We certainly admire efficiency, don’t we? We admire the person whose house is always tidy and clean, and the one who always seems to get things done on time. I always wanted to be like some of my friends at university, whose lecture notes were well-organised, whose essays were written in beautiful handwriting, and who had one of those colour-coded time-planners on the wall with due dates for their year’s assignments all written in. They could tell you a month out from final exams what subjects they were going to study each half-day to prepare best for each of their courses. Yes, a well-ordered way of life is something to aspire to! It’s true, Christians should be good managers of their lives and their time. Countless biblical passages tell us this – and Proverbs 31 reminds us women, in particular, that time management begins at home.

The More Important Thing⤒🔗

But it doesn’t end there. In fact, good organization of our work, home and families (if we have them), while profitable, pales into insignificance beside the primary task of keeping a watch on our souls. Are we maintaining our daily walk with the Lord? How are our habits of prayer and bible reading, and our personal battles with sin? This is the kind of watchfulness writer Elisabeth Elliott had in mind when she called her latest book Keep a Quiet Heart. What she meant is maintaining those careful habits of trust, patience, forgiveness, repentance and contentment that enable us to weather all life’s trials and sorrows – and even little disappointments – with equanimity. She who looks to her heart as a daily practice will be quite ready for the sudden trial when it comes. Let me introduce one woman who kept both – her heart and her home in a state of readiness.

Catherine Tait is a woman we know about because her husband had a very important role. But her life’s story bears many similarities to other women of her time – and its lessons can be applied in our time, to our own more ordinary circumstances. She lived in prominence, with privileges and comforts, but her life shows that daily, faithful living equips all of us for the troubles the Bible tells us are “common to man” (1 Corinthians 10:13)

A Believing Background←⤒🔗

Catherine grew up in a happy home, and was still very young when she came to understand the truths of the gospel, and to believe them with all her heart. She wanted to serve Christ in every way she could. In her day, living in a well-off family in Victorian England, the usual way of devoting your life to others was to help the poor and needy in the community around you. Godly women would visit poor labouring families, taking them food and medicine, looking after them when they were sick, and reading the Scriptures and praying with them. They would also teach children the rudiments of reading and writing, in little schools organised by their church – all on a voluntary basis, of course. As a girl Catherine did all of these things, in a desire to share the Christian faith with others.

Still quite young, she married Archibald Campbell Tait, who was then headmaster of Rugby school, one of the best-known English public (in New Zealand we would call them private) schools. Her household was a busy, and not very secluded one! With her husband, she lived in the midst of the school’s activities – and she included the boys in her household. She made it a large and generous one, for their sake. Seventy boarders lived in the school – as one biographer put it, “in her husband’s house” – and hundreds more day-pupils lived nearby. Young as Catherine was, her kind, motherly influence was felt by all these boys. When any were ill she saw to their needs as if they were in their own homes. If any lost a loved one she made sure he would know straight away that he was not alone among strangers. It was her custom to have the little boys for tea in their household; and the older boys she invited for dinner in the evenings, talking with them about many topics of interest.

A Well-ordered Life←⤒🔗

Catherine’s daily routines, from her early years, were well-ordered. She left her bedroom soon after seven (very early for a woman of her situation in life!), and at eight went to the nearby parish church to attend morning worship. (It was the practice for Anglican churches to hold daily services of prayer, Scripture reading and singing) She loved her church. After this she had some private, quiet time for prayer in her own room, then came downstairs to family worship. This was the normal habit of British households at this time, when the family, including the servants, would gather, and the husband as head of the house would read Scripture and lead the family in prayer. Over breakfast she joined in conversation with guests over whatever the topics of the day were, and by ten she would be about the house, planning household affairs with the cook and other servants. On certain days she would be available for poor people to come to her at her house, and she would talk to them about their needs, noting them all down and arranging for them to be met. Everyone noticed that Catherine used her time well – as my source on her life puts it, “No time was lost, and therefore she always had time to spare.” How did she use this spare time? She went out riding with her husband on his days off, she helped him prepare his history lessons for the boys or, if she had a spare half-hour, she would spend it in reading.

These habits continued as her family grew. She and Archibald had seven children, and by the time the youngest of these was born Archibald was Dean of Carlisle – which meant that he had responsibility for the affairs of the cathedral in that town. She took a keen interest in the children’s education as they grew up, often helping them with their lessons in the schoolroom where they were taught at home. She also took very seriously the task of teaching them the faith. She helped them memorise Scripture, especially the Psalms, and often they would learn the great hymns of the faith, whose words, of course, teach us its central truths. At family prayers Archibald would question the children about the Scripture passage he had read, to make sure they understood it well. The children grew up knowing the Anglican liturgy well, and they loved Sundays and church as much as their parents did. Catherine would explain the Scripture readings assigned for each Sunday of the year (there was always an Old Testament reading, and a portion from the gospels and the epistles). As one of her friends said, Catherine “lived the Christian life with her children; not so much sending them on, or even going before them and calling them on, but going with them every step of the way, in prayers and thanksgivings and little loving services to all around.”

The Bigger Family←⤒🔗

But her life had a wider focus than her children. She took a full interest in all her husband’s church activities, attending openings of new parish churches, going with him wherever he preached – “her deepest interests were ever mine”, he wrote. She also continued her work with the poor and suffering, having them in her home, teaching them in schools, and spending hours in the workhouse (charitable institutions set up to house the really destitute). Her children helped her in all this work. The poor loved her; and it was noticed by all that she was as much at ease with them as she was at a dinner party with cabinet ministers, lawyers or bishops.

