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6 THE GUIDING HAND Worth Woman’s While. By FLORENCE TUCKER. “Dark Closets.'’ “What though thy yesterday be sadly fraught With disappointments, heartaches, failures, sins, Touch not thy gloomy past with word nor thought— To-day another chance for thee begins!” We all have them—these secret chambers where are stored away everything that ever experience knew or memory turned away from, trying to for get. Who has not lain awake in the night watches, dwelling on the mistakes and griefs that not even the daylight is permitted to see? And how larger and larger they grow! How enormous becomes our offense, how abject our failure! And the more they torment us the more we go back to them till it has become a habit. ‘ ‘ Going into dark closets, ’ ’ Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney calls it. And one who has once read her warning must wish that every woman in the world might receive the wholesome message; and go into her own closet just one more time, and tear out every single thing hidden there, or if she cannot do that, let in the light and determine that when she finds herself turning thitherward she will deliberately go the other way. It is the only way to meet growing habit—and no habit is easier acquired than that of gloom, of thinking about ourselves, and finally retiring within ourselves till we may also be said to live in a dark closet. It creeps upon us imperceptibly, too. Fancy being shut in from the rest of the world shut off from the warmth and joy of its sympathy and ready comradery! It could never have been the conscious intention of any one, and yet it is what we surely come to if we spend too much time in the dark closet. And when outside the whole world, the very house itself, is flooded -with sunshine. Ah, and hope, and new life! For as “neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present” can separate us from the Father’s love. So, not any of these, nor things past, can defraud of the chance that is for us in the new day of each recurring sun. Not to-morrow, but “to-day another chance begins.” Yesterday is gone, and with it the deed we now regret—we can recall neither the one nor the other, and what good were it ever to rmember mistake except only to profit by it? And what good ever came of settled grieving? Ah, these “dark closets”—how we cling to them, like very household gods! And it is only our own poor little will that holds us to the gloom and shad ow, and will not let us break- away to the light— nothing more! k The New Queen of Norway. The wife of Carl of Denmark, now Haakon the "VIL, is not only Norway’s queen; she is wife and mother in her home, and her subjects even call her “the mother of our people.” While crown princess she established hospitals and orphanages and homes for the aged, and endeared herself rarely. The life she lived with her husband in Copenhagen when he was not rich, and their home in a flat taught her much that a woman in State or Court life never has the opportunity or privilege of knowing. How she valued this privilege may be judged by her answer when asked if it was true that at that time she had done most of her own housework: “I did,” replied the queen, “and am quite proud of it. I think it as much my place to work as it is my husband’s. I would be quite ashamed of him, even if he were a very wealthy man, if he were not always doing something useful, something that helped not only our home, but others. And if I am proud of him because he has never idled, I wish to have him proud of me because I can perform any duty of the home. The Golden Age for March 1, 1906. “I like to sew, cook, have the care of the home, and see that all that surrounds my husband in his home is to his comfort. I do not believe an idle woman has any real place in this world. She will do more harm than good. God intended in His plan of the world that everyone should work, and what I can do I strive to do my best. “If I had a dozen daughters or sons, they should never come up in idleness, no matter what our sta tion might be. They should learn useful things, do helpful work. It would be a wonderful world if everyone worked with a useful purpose.” The Price of Wives in Different Countries. Comparison is a mighty consoler sometimes. If Western women who imagine themselves the slaves of men and unjust conditions and restrictions would but compare their lot with the women of other coun tries more of the content of the Japanese would prevail among us. The latitude that American girls have—it is not restricted—in the choice of a husband must appear monstrous to other peoples, even as their customs are foreign to our understanding. Think of being sold for a wife! The case of poor little Ena of Battenberg is hardly better. To be given away in marriage for the advancement of State or other interests—what difference is there, so far as the happiness of the woman is concerned? But to contemplate the purchase, at once, of one hundred wives, and all for one husband! It is al most more than our Occidental perception is capable nt*. Yet that is the order. The Shah of Persia needs just so many, and his envoy has been commissioned to procure them—a little more difficult undertaking than once it was, since the Persian women have be gun to assert themselves, and more and more to throw off the yoke; and the beautiful Georgians are fast dying out. Too, the prices in the market for