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THE position of the wife of a great man and particularly of a great
minister,
is not only one of rare difficulty but calls for an exercise of
unselfishness
and self-effacement which is quite contrary to the natural instincts of
human nature. The lady who would be a true helpmeet to the popular
preacher and God-ordained pastor must to a very large extent sink her own
individuality and claims and be. come absorbed in those of her husband.
She must be prepared to part often with the one she loves best on earth,
in
order that he may go to, fulfill his solemn engagements untrammeled by
domestic repinings; she must render every assistance in her power and yet
not expect: to reap the praise from men, which is rightly her due; she
must
initiate and carry through new plans of Christian effort and be satisfied
that
they shall be regarded as nothing more than a legitimate part of her
husband's ministry; and she must take upon her shoulders a load of
responsibility, which the ordinary wife knows nothing of and which amid
such a multitude of duties might well overwhelm a strong and vigorous
man. If it be true in at general sense, that "Whoso findeth a wife
findeth a
good thing and obtaineth favor of the Lord," how much more must it be
the case with the minister who is encouraged 'and helped by his partner
in
life. The members of the Christian churches little know what they owe to
the wives of their pastors and when, by way of faint praise, they
oftentimes
declare that the lady of the manse has "done what she could," the
expression usually implies a qualification that the work might have been
greater or better. How many of those who thus look with a more or less
supercilious eye upon the work of the minister's wife do a tithe of the
good
in the world which can be placed to her credit?
No grander example of the possibilities which the position of a
preacher's
wife affords, could be offered to her sisters of the manse or to the
world at
large than Mrs. C. H. Spurgeon, whose death on October 22nd, 1903, has
left the Church poorer than it yet realizes. Called to a position of
rarer
difficulty at an early age, her husband already raised on dazzling
heights of
popularity, which few could have endured without being' lifted up with
pride, it was an ordeal for the retiring girl to be thus suddenly thrust
into
prominence. Then when the storms of abuse', and slander broke on her
loved one's head, she might well have been crushed and broken, but she
bore up and by her words of comfort, her strong affection and her piety 4
and faith, helped him to weather the gale. In every branch of his work
she
threw her heart and soul, she stinted herself to render financial
assistance to
the various causes, and to the smallest detail acted with her husband as
a
faithful steward of the God in whom she. trusted. Never did woman fulfill
the marriage vow more faithfully. In sickness and in health, through good
report and evil, she was ever his support and it would be difficult to
find
anywhere another woman, who in spite of adverse circumstances and
conditions, ill-health and infirmity, did such monumental work for God
and
man as Susannah Spurgeon. Her life was one long self-sacrifice. She need
not have expended the strength she so much required for herself; no one
would have blamed the invalid for seeking comfort in rest, but what she
did, she did with a will and as "unto the Lord." Her life is a brilliant
example of what can be done by a weak woman who devotes herself to the
service: of the Master and not only as the wife of Charles Haddon
Spurgeon will Mrs. Spurgeon live green in the memory of all true
Christians, but as herself, as the woman who found solace in suffering by
ministering to the needs of others, she will stand out through all time.
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