so Enattractive
that the husband spends his evenings
at the club house or the taTern. The
children of the house are 81 thoroughly
orphan as any of the fatherless or
motherless little ones gathered in the
orphanage for which that gadabout
woman is toiling so lndu%striously. By
all means let Christian women foster
charitable institutions and give them as
much of their time as they can spare,
but the first duty of that mother is the
duty h owe ito her home.
Hired help is a great advantage to
the homestead hat can afford it, and
We have all had In our homes a fidel-
will stir Dun gratitude as long as life
shall last. How they watched in time
of sickness and always gave the medi-
cine at the right time, and but for their
vigilence their members of our families
now living who would long ago have
disappeared from the home circle.
Blessed the ships that brought those
amn10vppS f0 DIN. ShnrQcf And who
will ever do justice 20 those who were
affectionately called and 1 believe are
still called the "mammies" of the
south? I lave had governors and SEN
ators of the United States with tears
in their eyes talk to me about those old
solored women Of the south who rocked
them in their cradles and bound up
their wounds when they got hurt, and
wept with them ait graves. n looked
in from the hall door at weddings,
and greeted them HON from college
or from the wars with motherly en-
dearment. Ask hose who know them
best about those old "mammies." We
have all had in our employments those
so near and dear to us that we went to
them in childhood and told them all
our griefs and all our joys, and they
sympathiZed with copious tears and re-
sounding laughter.
THE MISTAKE OF MOTHERS.
Butt no one can take a. mothers
place, and it is an awful mistake tina
that mother makes who sacrifices home
duties for any church meeting, howev-
or important, or any hospital, however.
merciful, or any benef1cence, however
glorious and grand. Not understand
ing this, we mistake when we try to
give statistics as to how many Chris
tianS there are in our churches and in
the world. We understate the facts
We look over u church audiences on
the Sabbath or Our weekly service and
conclude that they represent the amount
of piety in that neighborhood. Oh, no:
There are many most consecrated souls
that are not found III the churches.
Look into those houses with large fam
lilies of children and little or no hired
help. For much of the year there is
some n i'll, and a special guardian
care is requisite. How much time can
that mother give to churches and pray
er meetings when most of the family
are down with scarlet fever or have
colds that threaten now one kind of
disease and now another? That moth
er watching at home as much pleases
the Lord as the mother who at church
takes the sacrement or in the mission
school tells the waits of the street
how they become sons and daughters
of the Lord Almighty. That mother al
oAAI - oSSAoAAS In oSSNAA VI LIN
state by the way she leads that boy
into the right thinking and acting and
is deciding the welfare of some future
home by the example she is setting
that girl, and though the world does no
appreciate the unobserved work. HEAVIER
watches and rewards. On the other
hand, you have known women who are
off at meetings humanitarians ant
philanthropic, planning for the desti'
tute and the outcast, while their owl
children went unwaShed and unkept.
their garments needed repairs, theil
impudent and themselves {
general nuisance to the community il
which they live.
The book of Samuel gives a photo
graph of M~ephibosheth lame in both
feet. we see any one lame in one
foot or lame in both feet, we always
wonder by what accident he was lamed
Perhaps it may ave been in battle fol
his country, or he may have been ruI
over by some reckless driver, OIL some
explosion did the damage. So you Won
der how Mephibosheth became lame in
both feet. h Bible for a good reason
gives Us the particulars. 1t tells us that
when he was q child his nurse drODDeG