Chapter 23—The Mother and Her Child
Instead of sinking into a mere household drudge, let the wife
and mother take time to read, to keep herself well informed, to be a
companion to her husband, and to keep in touch with the developing
minds of her children. Let her use wisely the opportunities now hers
to influence her dear ones for the higher life. Let her take time to make
the dear Saviour a daily Companion and familiar Friend. Let her take
time for the study of His word, take time to go with the children into
the fields and learn of God through the beauty of His works.
Let her keep cheerful and buoyant. Instead of spending every
moment in endless sewing, make the evening a pleasant social season,
a family reunion after the day’s duties. Many a man would thus be led
to choose the society of his home before that of the clubhouse or the
saloon. Many a boy would be kept from the street or the corner grocery.
Many a girl would be saved from frivolous, misleading associations.
The influence of the home would be to parents and children what God
designed it should be, a lifelong blessing.
The question is often asked, “Shall a wife have no will of her own?”
The Bible plainly states that the husband is the head of the family.
“Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands.” If this injunction
ended here, we might say that the position of the wife is not an enviable
one; it is a very hard and trying position in very many cases, and it
would be better were there fewer marriages. Many husbands stop at
the words, “Wives, submit yourselves,” but we will read the conclusion
of the same injunction, which is. “As it is fit in the Lord.”
God requires that the wife shall keep the fear and glory of God
ever before her. Entire submission is to be made only to the Lord Jesus
Christ, who has purchased her as His own child by the infinite price
of His life. God has given her a conscience, which she cannot violate
with impunity. Her individuality cannot be merged into that of her
husband, for she is the purchase of Christ. It is a mistake to imagine
that with blind devotion she is to do exactly as her husband says in all
things, when she knows that in so doing, injury would be worked for
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