A MARY MIND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20152, 12 January 1929, Page 1 (Supplement)

A MARY MIND.

BY M.A.E.

ELEVATING THE TASK.

For parents anxiously wondering what is to be tho future of the boy or girl just leaving school, for ycung people whose aspiring eyes see few gaps in the ranks of the group they hope to join, the following poem has a point, besides the general appeal it must make by reason of its beauty, and the circumstances under which it was written. It is the work of a girl of nineteen, a domestic servant.

Lord of all pots and pans and things, fcinco I've no time to be A Saint by doing lovely things, or watching

late with Thee, Or dreaming in the dawnlight, or storming

Heaven's gates. Make me a saint b? getting meals and washing up the plates. Although I must have Martha's hands, I have a Mary mind; And when I black the boots and shoes, Thy sandals. Lord. I find. I think of how they trod the earth, what

time I scrub the floor. Accept this meditation. Lord, I haven't

time (or more. Warm all the kitchen with Thy love and light it with Thy peace; Forgive me all my worrying and make all

grumbling cense. Thou who didst love to give men food, ill room, or by the sea, Accppt this service that I do, I do it unto Thee.

The girl who could write that has found the secret of happiness and true success. Instead of seeking an occupation to elevate her a little in life, she raises her occupation to a high level. Many people will say she is too good for the kitchen; but we do not want to lift all young, enthusiastic, imaginative, thinking people out of manual occupations, and so degrade those occupations to the level of the people engaged in thorn. We want more such people doing what is termed " menial" work, and the word " menial" and all that it denotes will soon vanish from our speech. The girl who wrote the poem seized upon the aspects of the highest life she knew that were most like her own, and yet how different, and tried to bring her own into harmony with them. " Thou who didst love to give men food"—she might have thought of Christ on the Mount of Transfiguration, or in the agony of the garden, or sublimely stilling the waters, but she chose rather to think of the warm humanity that made Him anxious to satisfy the physical need of man for food, and tried herself to do that service in the same spirit. A Test of Education. Now I am not trying to put in a plea for every girl to become a domestic servant, but I do firmly believe that it matters not a whit if one has " Martha's hands," if one has a " Mary mind." There are people who ennoble any task they undertake; such we should all aim to be. The world's work has to be performed ; why should those doing certain kinds of the world's work be held in scant esteem, as if they were fit for no other kind of work. I should like to see every domestic servant and every manual worker highly educated, in the best sense of the word. People often assert that education is not " necessary" for a certain boy or girl because he or she is entering such and such an occupation; it is all the more imperatively necessary. If that person's occupation is not going to demand and develop his higher faculties, all the more reason why he should be trained to exercise them in his leisure time.

Our present education system has confused two things, vocational training and general culture. The latter is necessary to everybody, tlio former should be superadded. One of the tests of education is that it brings content—not' a bovine content that is devoid of ambition, but a sereno self-reliance that can make one happy and sufficient unto oneself in any environment. This a great deal of our so-called education fails to do. It breeds discontent. People consider that having acquired a certain standard of education denoted by the passing of an examination or the spending of a definite period in some educational establishment, society then immediately owes them a position with standing and salary corresponding to what they consider their acquirements. This is a fallacy. These things arc not owed; they are to be won. Work and Leisure. To the truly educated person the doing of any work well should be a delight. He should not think himself " above" any particular work. Work never yet degraded anybody. We are all tempted far too much by the " easy job." We want to do something that will entitle us to the world's respect, which we find gained most easily if we do not soil our hands. To the boy or the girl I would say this: if you feel that it is in you to become a good lawyer, if you really want to be a doctor, if you think you can succeed in business, if you long to paint beautiful pictures, or to write a great book, do not let yourself be rebuffed, never rest, strive without ceasing until you have done what you feel it is in you to do. But do not aim at any of these things merely because you think you will thereby win the recognition of your fellows and a comfortable place in tho world. Those motives are not absent from any of us, but they should not bo the mainspring of your actions. It is not within the reach of all cf us to win the top of some highly esteemed profession, but it is within the power of each of us to adorn whatever sphere he occupies.

Circumstances may to some extent determine what we do in those hours wo call our working day; only ourself determines what we are. The world may say a man " is" a labourer, a bricklayer, merchant, a farmer, a teacher, a domestic servant, a doctor; but that is not what he is, that is what ho does with a certain portion of his time. The hours of leisure, few or many as his work determines, stretch golden before him, wherein ho can delight to bo his real self; and he who spends his working day at humble tasks may be poet, philosopher, student, philanthropist, artist or craftsman. The Riches of the Mind.

You want to be successful, to become wealthy, to stand high in tho world's esteem. You attain all that; what then ? Neither the possession of these things nor tlio lack of them, in itself signifies anything. It is what you are that will matter to you in the end. Religion has been defined by a modern thinker as what a man does with his solitariness. Sooner or later comes the time in life when we stand face to face with ourselves and all externals fall away. Then the poverty or the riches of the mind and the spirit become apparent and effectual.

It does not matter if your hands dip into some of the earth's grime as your work if your heart is lifted to tho stars. If when your daily toil is well done, you can read good books, listen to music, drink in the beauty of the evening, take a manly part in social converse with your fellows, guide your home aright, and piny your little part in community life, all will be well. We have more need to-day perhaps than ever we had of these words of Carlyle's:

Two men I honour, and no third. First, the toil-worn Craftsman that with earth-made Implement laboriously conquers tho earth and makes her man's, . . A second man I honour, and still more highly: Him who is seen toiling for the spiritually indispensable; not daily bread, but the Bread of Life. . . Highest of nil, when his outward and his inward endeavour ara one: when we can name him Artist; not earthly Craftsman only, but inspired Thinker, who with Heaven-made implement conquerß Heaven for us. . . Unspeakably touching is it, however, -when I find both dignities united, and he that, must toil outwardly for the lowest of man's wants is also toiling inwardly for the highest. Snblimer in this world know I nothing than a Peasant Saint could such now anywhere be met with.