p. 174 | A FEW THOUGHTS ABOUT HOUSEKEEPING

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 15, 1868

A FEW THOUGHTS ABOUT HOUSEKEEPING.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

With the permission of our sisters, I offer a few thoughts on this subject, which may help some, if received and lived out. I have spent several years in going from house to house, in eleven different States. This has afforded me a good opportunity to observe the difference in cooking, housekeeping, &c., with different women. I am inclined to think that good religion will make a good housekeeper; and that a poor, slack, housekeeper is a poor recommend to any cause.

There are two extremes in housekeeping. One is very nice and exceedingly precise; the other is very slack, and somewhat filthy. I do not like either. The first is so very nice and particular about every little thing that you feel uncomfortable all the time you are there, for fear that you shall soil something or put something out of place. Such women generally fret and scold a good deal. They have very small minds, and very small things occupy all their thoughts. Such women are more nice than wise, and more devoted to self than to God. They need to reform by spending some time and labor in doing others good. It would melt down their cold preciseness, and make them more approachable by their friends.

But what shall we say of the other class? Go there at any time and they are not prepared for company. Everything is in confusion; beds unmade, flour unswept, dishes unwashed, nothing cooked, everything in disorder. Go into the pantry of such a house and you will find things in terrible disorder—broken dishes, dirty dishes, grease, odds and ends, and flies and ants and cats helping themselves generally. Go into the cellar, and the same confusion and filth reign there—rotten potatoes and other vegetables, old barrels, boards, and pots, water, mud, and filth. Go to any room in the house and you will find nothing in order. All the slop and scraps from the table are generally thrown out of the back door or window, and there left to rot and breed vermin and poisonous effluvia. Their cooking is generally of about the same stamp—things are simply put together.

Have I exaggerated this? No; I have not half exhausted what might be said in truth of many families who profess to be Christians. Now, I protest against this state of things. It is all unnecessary, wrong, and wicked. Some seem to think that this is a mark of humility. To have things in order and tasty is pride. This is a great mistake. God’s word has never condemned order and cleanliness; but has repeatedly denounced the opposite. To the ancient Israelites God said, “For the Lord thy God walketh in the midst of thy camp, to deliver thee, and to give up thy enemies before thee; therefore shall thy camp be holy; that he see no unclean thing in thee, and turn away from thee.” Deut. xxiii, 14. If God would turn away from their dwellings on account of uncleanness, why will he not from ours for the same reason, if they are unclean? Does God love filthiness now more than then? When God would meet with his people anciently, his command was, “Let them wash their clothes.” Ex. xix, 10. But are Christians to be as particular in this as God’s people were then? Hear Paul: “But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints; neither filthiness,” &c. Eph. v, 3, 4. Numerous other passages might be quoted, but this is sufficient to show the mind of the Lord on this point.

But some will plead, “We are poor, or we have a large family of children,” &c. This is no excuse at all. If a woman has health and strength, however poor they may be, she can keep things clean and in order. I have seen poor families, and large ones too, where everything was neat and clean. So I know that it can be done. If parents have so many children that they cannot care for them and keep them and the house clean, then they have got too many, and are accountable for that wrong.

To this class of housekeepers, then, I say, Set your house in order, and resolve to keep it so. Make an effort to overcome your slackness. Make home pleasant for your own family, and for those who visit you. Do not let your husband and children be ashamed of their own home. Do not let the cause of God be reproached on your account. Observe how others do, and do not be ashamed to ask advice, but do be ashamed to have an untidy, disorderly house. Now, let no one get offended by what I have said; for if you do not keep your house in this way, this is not for you; but if you do, then you need this, and should thank us for it.

D. M. CANRIGHT.