Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1883-12-06

that tenderness and humanity, which
cement society together, This intro
duces a second thought, that home is
the sanctuary of affections. and that
they are what imparts to life its richest
flavor. Paul's matchless monograph
in 18th chapter of 1st Corinthians set
forth the immortal principal of charity
and love, whose source is heaven, whose
chief seat is the very bosom of God,
and whose mission is to create new
heaven upon earth. In its highest
form love is divine, and will outlast all
things, for s'charity never faileth."
OF human affection home is the rruest
sanctuary. 1t there takes manifold
forms, each one of which possesses a
beauty and worth peculiar to itself.
The husband loves the wife with a.man-
ly affection; the wife loves the husband
with womanly affection. The love
which the father gives to the son differs
from that which he bestows on the
daughter; and the mother has quite an
other kind of love for both daughter
and son; and there is equal variety in
the love of son and daughter for the
father and mother. The love of brother
for sister is not the same as that of sis
ter for brother. These beautiful varia-
tons of the one principle lend a peculiar
charm to family life.
Because love is the best of earthly
things, and because in the family it
takes on forms more varied, intimate
and tender, than in other relations it
comes TO pass that a never falling in
terest attaches to wedding OCCASION;
and that interest is maintained in all
the successive anniversaries of the event
five, ten, fifteen, twenty, twenty-five
years after the date at which the
twain became one. 1t culmi-
mates in the golden or diamond
wedding. The family furnishes the
best types with which to represent
spiritual thingst to human apprehension.
God is one Father in heaven. Man
and women are Gods sons and daugh-
tiers. He even comforts us as a mother
comforts her children, The love of the
husband to his bride is the symbol of
the love of Christ to his church. The
love of brothers and sisters helps one
conception of brotherhood and sister
hood in the church family. This is hap
PLY illustrated where Paul says, EN-
treat an elder as father; and the
younger men as brethren; the elder
women as mothers; the younger wo-
men as sisters, with all purity" The
sacred Scriptures even give what way
be taken as an intimation that in hea-
ven the saints are grouped in celestial
families. What less can be the mean
S,,cr thn hot Dc
vised version, ''From whom every fam
lily in heaven and on earth is named. :"
While it is understood that home is
the place for the narture and training
of children, it is not so often consd-
cred that it is the education of husband
and wife in the best traits of character
The entire experience of life was de-
signed by God for our discipline and
training. He tries and proves man in
ways manifold, Your principles and
spirit were tested in the intercourse of
society and the engagements of bust
ness, yesterday and the day before, and
this will be renewed tomorrow, and
continued through this week and next.
Your cheerful Eyes" returned in an
swer to a proper question, which yet it
costs something to comply with, and
your prompt mo-" given at the sug-
gestion of the inward monitor, are sub
stantial victories, which strengthen
you and weaken the enemy, while my
vacillation in a matter of duty is like the
giving up of some outpost, which rem
ders the defence more difficult and VIC
tory more doubtful.
The home discipline is, in some re-
spects, more searching than any other,
and at the same time it has this advant-
age, that it is experienced under in
fluences more inspiring. Men and
women who carry themselves well in
society sometimes fail at home, where
the law of kindness has It's more deli
cate and nicer applications. The right
full demands of those nearest to you
upon your time, your attention, your
help, are much more numerous then
where those relations are not so close.
Husband and wife must needs respond
readily to each others calls, while they
might properly decline them as coming
from 'any other source. The mutual
attentions which precede marriage need
to be continued after marriage. The
incessant, and there are many grave
preplexities and petty annoyances.
As some one has said, in town we
have primary school, high school, a
church, a municipal government. In
the family we combine all these in one.
1t is nursery, primary school, high
school, church and State. The parents
are nurses, trainers, teachers, ministers,
king and queen. If any are ready to
conclude that, such being the cares and
responsibilities, it is better not to marry,
let them remember that, as we have
said, the world of mankind could not
otherwise exist in any tolerable condi-
dition of morality, comfort and refine
ment Those who have no homes of
their own have to beg q place in the
homes of others; yet it is but justice to
say that these adopted members of the
household are very welcome, often in
dispensable. We may be assured that
the discipline in duty, patience and gen.
tleness which we experience in the mar
riage state is in reality no drawback.
There is here as elsewhere divine law
of sacrifice by which we lose to find;
the loss in bountiful sowing is repaid
by the gain of a bountiful reaplng To
make another's interest and happiness
thoroughly your own, to require little
where you might exact much. to defer
in thoughtful consideration to another
wishes, to be sweet tempered and calm
when the sky is lowering and the sea of
affairs is troubled and vexed, were
more to be desired than an untroubled
life, if such a life could be possible.
Even partial success is so ennobling
that it We're better than TO have known
nothing of the noble endeayor and
achievement.
And it is especially to be considered
that the motive and inspiration of af-
lection tighten the labor, and smooth
the roughness of the way. Husbands
and wives often sacrifice themselves for
each other, and the general veal of the
family. and hardly know it. Those
heroes of the household are so truly
such that they do not suspect themselves
of being heroes at all. You observe
that | do not paint a merely rose-col-
ored picture of home life. ] will even
admit the existence of faults, and the
need of kind forbearance, for there is
neither man nor woman that liveth and
is perfect. But home is the best school
for correcting any infelicities of char
acter. Could you find better teacher
than the one whom you have chosen
for yourself from among all others?
Would you not be willing, as teacher.