Tested by Suffering←⤒🔗

The family were well-prepared, through these ordered habits, for the blow that came to them. In those days it was not uncommon for infectious diseases to come in epidemics in certain places. There was no medication to treat them, or vaccines to protect against them. Hundreds would die of outbreaks of cholera in large cities. Scarlet fever was another. These diseases, though often hitting the poorer, less well fed and housed families of England, also struck the better-off as well. In the spring of 1856, the Tait family endured a tragedy that is hard even to imagine. Within the space of five weeks, five of their little girls died of scarlet fever. They were left with their only son, Crauford, and a baby girl. The strength of their faith was tested to the limit by this terrible trial. That they endured it and enabled their daughters to die trusting in the Saviour’s love had much to do with the steadiness of their family’s spiritual habits. The comfort they were able to give their daughters on their sick beds was, in reality, the same truth they had been teaching them all their lives. Even these little girls were able to apply the things they had always been taught to their sickness – and even their death. As one of the little ones was dying, her mother prayed old familiar prayers with her. Little Catty followed every word with her lips, and after the prayers Catherine said the words of a familiar hymn:

Jesus, Saviour, Son of God,
Who for us earth’s pathway trod,
Who for us became a child,
Make me humble, meek and mild.
I Thy lamb would ever be;
Jesus, I would follow Thee;
Let me love what Thou dost love,
Let me live with Thee above.

She followed every word, and fixed her eyes on her parents with a look of love they never forgot. Soon after, she pointed her finger upward toward heaven, then stretched her hands upwards as she breathed her last. It was obvious that old, familiar, oft-repeated words were a great comfort to both mother and daughter as little Catty died.

Further Labour←⤒🔗

But they laboured on with all that the Lord had for them to do. Later that year Archibald was called to be Bishop of London, and the family moved there to continue their labours as before, though with new responsibilities. Catherine continued to do all she could to help the poor and needy, establishing a home for orphans near their house. As before, the prominent and cultured were welcomed into their home as well; and to all, Catherine was warm and gracious. They were blessed with two more children, and with their family of four they made their final move to Lambeth Palace when Archibald was made Archbishop of Canterbury, the most senior position in the Church of England. He was much-loved by Queen Victoria, who made his appointment herself, because she sympathized with his conservative theological views. So, Catherine now had occasion to stay as the guest of the Queen as well as to visit orphans. She managed it all!

In the mid-1870s, as one of the duties of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Archibald convened the Lambeth Conference, which was a meeting of Anglican bishops from around the world. There was occasion for welcoming bishops from the furthest corners of the world into their family circle, and this Catherine did. But it was at time of great cost: they had just lost their only son, Craufurd, who died suddenly in his late twenties. One of the bishops, an American, watched her fortitude as, pale and sorrow-stricken, she cared for the multitude of guests. He said that he could scarcely believe such courage and self-constraint were possible. It was very possibly a last, gallant effort that was too much for her strength. Six months later, Catherine herself became very ill. Soon she was dying. Again, words she knew well were her comfort. Archibald read the prayer of commendation to God from the Book of Common Prayer at her bedside – the very words they had prayed together as their daughters had died:

...We humbly commend the soul of this Thy servant, our dear sister, into Thy hands, as into the hands of a faithful Creator, and most merciful Saviour; most humbly beseeching Thee, that it may be precious in Thy sight ... And teach us who survive, in this and other like daily spectacles of mortality, to see how frail and uncertain our own condition is; and so to number our days, that we may seriously apply our hearts to that holy and heavenly wisdom...

Then they sang, “Jesus, Lover of My Soul” (the hymn of Charles Wesley) as she passed from this life. Catherine looked forward to the presence of her Saviour, where all tears would be wiped away.

This Christian’s Character←⤒🔗

What I really admire about Catherine is her calm steadiness of character. It was this steadiness that led to her choosing a regular, ordered pattern of daily activities. But more than that, she chose the best of daily activities available to her as Archibald’s wife, and in her own church and cultural setting. The ones she chose gave her and her family readiness for troubles when they came. It is important that we choose carefully what we make “regular” in our lives. We need to ask ourselves – are our habits conducive to godly thinking and living, or not? Do they measure up to Philippians 4:8, where Paul is giving advice on what we make our regular subjects of thought?

We can adapt Catherine’s example to our own lives very easily. Of course, regular habits of bible study and prayer on our own are important for growing in our walk with our Lord. They also give us immediate armour against the troubles and temptations of the day ahead. Catherine, as a faithful Anglican, knew her church’s liturgy (the Book of Common Prayer) extremely well – and this was good. Much of it is Scripture, and the prayers written in it are models of clarity and conciseness. It is obvious from Catherine and Archibald’s lives that the words of this liturgy came to them from their memory as a great comfort in time of need. It was the same with the great hymns of the church throughout the ages: they were a wonderful repository of truth, hope and encouragement for this family. We can do the same. There are passages of Scripture we can memorise and ponder over until we know them inside out. But what about our creeds and catechisms? There is wonderful truth in them that will strengthen us for service and comfort us in trouble. How about the Apostles’ and Nicene creeds? How about Question and Answer One of the Heidelberg Catechism? Do you know good hymns (the best of the faith, passed down to us through the ages) well enough that their words come to mind easily? They are full of truth that we can rely on when we’re tempted, taunted or troubled. Why not make it a project to go over some of these treasures of the faith at home with your family? It could become a regular habit!

Finally, I’m sure Catherine knew that one of the things the Saviour wants us to do is to be busy in His service day by day, week by week and year by year. He wants to find us this way when He comes for us. And of course, that doesn’t just mean when He returns, suddenly and unexpectedly, “like a thief in the night.” It also means when each of us dies, and is called into the Lord’s presence. Catherine was ready for this because of the daily patterns of devotion and of doing good that she established early in her life. Are we equally as ready, when we consider what we do, and think, each day of our lives?