The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1877-02-08

good in the soul, and the destructiono Of all
that is evil the home must be depended
on. II we would have the boys and the
girls go out into the world like minister
ing angels to their kind, if we would have
their hearts so full of gentle love that
their words would fall upon kindred
souls. and awaken their dropping hopes
into new life, as the shower imbues the
fading grass with fresh vitality, we must
train them in the home, and freight them
with gentlencss at the fireside.
But upon noble manhood and woman
hood rest the interests of the world. If
every man and woman were pure and up.
right and noble we should have no crime,
and comparatively little Indebtedness.
Government would never be in danger of
treason's assaults or treachery; mind that
is now wasted in wrong doing would be
turned into channels in which its energies
would bear rich harvests of blessings for
the world; the sword would cease its
bloody work, and the tread of armies
would no longer shake the earth, and
blight the verdure and flowers of the
fields. What vast responsibility, there
fore, rests upon the heads of families,
and how few realize it.
If every boy and girl in America had
home to-day, and every home was what
it should be, the abode of virtue, the tenn
pie of forgiving charity, the school of
industry, culture and gentility, the his
tory of the American Republic hundred
years hence could even now be written.
With SO much depending upon it, there
fore, the management of the home should
be the subject of constant, earnest study
and ceaseless anxiety. 1t should always
be Pleasant-the pleasantest spot on earth
to the child. Our children will seek the
sunshine and beauties Of lite, and if the
home does not furnish them they will go
elsewhere to enjoy them. Pictures and
books and flowers should be abundant,
and as beautiful as the means will admit
of. Neatness and order should he Wis.,
ible everywhere. Politcness hould al
ways characterize the intercourse between
the members of family. Especially
should the children he taught the beauties
of gentleness, charity and kindness, by
its constant and transformations practice by
the parents, not only toward the children,
but toward the world. 1t must never be
forgotten that these tender little hearts
are easily hardened, and that nothing
will so quickly harden them as a constant
exhibition of uncharitablencss and cruel
ty toward mankind. If parents are sell
fish, and live as if they were natural ene-
mics of their kind, the child develops a
similar nature, and goes through life, per-
haps, in consequence, without knowing
how rich a happiness comes from drying
scalding tear or healing wounded
heart. 1t is so easy for a man or woman
to speak kind word or do kind act,
that failure to do either is almost unac-
countable. We do not fully know what
happiness is, until we learn that
IMAM liveth not for himself alone. :"
Velvet carpets, magnificent libraries,
paintings and statuary may adorn the
home, but they are powerless to con-
fer happiness, and if an attempt is
made to center the affections of the
heart upon them, we become less and less
happy in proportion to our success in do
ing it. 1t is only when we are charitable,
and loving. and kind to our fellows !;
when we try to cover with flowers the
ragged edges of the rocks which frOwn in
the pathway of a brother, that we begin to
realize that heaven begins here. The
writer is now thinking of q beautiful
home. Its rooms and halls are radiant
with sunshine. Its appointments are
tastcfully elegant. 1t is a lovely bower of
grace and beauty. 1t is just such spot
on which selfish Incidence would delight
to lounge, away from the responsibilities
and perplexities of life. But the charm
ing lady who presides over this little place
of beauty finds her greatest happiness in
ministering to the wants of the needy,
and in painting the sunshine upon the
clouds which have gathered over less for
tunate hearthstones. Closing her elegant
piano and leaving her tastefully- orna-
mented parlors, she seeks pleasure in 60
ing into the home of poverty, and with
her delicate hands, not afraid of work,
assisting to kindle the dying embcrs upon
the hearthstone into cheerful blaze. She
is friend to the friendless, a sister to
those in need of sisters influence and
advice, and a kind Christian, loving moth
CT to the orphan. In home like hers not
only children, but those who are older,
learn the grand purposes of life, and arc
mellowed into better beings; and it is to
such homes that the world must look for
the men and women who are 10 make it
great and noble.-Western Rural.