ng
distracted by the thought of to-morrow? Can he feel for frail me? Does
he know what I go through?" Yes. I do know; and I wonder, and admire.
To me the sight of any poor woman managing her family respectably and
thriftily, is one of the most surprising sights on earth, as it is one of
the most beautiful sights on earth. How she finds time for it, wit for
it, patience for it, courage for it, I cannot conceive. I have wondered
often why many a woman does not lie down and die, for sheer weariness of
body and soul. I have fancied often that God must give some special
grace to all good mothers, to enable them to do all that they do, and
bear all they bear. But still, the women who do most, who bring up their
families best, are surely those who obey their Lord's command, who give
their whole souls to each day's work, and think as little as they can of
to-morrow. With them, surely, the true wisdom is, not to fret, not to
plot, to do the duty which lies nearest them, and leave the rest to God;
to get each week's bill paid, trusting to God to send money for the week
to come; to get their children every day to school; to correct in them
each fault as it shews itself, without looking forward too much to how
the child will turn out at last. For them, and for parents of all ranks,
the wisest plan, I believe, is to make no far-fetched plans for their
children's future, certainly no ambitious intrigues for their marriage:
but simply to educate them--that is, to bring out in them, day by day,
all that is purest and best, wisest and ablest, and leave the rest to
God; sure that if they are worth anything, their Father in heaven will
find them work to do, and a place at His table, in this life and in the
life to come.

Yes, my dear friends, this is the true philosophy, the philosophy which
Christ preaches to us all--to old and young, rich and poor, ploughman and
scholar, maid, wife, and widow, all alike.

Fret not. Plot not. Look not too far ahead.

Fret not--lest you lose temper, and be moved to do evil. Plot not--lest
you lose faith in God, and be moved to be dishonest. Look not too far
ahead--So far only, as to keep yourselves out of open and certain danger-
-lest you see what is coming before you are ready for the sight. If we
foresaw the troubles which may be coming, perhaps it would break our
hearts; and if we foresaw the happiness which is coming, perhaps it would
turn our heads.