The Most Attractive Place in the World. --While there are weighty
responsibilities devolving upon the parents to guard carefully the future
happiness and interests of their children, it is also their duty to make home as
attractive as possible. This is of far greater consequence than to acquire
estates and money. Home must not lack sunshine. The home feeling should be kept
alive in the hearts of the children, that they may look back upon the home of
their childhood as a place of peace and happiness next to heaven. Then as they
come to maturity, they should in their turn try to be a comfort and blessing to
their parents.
The home should be to the children the most attractive place in the world,
and the mother's presence should be its greatest attraction. Children have
sensitive, loving natures. They are easily pleased, and easily made unhappy. By
gentle discipline, in loving words and acts, mothers may bind their children to
their hearts.
Clean, Neat, Orderly. --Cleanliness, neatness, and order are indispensable to
the proper management of the household. But when the mother makes these the
all-important duties of her life, and devotes herself to them, to the neglect of
the physical development and the mental and moral training of her children, she
makes a sad mistake.
Believers should be taught that even though they may be poor, they need not
be unclean or untidy in their persons or in their homes. Help must be given in this line to those who seem
to have no sense of the meaning and importance of cleanliness. They are to be
taught that those who are to represent the high and holy God must keep their
souls pure and clean, and that this purity must extend to their dress and to
everything in the home, so that the ministering angels will have evidence that
the truth has wrought a change in the life, purifying the soul and refining the
tastes. Those who, after receiving the truth, make no change in word or
deportment, in dress or surroundings, are living to themselves, not to Christ.
They have not been created anew in Christ Jesus, unto purification and holiness.
. . .
While we are to guard against needless adornment and display, we are in no
case to be careless and indifferent in regard to outward appearance. All about
our persons and our homes is to be neat and attractive. The youth are to be
taught the importance of presenting an appearance above criticism, an appearance
that honours God and the truth.
A neglect of cleanliness will induce disease. Sickness does not come without
a cause. Violent epidemics of fevers have occurred in villages and cities that
were considered perfectly healthful, and these have resulted in death or broken
constitutions. In many instances the premises of the very ones who fell victims
to these epidemics contained the agents of destruction which sent forth deadly
poison into the atmosphere, to be inhaled by the family and the neighbourhood.
It is astonishing to witness the prevailing ignorance relative to the effects
which slackness and recklessness produce upon health.
Order Necessary for a Happy Home. --God is displeased with disorder,
slackness, and a lack of thoroughness in anyone. These deficiencies are serious evils, and tend to wean the
affections of the husband from the wife when the husband loves order,
well-disciplined children, and a well-regulated house. A wife and mother cannot
make home agreeable and happy unless she possesses a love for order, preserves
her dignity, and has good government; therefore all who fail on these points
should begin at once to educate themselves in this direction, and cultivate the
very things wherein is their greatest lack.
Vigilance and Diligence to Be Blended. --When we give ourselves unreservedly
to the Lord, the simple, commonplace duties of home life will be seen in their
true importance, and we shall perform them in accordance with the will of God.
We are to be vigilant, watching for the coming of the Son of man; and we must
also be diligent; working as well as waiting is required; there must be a union
of the two. This will balance the Christian character, making it well developed,
symmetrical. We should not feel that we are to neglect everything else, and give
ourselves up to meditation, study, or prayer; neither are we to be full of
bustle and hurry and work, to the neglect of personal piety. Waiting and
watching and working are to be blended. "Not slothful in business; fervent
in spirit; serving the Lord."
Provide Laboursaving Facilities. --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, 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
labour and promote health.
Even the Humblest Tasks Are the Work of God. -- All the work we do that is
necessary to be done, be it washing dishes, setting tables, waiting upon the
sick, cooking, or washing, is of moral importance. . . . The humble tasks before
us are to be taken up by someone; and those who do them should feel that they
are doing a necessary and honourable work, and that in their mission, humble
though it may be, they are doing the work of God just as surely as was Gabriel
when sent to the prophets. All are working in their order in their respective
spheres. Woman in her home, doing the simple duties of life that must be done,
can and should exhibit faithfulness, obedience, and love, as sincere as angels
in their sphere. Conformity to the will of God makes any work honourable that
must be done.