The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-11-19


 him gifts of flowers. His home was sim ply deluged with them. Showing one or his rooms filled with flowers to friend, he turned and said: "Flowers to me have an individual flavor. They speak the pe- culiar language of the people who send them. Now, most of the donors of these flowers l have never seen, and yet from the flowers themselves l can tell wno my friends are. That magnificent ny came from a French florists green house. The friend who sent me that must nave been a well to do Parisian. This bunch of herbs could only grow on the Garonne, and that blue star flower can be 1ouno nowhere but in Normandy Thus ne went on, giving the history of the dll- ferent baskets and bouquets and collec- tons of wild flowers which had been sent to him as birthday gifts. As Victor Hugo read the characters of his unseen friends by the language of the flowers, l read the characters of wives by the conduct or their husbands.
 Inevitably when you find a consecrated, earnest man working for Christ in the church you will find noble, devoted wife back of that man, who is chiefly responsi- ble for that mans consecration. or course there are exceptions to all rules, but exceptions do not destroy the rules. So invariable has been my experience in this respect that when l find a man join ing the church whose wife thinks more of card parties and dances and club meet ings and dinners than she does of her prayer meetings I have but little hope of that man being an active or spiritual church member. 1 have known many women to stay in the church as faithful, loyal workers in spite of goddess hus- bands but I have in only two or three instances known a husband to be true to his church VOW if he has an indiffer- ent er a goddess wife. My brother, l be- lieve, that next to our mothers the hu- l,a1 fno fn 1 n with our religious conduct have been our godly, consecrated, Christian wives
 Our wives have broken their alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very prec- ious upon our family altars and made us what we are spiritually. But have they not done more than that? Oh. yes. They have literally sacrificed their all for us and submerged their lives in our life. When Benjamin Disraeli retired from the ministerial bench Queen Victoria wished to elevate her favorite prime minister to the peerage He declined at that time the honor for himself. but he practically said this: Your majesty, the honor you would confer upon me would gratify me more if conferred on my wife. for all that have been able to accomplish in English craftsmanship is due to her devotion and self-sacriice." So for the time he re- mained plain MT. Disraeli, while his wife became Countess of Beaconsfeld. Not until some years later did he accept the honor urged upon him and take the title of Earl of Beaconsfield.
 When the aged banker. Rothschild, founder of the banking house which now bears his name, was dying he called his boys to him and said: Never make financial move until you have consulted your mother" What the wives of Disraeli and Rothschild were to their husbands in temporal sense our wives have been to us. They have submerged themselves Iz1 selves in our work They have poured out their dives for us. An. yes as we have had good mothers, we have also had good wives.
 The Tired Wife.
 And here let me state something which has been on my mind for a long time. l have been noticing how tired your wife looks of late. Aye, she is beginning to get that tired look your mother Nd during her last few years. You have often said to your brothers and sisters since your mothers death, "Oh, if father had only made her hold up l.ttle she would have been with us now," Yes, perhaps she would. Your mother was one of those "willing horses" who worked themselves to death. Your wife is the same kind of a woman Her alabaster box of ointment of spikenard very precious which she is now pouring upon you Is her life's blood. You had better make her hold up or your children may soon De SdNlHS aDOul lHclF mothers premature death what you said about your mothers. Yes. we have all had good mothers. We have all had good wives.
 But as our minds wander back into the dim past there Is another sweet face which arises above the horizon of our memories. Next to the mother and the wife I think this third face belongs to young girl who has had the most in- fluence in our mental and moral and spir- itual development. I allude to that sweet sister who grew up by your side. She was a good girl. You cannot speak of her now without your lips trembling and your eyes being moistened with tears. Oh" you say, If we were not so far apart how l would love to go and have one of the old chats we used to have" Truly she did for you what she could. She naturally did more for you than any of the other children, because you grew up together. You played your games to- gether, you trudged to school together. | She was a little older than you and was | always looking after you. When you got l into trouble you always went first to her. | Cannot you hear her gentle voice saying: Now. brother, you must not do that. Mother would not like you to do It." | Though the oldest sister when she cor | rected you would always make you an- gry. she would always make you feel | willing to do what you ought to do. Yes. l yes, that dear SlSlef ndS SdCIluceu d great | deal for you. When you were little she used to give you her pennies Like the | poor widow. she gave you her mite. It was not much intrinsically. but it was her | all When she grew little older she | still continued your friend. She gave to | you her whole heart. Aye. It was a sad 1 day for you when she married. Cannot l you write to her now and bridge over | that awful chasm of separation9
 | But are the mothers, the wives, the | sisters the only female faces we can
 mention today like this woman of my l text? No. The list would not be com | plete unless we spoke a few words at | least in reference to the children who | have grown up in our nurseries. Once | there was a time we carried our daugh | ters in our arms. Now they are too big | for that. They have grown so big and | strong in some families that instead of | the daughters leaning upon the parents the parents have to lean upon the daugh- | ters. How strong and helpful some of | these daughters have been! Do you not | know that In some families the daughters have literally given up their whole lives | in order to please and to help the par 1 ents? Let me tell you a beautiful TO-
 nance that ended in tragedy.
 Why She Did Not Marry.
 l Do you see that sad faced young wo-
 man with the gray hairs just appearing amid her brown locks? Who is she? Miss | So-and-so," you answer Why did she | not marry?" "Oh, I guess because she | did mt uiSb to marry vOrI answer Oh