"Her husband is known in the gates, when he sitteth among the elders of the land." A good wife will make her husband, and add to his public reputation. Bismarck and Disraeli, who for thirty years were the controlling powers in European politics, both said they owed their successes to their wives. The good wife is not so engrossing of her husband's company as to prevent him from becoming a public benefactor. By the happiness which she imparts to him at their own fireside she sends him abroad with a cheerful countenance as though he had just come from the scene and seat of earthly bliss. Can a woman rise to higher honor than to be so estimable as to augment the public respectability of her. husband? Of course, a woman must feel her

self degraded if she is the wife of a man who has no public distinction but what he derives from her.

This old-time portrait sketches the ideal woman as industrious: "She seeketh wool and flax and worketh diligently with her hands." Out of 22 verses of this portrait, II are taken

up in setting forth the virtues and practices of the matron's industry in its various relations and duties. And her industry is represented as eminently utilitarian. Catch the lesson and turn your attention from the embroidery of fine slippers, of which there is a surplus, and make a useful gown. Expend the time on which you adorn a cigar case in learning how to make a good honest loaf of bread. Turn your attention from the making of flimsy nothings to the manufacture of important somethings. Your wealth and that of your husband and father is not beyond misfortune, and after you have learned the ordinary branches take hold of that kind of study which will bring you dollars and cents in case you are thrown on your own resources.

Notice this ideal woman's skill and judgment in her domestic arrangements. "She riseth also while it is yet night." She knows the value of time and makes the day as long as she can by early rising. When the days are short and the nights long "her candle" does not go out.

"She looketh well to the ways of her house

hold"-prompt breakfasts, good dinners and suppers, a well-kept house and good cheer are substantial bases for the realization of the dreams of blissful home-making. A Greek philosopher, gazing up at the sky at night, stumbled and fell. fell. His companion observed: "One should not have his head in the stars while his feet are on the earth." Many wives set their eyes on romantic ideals and neglect the real duties which come close to their hands. It takes more than tender sentiment to make home life a success. One of the foundation stones in blissful home-making is good housekeeping.

This woman dresses well" she maketh her coverings of tapestry, her clothing is silk and purple." She is neither a sloven nor a dressed doll. She takes a just pride in herself, is solicitous to have all her belongings well chosen and in good taste. Her dress is in keeping with her circumstances. She sees that the household expense falls within its limits, and when money is denied her she does not get sulky. A sulky man is bad enough, but oh, from a sulky woman,

Good Lord, deliver us."

There is many a man

who has had occasion to say with more of sad

ness than glee:

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Heaven bless our wives, they fill our hives

With little bees and honey!

They soothe life's shocks, they mend our socks,
But don't they spend our money!

She not only thinks before she speaks and

opens her mouth with wisdom," "but in her tongue is the law of kindness," and "she stretches out her hands to the poor." Her mercy is in her hands. She does not weep over the imaginary woes of the novel while she is unmindful of the real sorrows at her very doors. Of course, a wife's chief place of duty is at home, and no public objects of any kind must be allowed to interfere with it. It will never do to serve God with time taken from family duty. I have known husbands to come home from fatigue and vexation of the world's business, pining for the soothing influence of a wife's sweet voice, to have sat for hours in sadness and solitude, because she was away doing an angel's

work in the lanes and streets of the city, while the angels were mourning over neglected duties within the hallowed walls of her own home.

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Still a woman may look well to the ways of her household," and yet "stretch out her hands to the poor "; except in the case of a large family, a destitution of all public spirit is no credit to any woman. The two extremes are, then, to be avoided, of allowing on the one hand the duties of home so entirely to engross the female heart as to feel no interest in the alleviation of the world's sorrow, and the reformation of its vices, and to cherish no desire to promote the great objects of Christian and Jewish zeal which our women are founding and conducting with so much enthusiasm and such abounding success.

Behold the ideal wife's conduct as a mother: "Her children rise up and call her blessed." I do not know of anything that will so surely cure the restlessness of our society women as children.

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What the women leave unfinished in their moral education," says Goethe, "the children complete in us." And if, as Emerson says, a