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Choice and Preparation of the Home
259
Simplicity in Furnishing
Our artificial habits deprive us of many blessings and much
enjoyment, and unfit us for living the most useful lives. Elaborate
and expensive furnishings are a waste not only of money, but of that
which is a thousandfold more precious. They bring into the home a
heavy burden of care and labor and perplexity.
What are the conditions in many homes, even where resources
are limited and the work of the household rests chiefly on the mother?
The best rooms are furnished in a style beyond the means of the
occupants and unsuited to their convenience and enjoyment. There
are expensive carpets, elaborately carved and daintily upholstered
furniture, and delicate drapery. Tables, mantels, and every other
available space are crowded with ornaments, and the walls are cov-
ered with pictures, until the sight becomes wearying. And what an
amount of work is required to keep all these in order and free from
dust! This work, and the other artificial habits of the family in its
conformity to fashion, demand of the housewife unending toil.
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In many a home the wife and mother has no time to read, to keep
herself well informed, no time to be a companion to her husband,
no time to keep in touch with the developing minds of her children.
There is no time or place for the precious Saviour to be a close, dear
companion. Little by little she sinks into a mere household drudge,
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her strength and time and interest absorbed in the things that perish
with the using. Too late she awakes to find herself almost a stranger
in her own home. The precious opportunities once hers to influence
her dear ones for the higher life, unimproved, have passed away
forever.
Let the homemakers resolve to live on a wiser plan. Let it be your
first aim to make a pleasant home. Be sure to provide the facilities
that will lighten labor and promote health and comfort. Plan for the
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entertainment of the guests whom Christ has bidden us welcome,
and of whom He says, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of
the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me.”
Matthew
25:40
.
Furnish your home with things plain and simple, things that will
bear handling, that can be easily kept clean, and that can be replaced
without great expense. By exercising taste, you can make a very