WOMAN'S MISSION.

Waikato Times, Volume I, Issue 53, 31 August 1872, Page 3

WOMAN'S MISSION.

Siifridan said, "Jfcis by woman that nature writes upon the hearts of man ;" and what hand can trace such glorious inscriptions upon that book when it is sacredly hers, as a wife's ? Was there ever man, however great liis moral strength, however exalted his intellectual height, whose powers could not he increased by a wife's aid, or enfeebled by the down-dragging - weight of her unsympathetic opposition ? The man to whom she is united (when that union is not a mere formal mockery) draws inspirations from the magnetic breath of her appreciative praise, Jf ho be fortunate, her enthusiasm gives sweetness to his succors ; if he be struggling, her heroism in battling with difficulties infuses courage into his soul ; if his steps be dogged by the evil spirit of failure, her cheerful patience softens tho disheartening persecutions of the demon. When he returns troubled and fretful to his home, her tact ignores his ill-humour until ho forgets himself. When he is unreasonable, she smiles, unseen, at. his grave contradictions, and allows him to chide her for supposed caprice. She bears with his failings as no one else can or will bear them—she well knows that endurance is her own especial gift and not his, and deems his peevishness and impatience, when he is suffering, a matter of course, though double the amount of pain wonld not extract from her a murmur or a groan. She comprehends how much the peace and happiness of life—manied life in particular— depends upou trifles as light as air, and strnes to guard him against pett}' domestic vexatious less endurable to some temperaments than actual afflictions. She never forgets that the absence from its proper place of the tiny but all-important button —the mislaying of the indispensable closet keys —the necessity of waiting for an unpunctnal meal, may imperii a man's affection, or unfit him for his most important avocations—particularly if they iareof an intellectual or artisii.j character.

Let the wife only understand and have faith in her true position —that of woman " the helper " —and she needs neither great gifts, nor an expansive mind, nor extraordinary beauty, to be always charming to her husband, and, while she walks by his side to,

'•Fill all the stops of life with music," In being literally his " help-meefc" she becomes the beautifier and healer of his life. If the parasitic vine about the oak tree, to which she is so often compared, be truly her emblem, it is because she biuds together the broken boughs, and drapes with verdurous loveliness the withered branches.