The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1882-03-15
Home.

Home how deep the pathos of that
little monosyllable-thc moss expressive
in any languagc-the most endearing to
every heart! o home! on the far-oii
affairs are laid the sacrifices Of every
memory-thc tribute Of every feeling
the throb5 Of every bosom--the tears of
every check! Who can pronounce the
little name without tremor? recall thy
memories without being thrilled by
thoughts too mighty for language, yet
too ycarning to suppress? How lasting
the impressions-like lava boiling from
volcanoes, grasp;ng in its rolling every
object ii encounters, and stamping with
the impress Of gasp that never can
be broken! How eEdearng the appel
lation "sweet home!" Though the
floor be mud, and the roof straw, it be-
comes inlaid with marble and fretted
with gold in the hut Of home. How
powerful on the drunkard is his childs
entreaty, Father. come home" What
to the orator are the applauses of the
senate, the worship Of the crowd, the
adula,on of the giddy, and the hattcry
Of the sycophani, compared with those
hcart-promptcd smiles that await him at
his own home? Their sincerity sits ON
every countenance--lovc in every eye
delight in every GESTURE There, as the
Roman senate, on the issue Of any event
important to the state, took down the
statues of their gods from the inches in
their shrncs, and placed them on their
tables at their teasts to participate in the
teasts and banquet, the triumph and the
applause, 50 does man, far from his
home, take down from the inches Of
memory the images Of his dear ones and
arrange them around the cabinet of his
soul, to share with them, in exile, the
rich, rich feast of mutual intercourse
and reciprocal sensbility, and to recount
! to them all the occurrences since part.
ing rejoice in his success, and sympa
thizc in his distress, advises his doubts,
assist his difficulties, and, as partici-
pants Of his troubles, crown them part
ners Of his triumphs and his praise.
Who that has been removed from his
natures paradise, does not revisit it in
dreams, lays, in fond imagination, his
head ON the bosom Of his loved one,
kisses the check and fondles the ringlcls
of his babes, stretches the arm of his
soul over ten thousand miles of space
and distance? What an argument in
proof Of the Immortality, ubiquity and
divinity of the soul !
O Home thou art twined around our
hearts by the hottest Of bonds--lovc.
From all positions, however exalted !;
all trumphs however ilattering from
all that praise can offer, royalty confer,
or fortune bestow, man, widowed and
dissatisfied, still yearns, still pants for
home. Home is the only theater of his
triumphs, only stage of his efforts, the
platform of his oratory, the climax of
his bliss. Home the mariner from the
mighty waters seeks out the star mark
ing his far home. The soldier, crap.
pling death, breathes his souls last
prayer for home! The exiled patriot,
the pr;soned champion, the banished
hcro-all hearts own the influence of
that mighty magnet, Home! Cold,
then, must be that heart, blighted in
its hottest hopes, and incapable of en-,
joying that rest and rapture, the nearest
realization Of heaven on earth, who neg
lects to throw the halo of happiness, by
presence and precepts, by labor and
love, around that foretastc of heaven, a
! happy Home