The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1870-05-14

"Let them first show piety at home" may
advance NO new idea, and how seldom do We
have thought presented to US that is entirely
new, of whose outlines we have not caught
glimpses, whose shadows have foated through
our minds, and been pushed out perhaps by mat.
tiers of more pressing moment, but which, al
though clothed in new dress, We Immediately
recognize and embrace as old friends. The sub
iect of home and l's influences is one that being
continually felt ia interesting to every Of
Home il the great sphere in which our affections
ton of their development. but love is the in.
finite nature itself. so is it the prevalent senti
ment Of all life. You cannot find . human be.
ing 30 lost in degradation, SO low and depraved,
| so encrusted in selfshness and buried in som
| sual qualification, but there is some bond of
affection linking him to something else. And
| perfect love to God and His creatures brings
within its ample reach all the Christ.like virtues,
casteth out fear and satisfies every want of the
soul for time and eternity. The mass OF hui
manity in city affords comparatively little in
terest, viewed as a mass, but resolve it into its
| n
breathing, conscious individuality, possessed of
the attributes of Immortality Hope, fear, love,
hate, envy. revenge, jealousy, vanity, resigna-
ton, and each and every inherent quality of the
mind looks out from its eyes, settles in the
corners of the mouth, asserts itself in the step,
the poise of the head and every motion and
gesture. How quickly the tell-tale lip expresses
scorn, how the dilating nostril anger, the set
mouth determination, how quickly are all the
human passions disceruiblc through the win
dows of the soul, and how natural the question,
Whence all these drops? And whittier do they
flow? Whence come in the morning? And
where 20 at night? Yet every particle in this
struggling mass, with very few exceptions, has
place which he dignifes by the name of home.
And how great its influences for COED or evil
over him who can estimate?
If the place be associated in the mind with
everything good and pure, place too sacred to
be spoken of lightly, place which prompts gem
erous Deeds whence spring high resolves; where
the band of the house is in the strongest sense
the nObest work Of God, and his companion a
companion indeed, not selfish butterfly OF
fashion, scattering his hardly accumulated stores
in senseless qualification and frivolty, repaying
devotion with Indifference, cheerfulness with
complaining, neither a household drudge dwarf
ed in intellect, with no time for the cultivation
of head and heart, the interchange OF thought
and sympathy, the sweet amenities which make
life beautiful; but help meet for him, uphold
L.,
mother with dignity and cheerfulness, where
children bow reverently to the lessons of father
and mother, taught by precept, enforced by ex-
ample. Some there be to whom the word home
is the Synonym Of the most sacred sanctities, and
some places there be to which the application of
the name were the veriest mockery. To some
the word is associated with more than oriental
magnifcence, every convenience that can
dictate, every beauty that art can suggest has
been called in to endow this place consecrated to
all the virtues.
Another, perhaps happier, and by far larger
class, is that with less abundant, but sufficient
means to keep away pinching poverty; that con-
dition in life in which, "Healthfu! slumbel
waits Oh toll ;" that condition in which .he gold
en- mien barbados the possessor against the
need of stunting parsimony, gnawng envy, and
the continuous and unremitting struggle for
more subsistence.
There Is another class of homes where grim
want stands sentinel continually, where gaunt
hunger. who guards the inner post, Is only oc'
casionaly relieved by repleticn; where fear fol
those desrer than self withers the buds of hope
and paralyzes the springs of action where star
vation haunts the waking thought and sleeping
dream, and where cheerlessness, apathy and des
pondinY toll brood continually. And there il
still another elias. whose proportion is by nc
! mesns insignificant, where corruption tarnishet
the moral atmosphere, their men brazen .fronted
+ by their own wicked will aud by the scern with
which m-n have battered them, aud their womer
!. painted c"ur.exsns. from whose faces the stsml
Of the angel has long since fed.
= / believe that no hear. can be utterly corrupt
{ no nature thoroughly tspt.",d, whose youthful
= Year, were passed ia g,,i and pleasant home
= who's. mind, Win. yst p.ss.ic, was moulded BY
:. II vir'u"u.. .-l!-..rr-heips mother. What deed
., valr have t@sn iD.Di'sa sy thoughts Of thee
- VIVA, human Probabilities achieved by the in
fuenc. Of her spyf"rsGs sn.iis. The sailor OF
" the temp-.tuon' '--s1 snist~'' her name mex
,e TO Gods, and ,hDu'znt. ia lite. great peril
r trace back their po~.f ~ reels. the spoiler u
~ the influence. of tbs hour when a; their mother
pr knee they first learned pi.,y at home. There !
H. no school like the home circ. for that dscplin