If, under all this wear and tear of life, Martha makes an impatient
rush upon the library or drawing room, be patient, be lenient. Oh,
woman, though I may fail to stir up an appreciation in the souls of
others in regard to your household toils let me assure you, from the
kindliness with which Jesus Christ met Martha, that he appreciates all
your work from garret to cellar; and that the God of Deborah, and
Hannah, and Abigail and Grandmother Lois, and Elizabeth Fry, and
Hannah More is the God of the housekeeper.
Jesus was never married that he might be the especial friend and
confidante of a whole world of troubled womanhood. I blunder; Christ
was married. The Bible says that the Church is the Lamb's wife, and
that makes me know that all Christian women have a right to go to
Christ and tell Him of their annoyances and troubles, since by His
oath of conjugal fidelity He is sworn to sympathize. George Herbert,
the Christian poet, wrote two or three verses on this subject:
"The servant by this clause
Makes drudgery divine;
Who sweeps a room, as for Thy laws,
Makes this and the action fine."