IT'S NO USE TRYING by John W. Kirton, LL.D.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Mar 27, 1893

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 19, No. 21.

"IT'S NO USE TRYING."

By John W. Kirton, LL.D.

BY JOHN W. KIRTON, LL.D.

"I TELL you it's no use trying," said Mrs. Marsh, in a despairing voice. "I've talked and talked, and toiled and worked and slaved, till I've worn myself out, but I make no more impression upon him than if he was a block of marble. He acts as cool as a cucumber till he sees I am quite done up, and then he says in the coolest way, 'Well, I hope you're better for having let the steam off,' or some such stuff."

"But do you really try to make his home as bright and comfortable as you can?" asked Mrs. Ansted in a kindly tone.

"Bright and comfortable! I should think I do. If ever a woman tries, I do. I clean from morning to night, so that when he comes home everything is like print. Though I say it, there is scarcely a speck of dust to be seen. Everything in this room might be new, it looks so bright."

"I see that quite clearly. But you may keep the room bright and clean, and yet not make it comfortable."

Mrs. Marsh looked puzzled, and inclined to differ in opinion with Mrs. Ansted. After a moment's pause she replied very warmly:—

"I should like to know what more a working man can want than to have his house kept like a gentleman's. I am sure everything is ready for him when he comes home, and I don't go out from one month's end to another, after he comes home at night."

"That's all very praiseworthy on your part," replied Mrs. Ansted, "and I am glad to hear it, but you need more than that to make home all that it should be. May I give you my opinion frankly?"

"Certainly," said Mrs. Marsh, with some reserve, however, in her tone of voice.

"Please don't misunderstand me when I say, No wife should so set her heart upon keeping her furniture and house so bright and spotless as to give her husband reason to say, or see, that there is no place for him to lay aside his working clothes, or that he must take off his dirty boots before he is permitted to enter his own sitting room, for fear of soiling the boards."

Mrs. Marsh dropped her eyes as if she felt the cap fitted her rather closely. At length she said:—

"But you must own it's very provoking when a woman has made everything as nice as can be, and scrubbed the boards so clean that you could eat off them, it's not pleasant to have one dirty thing thrown down here and another there, and nasty, muddy boots tramping all over the place, without any attempt to wipe them beforehand."

"Yes, I quite see it is trying, if things are as bad as you seem to think. But as you have failed by complaining in the past, let me persuade you to try what loving forbearance will do. Let your husband see you are glad he has come home, and take no notice of his careless and untidy ways."

"Easier said than done, I can tell you. Why, he seems to do it on purpose to annoy me."

"Did he always do so?"

"No, not always," replied Mrs. Marsh, with some hesitation. "For months after we were married he used to praise me up constantly for the way I kept everything so clean and bright."

"Then whatever caused him to change?"

"I'm sure I don't know. It's not my fault, I know, for I've tried to be more and more clean, and as we've had no children to make any dirt, it's all the more strange."

"But do you think you may not have made it a point to be so clean and orderly yourself as to make your husband feel that he makes all the disorder when he comes home?"

"Well, I have, I must own, now and then fired up when he has made some little dirt here and there, and made him vexed."

"I thought so. You have, without thinking, been so much engrossed with your love of cleanliness and order that what in itself is a virtue has really become a fault. You have made it the worry of your husband's life, until it threatens to become the misery of your own."

Mrs. Marsh burst into tears as she said: "I see my mistake. I see where I've been wrong. Why, it was only this morning when I complained that he fired up and said I seemed to think he was only fit to live in a dog kennel, and he should have to look out for some other place to live in before long."

"Then the sooner you let him see a change in your ways the better. Remember a palace without love would be desolate, so you need not be surprised if your little home suffers from its absence."

Love, love, how strange the word, yet how sweet it sounded in her ears! She had once felt its power, and the thought of those happy days so overwhelmed her that she sobbed as if her heart would break. What was the cleanest, brightest, fairest home without love in it? Would she ever know it again? Could she do anything to bring it back? At length she said:—

"I am willing to do anything if it will only end this wretched life, and win my husband's love back again."

"We have always cause to be thankful," said Mrs. Ansted, "when our errors are made clear to us. So set about applying the remedy this very day when your husband returns."

"If it's not too late," said Mrs. Marsh gloomily.

"It's never too late to mend, if you ask God to help you."

"I will, and also let my husband see that he has the first place in my heart, instead of the home."

Poor Mrs. Marsh found it was a hard fight, but she was able to accomplish it; and as her husband day by day saw she grew less fidgety and more considerate, he also became ready to fall in with her cleanly and tidy ways; and so it came to pass that, with mutual concessions, and, better still, a fuller display of love towards each other, in time they found it is wonderful what difficulties can be overcome by trying in the right way instead of refusing and saying, "It's NO USE TRYING."—Christian Commonwealth.