QUEEN;

Taranaki Herald, Volume LV, Issue 13983, 14 August 1909, Page 6

QUEEN ;

and this is one of the most valuable pieces on the chess board, and can make the most important moves. In the marriage service a. •. queen's title is dropped and she is called a woman. Ana no higher dignity can she receive than the name of a true good woman. Many a man's fame is due as much to his wife as to himself. Carlyle discovered after his wife's death that much of his greatness belonged to his wife. Susannah Wesley was a woman in an obscure village, out she was the mother not onlyof John and Charles Wesley bat of Wesleyan Methodism. I once saw a ship heavily laden leaving the harbour for the open sea : proudly and majestically she rode on the waves like a queen of beauty. For a moment I was pussled to know what propelled her, what gave her motion and direc* tiou, for all her sails were furled. But presently as she turned I discovered on the far side of the ship, hidden front; i view but attached to the vessel, was, a small tog that was towing the ship out to sea. And I thought, now mueJt force and direction have been given tt many a man's life by the personality' and influence of a good woman's life. Saved from dissipations, from evil, from, ruin, by the sweet and patient influence of his wife. Have we ever thought of that, we men — the debt we owe to her who has patiently borne with our irritability, our rottenness, our bad tern-" per, oar peevish ways; who has denied herself many things dear $o a woman's^ heart that she may make us happy? Did you ever sit down and think calmly of the marvels of a. woman's, love?, Have you ever wondered what your wife; saw in you to pour upon you the wealth of her affection? If you haven't, go home to-night and think about, it ; andif you are not humbled at the contemplation, yon are not much of a man. Many a time have I seen in my ministerial life 'a man fallen on evil times, degraded, scorned, avoided by society; and yet with sublime fidelity his wife has refused to believe the evil spoken about him. Through evil report as well as good report she has been his stay and his helper. I hold no brief for your wife, but this I say : recognise her worth; don't wait for her funeral before you say good things about her. It is a pity that some wives don't have their funerals while they are alive. How they would have appreciated during life some, of the things said about them after dikth. Let us torn to annoint our loved ones before hand for their burial. Post-mortem kindness! does not cheer the burdened spirit. Flowers on the coffin cast no fragrance backward over the weary way. Don't store up your alabaster box of sweetness for the future; break it now and let the living enjoy its fragrance. Tlten there is the