American Woman's Home: Or, Principles of Domestic Science;: Being a Guide to the Formation and Maintenance of Economical, Healthful, Beautiful, and Christian HomesStowe, Harriet Beecher
Religion
American Woman's Home: Or, Principles of Domestic Science;: Being a Guide to the Formation and Maintenance of Economical, Healthful, Beautiful, and Christian Homes
Stowe, Harriet Beecher
Home economics
To man is appointed the out-door labor--to till the earth, dig the
mines, toil in the foundries, traverse the ocean, transport merchandise,
labor in manufactories, construct houses, conduct civil, municipal,
and state affairs, and all the heavy work, which, most of the day,
excludes him from the comforts of a home. But the great stimulus to
all these toils, implanted in the heart of every true man, is the
desire for a home of his own, and the hopes of paternity. Every man
who truly lives for immortality responds to the beatitude, "Children
are a heritage from the Lord: blessed is the man that hath his quiver
full of them!" The more a father and mother live under the influence
of that "immortality which Christ hath brought to light," the more is
the blessedness of rearing a family understood and appreciated. Every
child trained aright is to dwell forever in exalted bliss with those
that gave it life and trained it for heaven.
The blessed privileges of the family state are not confined to those
who rear children of their own. Any woman who can earn a livelihood,
as every woman should be trained to do, can take a properly qualified
female associate, and institute a family of her own, receiving to its
heavenly influences the orphan, the sick, the homeless, and the sinful,
and by motherly devotion train them to follow the self-denying example
of Christ, in educating his earthly children for true happiness in
this life and for his eternal home.
And such is the blessedness of aiding to sustain a truly Christian
home, that no one comes so near the pattern of the All-perfect One as
those who might hold what men call a higher place, and yet humble
themselves to the lowest in order to aid in training the young, "not
as men-pleasers, but as servants to Christ, with good-will doing service
as to the Lord, and not to men." Such are preparing for high places
in the kingdom of heaven. "Whosoever will be chiefest among you, let
him be your servant."
It is often the case that the true humility of Christ is not understood.
It was not in having a low opinion of his own character and claims,
but it was in taking a low place in order to raise others to a higher.
The worldling seeks to raise himself and family to an equality with
others, or, if possible, a superiority to them. The true follower of
Christ comes down in order to elevate others.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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