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Untitled Article
or ill-meaning people : but always study the things which make for peace , and things by which both your husband and his colleague may edify one another , as well as those with whom they are connected . I hardly need to
caution you against a proneness to take offence on your own account , or embarrassing your husband with any of your own squabbles . You must alter very much before you engage in any .
Neither do I think you are in any great danger of contracting a meddling , gossiping habit , or giving countenance or encouragement to those that have . A more mischievous quality can scarcely be imagined : by which , instead of becoming her husband ' s helpmeet , a wife contributes more than
any thing to his trouble and vexation . I should otherwise be cautious of offering my next piece of advice , to make yourself acquainted with the several members of the congregation , their characters , occupations , habits , wants , &c . &c . I dont mean that you
should personally know them all ; but the more extensively the better . You can , at least , learn all the particulars which your husband has collected concerning each in his congregational common-place book . You will thus become acquainted with all
the ways in which they can severally be of use to you , or you can render yourself useful to them ; you will also learn , by this means , who are the persons with whom you can with the greatest mutual advantage , deal for the several articles you may want to
purchase . For , certainly , all other things being equal , or even nearly so , it is a reciprocity which is * only fair and reasonable that you should lay out among the congregation that income which you receive from them . You will thus , as well as by a mutual
interchange of good offices in other respects , strengthen your husband ' s interest with his people . Even by knowing their places of abode , and at chapel , you will be prepared to receive aod return the civilities of those who
will feel entitled to offer them , and ** ot incur the hazard of having it said by any , *« that their ministers wife was too proud to speak to them . " Bat you may thus besides have various opportunities of assisting him , and € » fcea may even be a preferable sub-
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stitute : in various cases of sickness * and other circumstances of distress , especially among your oww sex and children , the good offices of a female may be more essentially useful than those of any man . " It is not only in his own person , " says an eloquent
preacher , " that the conscientious minister of the gospel can answer the high purpose of his calling : in his wife , and even in his children , he may find the most useful auxiliaries in his Jioly employment . To the former , in particular , both himself and those
entrusted to his charge are often , in the highest degree , indebted . I will not enter into a full detail of the various means by which the services of this invaluable partner of the cares and duties of the ministerial office are dispensed throughout the district of the
husband ' s labours : but the subject of this discourse ( letter ) would be treated very imperfectly , if so important a particular were altogether omitted . Let it be remembered , then , that it is to her
assiduous co-operation that almost all the good that can be rendered to her own sex , out of the house of God , is principally owing . That quick percep-. tion , that nice sensibility , which are the natural characteristics of Ihe
female mind , peculiarly fit her for ther occupation . It is she who can best wiu the confidence of her neighbours , and penetrate the secret wants and wishes , which modest poverty is often backward to reveal . It is she who
can best enter into the detail of their domestic interests , and devise the readiest means of alleviating their distress or employing their industry . It is she whose familiar experience of the cares and duties which belong to them , as wives and mothers , aided by that
superior intelligence which leisure and education naturally give , enables her to bring her counsels home to the hearts of her hearers , and to convince them that her precepts are practicable as well as just * In short , by appearing in the character of a friend as well as a benefactress , by engaging the
feelings of respectful affection no less than of gratitude , she establishes over them an influence , which the harsher nature and dissimilar occupations of man disable him from acquiring . Now to those who bear in mind how much , under Providence , the success of every endeavour to implant religious fecN
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Letter to a Dissenting Minister ' s Wife . 5 < J 9 «
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1817, page 599, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2469/page/27/
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