Abbeville press. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1860-1869, 1869-06-11
THE IMPORTANCE OF HOME.
BY REV. T. L. sHIPMAN.

what longing and lingering looks
we cast back when grst leaving
home to dwell among strangers |!
Home! how the heart thrills with
pleasure when approaching home
after a long absence!
The Importance of home appears
from the fact that it is identified
with the family constitution. That
constitution dates from home. Mar
riagc, which lays the foundation, is
an ordinance of God. 1t was IN
stituted in Eden. The first home
created by marriage was in Para
disc: "Thercfore shall a man leave
his father and his mother and shall
cleave unto his wife, and they
twain shall be one flesh" Left to
impulse and caprice we might herd
together like the brutes, and be-
come, for this reason, Independents
ly of any other right, fit to herd
with brutes.
The Importance ofhome appears,
from the relation in which it stands
to the forming period of life. The
plastic, moulding period of life in
cludcs infancy. childhood, and ear
ly youth, and this is ordinarily
passed under the parental roof:
The imitativeness Of childhood is
a universal law which, like habit,
proves a blessing or a curse, ac-
cording as it is we'll or i'll directed.
If the parents are frivolous or vi
cious, the child will, by the power
of example, be educated to frivolity
or profligacy independently of any
other training, and, I may add, as
a general fact, despite and other
training. If the parents possess q
substantial, and especially a consis-
tent religious character, the charac-
ter of the child Will be formed on
a solid foundation. The child will
be trained to manliness, and, under
the blessing of God, to piety.
Home takes the supervision of
the character precisely ct the Pc
riod "when the mind is the most
susceptible, impressions the most
durable, and the influence Of exam
pie the most exclusive and potent.
Education commences at home,
and the character takes it's "form
and presence" from home influen-
ces. If domestic culture be either
defective or positively bad, it will
be exceedingly difficult, not to say,
i'll many cases, absolutely impossi-
ble, for foreign influences to coun-
teract it. I do not mean to say
that the grace Of God can not coun-
teract it; and yet grace does usually
but modify natural tendencies.
God does not allow parents to COM
fort themselves in their negligen-
cies and mistakes, with the conf
donce that grace will by and by
supply their omissions, and rectify
their errors. II, the Lord the God
am a jealous God, visiting the in
iquities of the fathers upon the
children unto the third and fourth
generation of them that hate me-"
recognizes the responsibility of
parents for the character and desti-
ny of their children, and binds
them to fidelity by all the love they
bear to their offspring.
Children generally show in the
day-school and in the Sunday
school and wherever they are,
their training at home, and individ-
.uals, even in old age, will reveal
the home influences which were
brought to bear upon them in their
earliest years. -.
If economy in domestic expendi-
lures, carried to parsimony, was
the prominent home influence fun
less disgust drives them to the
opposite extreme), they will be apt
To- be close and niggardly through
life; if their tempers were ii .u,inis;nb-
dued they will probably be self:
.willed and headstrong all their
days; if they were .indqlged in
every whims they ! will i grow gup
selfish; sigh for the; first seat at the
pnblie table, grasp this dish 4and
call for that with very little regard
for the comfort Of their neighbors
if the parents wore accustomed "a
Halter 70 the face and SANDER d
the back, they Will probabWi lbe
lboth back. .bitersa Z aa.ihid il sysobKahts