"I'm not what you may call a religious talker," said Janet.
"So much the better," answered Mrs. Simmons. "What folks call a 'religious talker' is very often a sham sort of specimen. It's more important to ask if you're a religious doer, Mrs. Humphrey."
"I've been trying to do better lately," said Janet.
"Yes, I know you have. It's good, so far," said Mrs. Simmons. "And yet that isn't all. Cleanliness and order of themselves aren't religion, though they ought and must go alongside of religion. If you're truly serving God from your heart, and if you sweep your room and cook your dinner the very best you possibly can, just because you want to please God, doing it with thoughts in your heart of trying to honour Him, why then your sweeping and cooking are a part of your religion, sure enough. But not else."
"I don't know as I've given much thought that way," said Janet shamefacedly.
"I'd begin," said Mrs. Simmons gravely. "I wouldn't put off, Mrs. Humphrey. And mind, you've got to train those children of yours for Heaven. That's the work that lies ready to your hand. It isn't only a question of training them to be useful men and women by-and-by. It's a question of training them for Heaven."
"There don't seem much time," began Janet.
"There's time enough for eating and sleeping, and dressing and seeing friends," said Mrs. Simmons. "Time enough, I suppose, for everything except that. And yet that's the one thing above all that calls most for attention."
"They go to Sunday-school," said Janet.
"That's something, but it isn't enough," said Mrs. Simmons. "It is mother's teaching they want, Mrs. Humphrey. It's the teaching that will help their little feet day after day to follow in the steps of the Lord Jesus—teaching that'll make them want to serve Him, and fight against naughty ways. That's what they want. You don't think an hour or two once a week can do everything. No, no—it's home teaching as well as Sunday-school that's needed. God has given them into your hands, for training."