THE CLERGYMAN'S WIFE.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 228, 15 January 1877, Page 2

THE CLERGYMAN'S WIFE.

Our Sisterhoods' work is unexampled and unequalled, but there are certain things which your clergymen's wives can do which our Sisters cannot. There can be no doubt that, on the whole, the wives of the clergy are most useful. They certainly do a great deal of work. They teach in the schools, they act as district visitors, they superintend female parish work, they help to find situations for the girls in their town or village, and they attend to the decoration of the church. All this they do gratuitously, nor do they expect any thanks for it. They willingly agree to a far larger proportion of their husbands' incomes being devoted to charitable purposes than would the wives of most laymen, and .they are most careful in saving such remnants from their table as can possibly be spared, in order to feed the weak and sickly around them. The very small establishment of the Rector is thus sometimes more productive of " crumbs " for the poor than the kitchen of a neighboring Croesus. The clergy-

man's wife is very useful in another way. However charitable the Squire's wife may be, she is often away from home, and during her absence her servants cannot carry on, in the same manner that she would, her work of charity. But the Rector's wife rarely takes a holiday, and therefore the poor can always fall back on her ; and, if need be, she can write to the Squire's wife when she is absent, and lay before her any cases where money, or that which will require money, may be necessary. Hundreds and thousands of kind acts have been performed by our clergymen's wives. These excellent women have denied themselves numberless luxuries and pleasures, and have screwed and pinched their slender purses in order to help their poorer neighbors. How many summer tours and pleasant visits have they not given up to assist some member of that lower middle class whom it is so difficult-to reach, and for helping whom so little credit is to be obtained. Sometimes, the parson's bride brings a nice dowry, and then a large slice of her income is cheerfully given up to help her husband's parishioners. On the whole, few people who are not religious (in the ecclesiastical sense of the word) make so many selfsacrifices as do clergymen's wives. Some of them are, of course, selfish and worldlyminded ; but we believe that these form rare exceptions to the general rule. Usually all is well, so long as the wives of our clergy do not interfere with the euro of soul 3. But no women should be so c.ireful to avoid meddling in matters of religion as they. In other words, the clei'gyman's wife must not become the priestess.— Saturday Revieiv.