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Christian Temperance and Bible Hygiene
trolled wills, were painfully apparent to others. Ill-formed characters,
mismatched pieces of humanity, indeed they were, yet the mother was
blind to it all. The arrangement of her house was of more consequence
to her than the symmetry of her children’s character.
Cleanliness and order are Christian duties, yet even these may be
carried too far, and made the one essential, while matters of greater
importance are neglected. Those who neglect the interests of the
children for these considerations, are tithing the mint and cummin,
while they neglect the weightier matters of the law,—justice, mercy,
and the love of God.
Those children who are the most indulged become willful, pas-
sionate, and unlovely. Would that parents could realize that upon
judicious early training depends the happiness of both the parents and
the children. Who are these little ones that are committed to our care?
They are the younger members of the Lord’s family. “Take this
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son, this daughter,” he says, “nurse them for me, and fit them up ‘that
they may be polished after the similitude of a palace,’ that they may
shine in the courts of the Lord.” Precious work! important work! Yet
we see mothers sighing for a wider field of labor, for some missionary
work to do. If they could only go to Africa or India, they would feel
that they were doing something. But to take up the little daily duties of
life, and carry them forward faithfully, perseveringly, seems to them
an unimportant thing. Why is this? Is it not often because the mother’s
work is so rarely appreciated? She has a thousand cares and burdens of
which the father seldom has any knowledge. Too often he returns home
bringing with him his cares and business perplexities to overshadow
the family, and if he does not find everything just to his mind at home,
he gives expression to his feelings in impatience and fault-finding. He
can boast of what he has achieved through the day; but the mother’s
work, to his mind, amounts to little, or at least is undervalued. To
him her cares appear trifling. She has only to cook the meals, look
after the children, sometimes a large family of them, and keep the
house in order. She has tried all day to keep the domestic machinery
running smoothly. She has tried, though tired and perplexed, to speak
kindly and cheerfully, and to instruct the children and keep them in
the right path. All this has cost effort, and much patience on her part.
She cannot, in her turn, boast of what she has done. It seems to her
as though she has accomplished nothing. But it is not so. Though