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the hands as Christ
did. And although exhorted by our Lord not to lay up treasure on earth,
but rather the imperishable riches which are gained in toiling to train
the ignorant and reform the sinful, as yet a large portion of the
professed followers of Christ, like his first disciples, are "slow of heart
to believe."
Not less have the sacred ministries of the family state been undervalued
and warred upon in other directions; for example, the Romish Church
has made celibacy a prime virtue, and given its highest honors to those
who forsake the family state as ordained by God. Thus came great
communities of monks and nuns, shut out from the love and labors of a
Christian home; thus, also, came the monkish systems of education,
collecting the young in great establishments away from the watch and
care of parents, and the healthful and self-sacrificing labors of a home.
Thus both religion and education have conspired to degrade the family
state.
Still more have civil laws and social customs been opposed to the
principles of Jesus Christ. It has ever been assumed that the learned, the
rich, and the powerful are not to labor with the hands, as Christ did, and
as Paul did when he would "not eat any man's bread for naught, but
wrought with labor, not because we have not power "[to live without
hand-work,]" but to make ourselves an example."(2 Thess. 3.)
Instead of this, manual labor has been made dishonorable and unrefined
by being forced on the ignorant and poor. Especially has the most
important of all hand-labor, that which sustains the family, been thus
disgraced; so that to nurse young children, and provide the food of a
family by labor, is deemed the lowest of all positions in honor and
profit, and the last resort of poverty. And so our Lord, who himself
took the form of a servant, teaches, "How hardly shall they that have
riches enter the kingdom of heaven!"--that kingdom in which all are
toiling to raise the weak, ignorant, and sinful to such equality with

themselves as the children of a loving family enjoy. One mode in
which riches have led to antagonism with the true end of the family
state is in the style of living, by which the hand-labor, most important
to health, comfort, and beauty, is confined to the most ignorant and
neglected members of society, without any effort being made to raise
them to equal advantages with the wise and cultivated.
And, the higher civilization has advanced, the more have children been
trained to feel that to labor, as did Christ and Paul, is disgraceful, and to
be made the portion of a degraded class. Children, of the rich grow up
with the feeling that servants are to work for them, and they themselves
are not to work. To the minds of most children and servants, "to be a
lady," is almost synonymous with "to be waited on, and do no work," It
is the earnest desire of the authors of this volume to make plain the
falsity of this growing popular feeling, and to show how much happier
and more efficient family life will become when it is strengthened,
sustained, and adorned by family work.

II.
A CHRISTIAN HOUSE.
In the Divine Word it is written, "The wise woman buildeth her house."
To be "wise," is "to choose the best means for accomplishing the best
end." It has been shown that the best end for a woman to seek is the
training of God's children for their eternal home, by guiding them to
intelligence, virtue, and true happiness. When, therefore, the wise
woman seeks a home in which to exercise this ministry, she will aim to
secure a house so planned that it will provide in the best manner for
health, industry, and economy, those cardinal requisites of domestic
enjoyment and success. To aid in this, is the object of the following
drawings and descriptions, which will illustrate a style of living more
conformed to the great design for which the family is instituted than
that which ordinarily prevails among those classes which take the lead
in forming the customs of society. The aim will be to exhibit modes of
economizing labor, time, and expenses, so as to secure health, thrift,
and domestic happiness to persons of limited means, in a measure
rarely attained even by those who possess wealth.

At the head of this chapter is a sketch of what may be properly called a
Christian house; that is, a house contrived for the express purpose of
enabling every member of a family to labor with the hands for the
common good, and by modes at once healthful, economical, and
tasteful. Of course, much of the instruction conveyed in the following
pages