Year: 1867




It Is singular fact that the most elab.
crate and extended Characteristic in the
Bible is the portraiture of the model wife.
The first feature of the picture is industry.
Idleness is said by great writer's to be the
bane Of tho world. In every one Of the
twenty-five verses of this beautiful Scrip
ture poem Is the virtue of industry en-
joined. At the present day there is too
extensive and foolish prejudice against
labor for woman. Our picture of women
nowadays is that Of slender body, pale
face, a fair, frail and lovely creature, en-
tirely removed from the necessities Of vul.
gar exertion. Instead Of girding their
loins with strength, they grid them with
whalebone. 'They toll not, neither do
they spin, and yet Solomon in all his glo-
ry was not arrayed like one of these. j.
Health aud happiness are closely allied,
and health can never be possessed without
industry. "Even an angels wing would
droop if long at rest" The well known
song of "Buy Broom" would excellent
ly suit such women, and | would repeat
the words, and say TO them, fuse it until
the merry blood shall burn in your veins,
and the very flowers Of the carpet blossom
beneath your feet"


This scriptural picture of the true
housewife eDjoins also neatness and taste.
Her husband was "known at the gates
by a thousand evidences Of her excellencies.
She looked to his linen and saw that II
was clean and his garments in good condi.
ton, and not only his, but her own as well
Her home was neat and inviting, purified
by cleanliness and enhanced by the char.
ming ncatness Of herself Cleanliness il
next to godlincss, and the neglect of il in
house il sure to eat like canker at the
core Of domestic peace.


Another trait of this good housewife
is her prudent and thrifty management o.
domestic affairs. There are many wives
who work hard all day long, and yet tn err
there is about them no neatness, no thrift
They have no tact for management. The
writer has heard of judge who had in
scribed on his wife's tombstone, "Shc wa
an excellent woman and a good cook"


Men appreciate these substantial, prac
teal excellences about about house
ueatness, good cooking, and physical com
forts generally. A good wife needs wha
is called "gumption." A woman ma,
speak many tongues, may be deep in thu
mysteries of the dance or dress, and ye
il she have no "gumption" it proftetl
her nothing. So much prudence Ant
wisdom did this good housewife of tn,
| Scriptures exhibit that her husband coulc
safely trust her with everything. How
many men, because Of this want Of pru
dcnde and tact in their wives, have beer
led into speculation, and from that to pee
ulation, and thus ruined And yet man,
a man has had his fortune repaired b
the prudence, tact and noble sympathl
aud advice Of good wife. Every maj
should trust his wife to a large extent
not to mutually annoy each other witt
details of their respective duties, but up
on matters of deeper and broader interest
Heaven has inspired woman in a remark
able degree with an intuitive wisdom no
possessed by man, and of which he ough
to avail himself.


| Another charming trait of this goo
housewife is her charity and beuevolence
those diamonds among wife's jewels
J, If it can be proved, as some selfish me


would have it, that woman has one les
cell in the brain than man, it can also
proved that she has two or three NOR
fbres in the heart than he. 1t was not
woman who slept in the garden of Geth
semane, and it was woman strewed tn
path of the Saviour and His Apostle
5 with charities and selfsacrifces almost an
gelic.


5 Another commendable feature of tn


subject of this psalm picture, is the wife
wisdom and kindness; her management
of tongue and temper! How many We
men have broken their charm by an ur
ruly tongue and temperi We were Dor
S with two eyes. doubtless with the purpos
? that we should see twice as much as W


speak of, whereas many women. often RI


verse it.


II IF woman wants to make mankind be
: ter she can do it much better over tn
q cradle than by hsranguing from the pla
form. The really domestic woman occ,
!, pies the highest place in the world, an
how little do those unsexed reformers III


derstand either the dignity of her sphel
J. or the might of her influence! The frui
t of good wife's influence are seen
Q the great men of the world, moulded an
made great by the fostering care of
Il good mother Christina AdVocdte.