The Canton times. (Canton, Miss.) 1893-1906, 1900-12-07

Q their evening prayers at ALL Sucl
r woman makes her own home so unat
r tractive that the husband spends his
t evenings at the clubhouse or the tav.
D ern. The children of that house are
as thoroughly orphans as any of the
fatherless and motherless little ones
gathered in the orphanage for which
that gadabout woman is toiling so in
, dustriously. By all means let Chris
} tian women foster charitable institu-
tions and give them as much of their
time as they can spare, but the first
duty of that mother is the duty she
owes to her home.
But no one can take q mothers
place, and it is an awful mistake that
that mother makes who sacrifices
home duties for any church meeting,
however important, or any hospital,
however merciful, or any outside benef-
cence, however glorious and grand.
Not understanding this, we mistake
when we try to give statistics as to how
many Christians there are in our
churches and in the world. We IN
derstate the facts. We look over our
church audiences on the Sabbath or
our week 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 in churches. Look into
those houses with large families of
children and little or no hired help. |
For much of the year there is some |
one Ill, and a special guardian care
is requisite. How much time can that
mother give to churches and prayer
meetings when most of the family are
down with scarlet fever or have colds
that threaten now one kind of dis
ease and now another? That mother
watching at home as much pleases the
Lord as the mother who at church
takes the sacrament or in the mission
school tells the waits of the street how
they may become sons and daughters
OF the Lord Almighty. That mother
at home is deciding the destiny of the
state by the way she leads that boy
into 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 not
appreciate the unobserved work Heav- {
en- watches and rewards On the other
hand, you have known women who
are off at meetings humanitarian and
planning for the desti-
tute and the outcast. while their own :
children went unwashed and unkempt, !
their garments needing repairs, their /
manners impudent and themselves a b
general nuisance to the community I
n which they live. !
One bad habit these gadabouts, mas t
'ulinc or feminine, are sure to get.
md that is of scandal distribution. =
They hear SO many deleterious things u
bout others and see so much of Y
wrong behavior that they are loaded
p and loaded down with the faults of
thers, and they have their eyes full, VI
nd their ears full, and their hands
ull, and their mouths full of defama.
ion. The woman who is endowed of g
ossip can so easily unite her bonnet =
trings and sit down to spend the aft
rnoon. man can afford you a cigar
S retainer if you will patiently hear CT
II he has to say about those who can. o'
OF pay their debts, or are about to NJ NJ
Ill, or are guilty of moral mishap or r.
ave aroused suspicion of embezzle. by
tent. All gadabouts are peddlers. -.
ho unpack in your presence their p,
rye store of nux vomica and night
lade. Such gadabouts have little -.
'ospect of Heaven. If they got there sic
ley would try to create jealousy
nong the different ranks of ceIes.
ais and make trouble among the ,
neighbors. and start quar-. car
Is seraphic. and would be on per- bo
tual run. now down this street and cui
wv up that, now in the house of eas
any mansions. and now in the choir "a "a
the temple, and now on the walls, up
d now in the gates, until they would sta
chased down and pushed out into
e pandeInonium of backbiters and dor
nderers after Jeremiah had adj ha,
essed them in the words: "Why I'M
ddest thou about SO much to change sA'
Y way?"
Vow, what is the practical use of ana
: present discourse? This: Where attn
SO many have ruined themselves e
1 ruined others by becoming CAD.
puts among occupations, among re-
ious theories, among churches,
ong neighborhoods; therefore, re-
we'd. that we will concentrate upon
at is right thought and right be-
'ior, and waste no time in vacilla-
ms and indecisions and uncertain
). running about in places where
have no business to be. Life is so