Page:The Galaxy, Volume 5.djvu/529

Rh or German peasant woman, Let the thing be done thus and so,—in order that it shall be so done? If you do not, and we are right in our suspicion that no little of that unsatisfactoriness in our households, of which the wives of our bosoms complain more than we do, is the consequence of a lack of method, of system, of discipline, and of careful immediate supervision, without which our men's affairs are sure to go awry, if not to ruin, is it not necessary to your great and laudable purpose that you should teach the ladies, who say that our comfort is their happiness, not only how breakfasts and dinners ought to be cooked and served, but that it is necessary that they should use this knowledge in some other way than in giving orders? Not that they should cook our dinners, but that they should see that they are cooked well: that the planning of which you speak must be done by them: that, in fact, to be rightly the mistress of a household of moderate means in this country involves contrivance, forethought, and method. That as man, poor creature, cannot tie his cravat with success without giving his whole mind to it, so woman, if she expects to keep her house well, must give her mind—we would not presume to say all her mind—to it, and not pride herself, as this nebulous individual has known the wife of a working lawyer pride herself, upon not knowing what went on in the kitchen?

Rev. Mr. Tyng has been convicted of breaking a canon of the church of which he is an ordained presbyter. With his conviction or his offence we have nothing to do whatever. They concern only him and the other members of his denomination; and sectarian religion and sectarian affairs are among the very few subjects which are excluded from these pages. But, apropos of this trial and conviction, there has been an outbreak of sneering and gibing with which we are all concerned, because it is the mere exponent of a feeling which is dangerous to public order and subversive of public morals. Mr. Tyng's offence was that he preached in a pulpit in which, according to the canons of his church (as interpreted by the court which tried him), he should not have preached; and a chorus of scoffs goes up at the absurd and unchristian proceeding of trying and condemning a clergyman for preaching anywhere. And, certainly, it seems that a man who has assumed the office of a minister of the Christian religion might, could, would, and should perform the functions of that office at any time and at all places in which they are needed. That Mr. Tyng did what was in itself a wrong or an unchristian act no man in his senses will maintain. But Mr. Tyng is not only a preacher of the gospel; he is the ordained minister of a certain church. He has voluntarily taken upon himself certain vows, and has assumed certain subordinate relations as the condition of a certain standing and authority within that church. He is bound by his own choice, and by the most solemn of vows, to observe the rules of that church, and to submit to its constituted authorities. If they require him to preach only in a certain place, or to pray only in a certain position, if it be with his face upon the ground, or standing up with his hat on, there is no alternative for him but to submit, or to leave that church. With those who openly maintain any other view it is necessary not to discuss propriety or Christianity, but whether a man is bound by the obligation which he voluntarily assumes, and which there is no reason, physical or moral, to prevent his keeping. And yet there goes up a clamor, which finds its best expression in some humorous verses, the point of which is in this stanza: