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Counsels for the Church
her realize the worth of her work and put on the whole armor of God,
that she may resist the temptation to conform to the world’s standard.
Her work is for time and for eternity.
If married men go into the work, leaving their wives to care for
the children at home, the wife and mother is doing fully as great and
important a work as the husband and father. Although one is in the
missionary field, the other is a home missionary, whose cares and
anxieties and burdens frequently far exceed those of the husband and
father. Her work is a solemn and important one. The husband in the
open missionary field may receive the honors of men, while the home
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toiler may receive no earthly credit for her labor. But if she works for
the best interest of her family, seeking to fashion their characters after
the divine Model, the recording angel writes her name as one of the
greatest missionaries in the world. God does not see things as man’s
finite vision views them.
The world teems with corrupting influences. Fashion and custom
exert a strong power over the young. If the mother fails in her duty to
instruct, guide, and restrain, her children will naturally accept the evil
and turn from the good. Let every mother go often to her Saviour with
the prayer, “Teach us, how shall we order the child, and what shall we
do unto him?” Let her heed the instruction which God has given in
His word, and wisdom will be given her as she shall have need.
Let every mother feel that her moments are priceless; her work
will be tested in the solemn day of accounts. Then it will be found that
many of the failures and crimes of men and women have resulted from
the ignorance and neglect of those whose duty it was to guide their
childish feet in the right way. Then it will be found that many who
have blessed the world with the light of genius and truth and holiness
owe the principles that were the mainspring of their influence and
success to a praying, Christian mother.
The Mother’s Power for Good
The sphere of the mother may be humble; but her influence, united
with the father’s, is as abiding as eternity. Next to God, the mother’s
power for good is the strongest known on earth.
A Christian mother will ever be wide-awake to discern the dangers
that surround her children. She will keep her own soul in a pure, holy