wives are advancing. When the envoy sets forth on his mission he must provide himself with ships and cargoes of cattle and goods of many sorts. For if he go to Africa, as he will, he will need for every Kaffir girl he buys, anywhere from three to thirty cows; for a Banzai, half a dozen goats, or perhaps bullocks, or sewing needles, or percussion caps. Neangoni parents will want two skins of a buck for their daughters, but the Dinkas will demand one hundred cows for a girl of good family. Malay wives come high, and are paid for in slaves or shell money; whales’ teeth are necessary to buy a Fijian girl; and in Patagonia the father must be presented w r ith a number of horses and with silver ornaments. In Tartary the barter is, as well as in horses and oxen and sheep, in butter and elephants’ tusks; while a Magyar maiden will cost forty florins and three handkerchiefs. For a Chinese girl there must be strings of money and silks and shoes. The Japanese, being very polite, allow the suitor his own choice oT exchange, but whatever it be, a gift of money for the father accompanies it. And of them all not one amongst them is permit ted a choice—yet woman’s heart is the same the world over. It is Christianity alone that has blessed us above our sisters. Remembering our superior condition, and that in part at least it may be our own fault if things are not even better with us; and regarding with pity the thousands and millions of women for whom, until the light reaches them, there is no hope, can we complain at our lot? Shall we not rather make grateful inventory of all the goods that is ours, and render to God thanks? Four million dollars for charity! That is what Helen Gould has given away in the past eight years. She annually distributes $500,000 in well invested channels; and not the least beautiful feature of such loving generosity is that it is in the name of her father and mother. Fireside Talks With Parents By C. H. SPURGEON JACKSON. A boy bathing in a river was in danger of being drowned. He called out to a traveler, passing by, for help. The traveler, instead of holding out a helping hand, stood by unconcernedly, and scolded the boy for his imprudence. ‘Oh, sir,’ cried the youth, ‘pray help me now and scold me afterward.’ ” The moral to this fable of Aesop is, “Counsel with out help is useless.” The family has best been defined as the institute of the affection. Parents and children are all at school in this institute. Around the fireside the affections are in training. The true and loyal friendships in after years have their foundation in the stability or character established around the fireside. A boy or a girl who is not loyal to home and parents cannot be trusted by teacher or em ployer. It is impossible to avert the effect of the training around the fireside. The deficiencies, that come either from the lack of it, or from wrong example or teaching there, increase the burdens of the school and place at a disadvantage for all time the neg lected one. The student who is disappointing to parent, the son or daughter who cannot be trusted by parent, may with propriety cry out as did the drowning boy, “Oh, sir! pray help me now and scold me afterwards.” There is a point in the experience of every boy and girl, when the love of truth and honesty is fixed and the habit of integrity is established. Let a child pass this point in life without the proper at tention of parent or teacher to seize the opportunity to inculcate a love of the principles of truth speak ing and honest dealing, and the mark of this neglect will be forever at least in the vision of the unfor tunate child, or worse, the awful stigma of this neg lect will become manifest in reputation,—in the vision of society. A beautiful, though neglected girl, haunted with this vision of neglect, on ac count of which her habit of false speaking had been established, once asked her teacher, “How can I quit telling stories?” Thousand have secretly asked the same question. The answer of her teacher was, “Quit!” The advice was unquestionably correct from the teacher’s position, but there must be something more. A thousand times, doubtless, that girl had “quit” speaking falsely and a thousand time she had failed. The admonition to 7 ‘quit” must be accompanied with help. We often speak of our having a habit, when, in fact, the habit has us. ijiKe the boy in the water drowning, or like the man bound hand and foot, we need the helping hand. “Oh, Sir, pray help me now and scold me after wards. ’ ’ Ethics is the rule of right. Morality is the obey ing the rule of right. The one observes the law, the other obeys the law. The first moral obligation of parent or teacher is to discipline those under him. The primary mean ing of to discipline is to train to obedience. The first moral duty, then, of all who are in authority, is to train to obedience. “If ye love me, ye will keep my commandments.” Love is the basis for training to obedience. If love be not in the home, obedience will be wanting there. The foundation material for the home building is love. Every virtue has its basis in love. “Love wOrketh no ill to his neighbor; love, therefore, is the fulfillment of the law.” Has Sorrow marked you for her own ? has disappointment smitten you hard? Re member that heaven’s angels are sometimes veiled. God can make even the Valley of Trial a beautiful mountain height gilded with glow ing faith and'crowned with happy achievement.