EXTRACTS FROM CORRESPONDENCE
By Mrs. Geo. A. Irwin
My husband is with me in the truth, so he helps me carry my burdens. Although my work at home is heavy, yet I find time to help my neighbors. Sometimes I care for the sick, or prepare some dish that will help get the health reform principles before them. I have much to rejoice in when I think that we sisters can have a part in the great work of saving souls for whom Christ died. A short time ago a minister's wife of our town was sick, and she sent for me. While I was at her home, she asked me to pray. So I knelt down and prayed. She wept, and said she wanted to hear me pray when she was dying. This is Woman's Gospel Work. May many others also engage in it. Is it wrong to worry when company, or other unusual cares that I can't prevent, absorb so much of my time that I am unable to keep up in my readings? I am naturally slow about some parts of the housework, and have tried and tried to overcome it. I have prayed over it, too, and sometimes am almost desperate because all my time seems to be devoted to housework and answering telephone calls, when others with larger families accomplish so much. As to worrying, you surely know that it does no good to worry over anything, and therefore it must be wrong. “Fret not thyself in anywise to do evil.” Learn to see the hand of God in the little things of life, accept all that comes to you as from Him, and do the very best you can under all circumstances, and cease to worry, or fret. “In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength.” I am interested in what you say about being naturally slow in some kinds of housework. I can sympathize with you in this; for I have had just the same trouble myself. But I have asked the Lord to help me in this matter, and He has wonderfully done so. He has taught me to take many short cuts, which save time, and in the end bring the same results. Cooking the meals and washing the dishes has been the work that has tried me the most, but I have shortened up this part of the work wonderfully in the last six months. I have found it a good plan never to hurry through a meal; but while sitting at the table, after the meal is finished, ask each one, in a pleasant way, to hand over his dishes, and then I pile them up by my side, while we continue the conversation. I keep my crumb pan on the table (I had a present of a very nice one, so it does not look out of place at all), and each one can brush up his place. So when we get up from the table, our dishes are all gathered, and the table brushed. And if, before dinner, you can wash up the things in the sink, in a short time all the dishes can be washed and wiped and put away, and all the work be finished in one third of the time it generally takes. I have also found it a great help to get each member of the family to put away his clothing as soon as taken off, as well as to put all other things in their places. I buy a great many ready-made garments, such as underwear, night dresses, and sometimes skirts; and this is a great help. Perhaps I am easier on my clothes than some women are. My sewing is a small part of my work. I am impressed, although I can not tell why, that you are particular about things. While I think we should be neat, and be careful to have our homes tidy and comfortable, yet above all, we should avoid anything like nagging the different members of the family about keeping things in their places, and not soiling this or that. I read the other day that “one keep-clean is worth a dozen make-cleans.” I have always tried to impress this on the members of my family. It is much easier to keep a thing clean than to clean it after it has become dirty.