Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1886-03-08
In THE DOMESTIC CIRCLE.
TALMAGE THROWS OPEN THE
DOORS OF OUR HOMES.

Eternity.
BRooKLYN, N. Y, March Rev. T.
Do Witt Talmage, ID. D., preached to-day
in the Brooklyn Tabernacle, the ninth of
his series of sermons on ''The Marriage
Ring" the subject being 1.-The Domestic
Circle" Before the sermon he read the
names of seventy new members, making
the present number Of communicates
about $500. The hymn sung was:
"0h, could speak the matehess worth!
Oh, could l sound the glories forth
That in my Saviour shine"
Appropriate passages of Scripture were
rea6 and expounded by DR.. Talmage, after
which he took his text from Mark v. 10:
500 home TO thy friends, and tell them
how great things the Lord hath done for
thee" Following is the sermon IN full;
There are great many people longing
for some grand sphere IN which to serve
God. They admire Luther at the Diet of
Worms, and only wish that they had some
such great opportunity In which to dis
play their Christian prowess. They ad-
mire Paul making Felix tremble. and they
only wish that they had some such grand
ness, temperance and Judgment to come;
all they want is only an opportunity to
exhibit their Christian herOism. Now the
Apostle comes to us and he practically
says: 81 will show you a place where
you can exhibit all that is grand and
beautiful and glorious in Christian char
acter, and that Is the domestic circle"
Ii one is not faithful in an insignificant
sphere he will not be faithful in resOund-
s..aa NnTk2
cripple at the gate of the Temple he will
never be able to preach 1900 souls into
the kingdom at the Pentee0st. II Paul
will not take pains to instruct in the way
of salvation the jailer of the Philippian
dungeon, he will never make Felix trem-
bic. He who is not faithful in a skirmish
would not be faithful in an Armageddon.
The fact is we are all placed in just the
position in which we can most grandly
serve God; and we ought not to De chiefly
thoughtful about some sphere of useful
ness which we may after awhile gain, but
the all absorbing question with you and
with me ought to be: "Lord, what wilt
Thou have me now and here to dO?
There is one word in my text around
which most of our thoughts will this
morning revolve. That word is EHome.D
Ask ten different men the meaning of that
word and they will give you ten different
definitions. TO one it means love at the
hearth, it means plenty at the table, in
dustry at the w0rkstand, intelligence at
the books, devotion at the altar. To him
it means greeting at the door and a
smile at the chair. Peace lowering like
wings. Joy clapping its hands with
laughter. Life tranquil lake. Pillowed
ON the ripples sleep the shadows.
Ask another man what home is and he
will tell you it Is want looking out of a
cheerless fre-grate, kneading hunger in
an empty bread tray; the damp air shiVer-
ing with curses; no Bible on the shelf;
children, robbers and murderers in en-
bryo; obscene songs their lullaby; every
face picture of ruin; want in the back
ground and sin staring from the front; no
Sabbath wave rolling over that doorsill; :;
vestibule Of the pit; shadow OF Internal
walls; furnace for forging everlasting
chains; faggots for an unending funeral
pile. Awful word 1t is spelled with
curses; it weeps with ruin; it chokes with
woe; it sweats with the death agony of
despair.
The word ''Home'' in the one case means
everything bright. The word 'sHome'' in
the other case means everything terrific.
l shall speak to you this morning of
home as a test OF character; home as a
refuge; home as a political safeguard: I:
home as school. and home as a type OF
heaven.
And in the first place l remark that
home is powerful test of character. Phe
disposition in public may be in gay COS
tune, while in private it is in dishabille.
AS play actors may appear in one way on
the stage and may appear in another way
behind the scenes, so private character
may be very different from public charac-
ter. Private character is often public char
acter turned wrong side out. A man may
receive you into his parlor as though he
we're distiliatIon of smiles, and vet his
heart may be swamp of nettles. There
are business men who all day long are
mild and courteous and genial and good
natured in commercial life, damming
back their irTitability and their petulance
and their discomfort, but at nightfall the
dam breaks and scolding pours forth in
floods and freshets.
Reputation is only the shadow OF char
acter, and very small house sometimes
will cast very long shadow. The lips
may seem TO drop with myrrh and cassia,
and the disposition to be as bright and
warm as sheaf of suubeams, and vet
thev may be only magnificent show win
dow to wTetched stock Of goods. There
is many man who is affable IN public
life and amid commercial spheres, VINO, in
a cowardly way, takes bis anger and his
petulance home and drops them on the do
mestic circle.
The reason men do not display their
bad temper in public is because they do
not want to be knocked down. There are
men who hide their petulance and their
irritability just for the same reason that
they do not let their notes 70 to protest:
1t does not pay. Or for the same reason
that they do not want a man in their stock
company to sell his stock at less than the
right price, lest 1t deprecIate the value.
As at sometimes the wind rises, so after
a sunshiny day there may be tempestu-
Gus night. There are people VINO in pub
lie act the philanthropist, who at home
act the Nero, with respect 10 their Slip
pers and their gown.
Audubon, the great ornithologist, with
gun and pencil. went through the forests
OF America to bring down and TO sketch
the beautiful birds, and after years Of toll
and exposure completed his manuscript
and put it IN trunk in Philadelphia for
few days Of recreation and rest, and
came back and found that the rats had
utterly destroyed the manuscripts but
without any discomposure and without
any iret or bad temper, be again picked
ur his gun and pencil and visited again
all the great forests OF America ana re-
produced his immortal work. And yet
there are people With the ten thousandth
part OF that loss who are utterly unre-
coneilable, who, at the loss OF a pencil or
an article OF raiment, will blow as long
and sharp as a northeast storm.
Now, that man who is affable In public
WIN IL Irritable in nrfvafn - m King