The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1886-03-24
our dwelling-houses are the grandest monu-
ments OF safety and triumph. No home, no

ments OF safety and triumph. No holne' no
republic
| Further,II remark, that home is a school;
| Old ground must be turned up with subsoil
plow and it must be narrowed and re-har-
rowed, and then the crop will not be as
large as that of the new ground with less cul-
ture. Now, youth and childhood are new
ground and all the influences thrown over
their heart and life will come up in after
life lu1uriantly. Every time you have given
your life will come up again the genlallty or
your children, and every ebullition, Of anger
and every uncomfortable display of indigna-
ton will be fuel to their disposition twenty
or thirty or forty years from now
fuel for a bad fire a quarter OF q
century from this. You praise
the intelligence of your child too much some
times when you think he is not aware OF it,
and you will see the result Of it before ten
You praise his beauty, supposing he is not
large enough to understand what you say,
and you will find him standing on a high
| chair before a f1attering mirror. Words and
| deeds and example are the seed Of character,
! and children are very apt to be the second
| edition of their parents. Abraham begat
| Isaac, so virtue is apt to 60 down in the an
cestral line; but Hercd begat Archelaus, so
iniquity is transmitted. What vast respon'
SOliAOo upC4 POI OAoS AA SA0" VI oAAAS
| subject!
Oh, make your home the brightest place on
earth if you would charm your children to
the high path of virtue and rectitude and re-
ligion. Do not always turn the blinds the
wrong way. Let the light which puts gold
on the gentian and spots the pansy pour
into ,yo,nr,, dwellings. Do not not
expect the little feet to keep step to a dead
! march Do not cover up your walls with such
pictures as Vests "Death on Pale Horse"
or Tintorettos Massacre of the Innocents.
Rather cover them, if you have pictures, with
''The Hawking Party" and "The Mill by the
Mountain Stream" and "The Fox Hunt, and
The Children Amid Flowers" and 1.-THE
Harvest Scene," and "The Saturday Night
MarketinG"
Get you no hint of cheerfulness from grass
hopper's leap, and lambs frisk and quails
whistle and garrulous streamlet which from
the rock at the mountain top clear down to the
meadow ferns under the shadow Of the steep,
comes looking for the steepest place to leap
off at, and talking Just to hear itself talk. II
all the skies hurtled with tempestand everlast-
ing storm wandered over the sea, and every
mountain stream wen5 raving mad, frothing
at tho mouth with mud-foam and there were
nothing but simoons blowing among the
hills and there were neither larks' carol nor
humming-birds trill, nor waterfalls dash,
but only bears bark and panthers scream
and VOLTS howl, then you might we'll gather
into your homes only the shadows. But
when God has strewn the earth and heavens
with beauty and with gladness, let us take
into our home circles all innocent MARTY, M
all brightness and all good cheer A dark
home makes bad boys and bad girls in prep
aration for bad men and bad women.
Above all, my friends, take into your homes
Christian principle. Can it be that in any OF
the comfortable homes of my congregation
the voice Of prayer is never lifted? What!
No supplication at night for protection
What! no thanksgivi in the morning for
cares How, my brother, my sister, will you
answer God in the day, Of Judgment with
reference to your .nd children, 9horefars IL is
pse psaln it. qosS!iDn' in the a tenth sle Chapter
of Jeremiah God says He will pour out His
fury upon the families that call not upon His
name. Oh, parents, when you are dead and
gone, and the moss is covering the inscription
Of your tombstone will your children look
back and think of father and mother at fam
lily prayer? Will they take the old family
Bible and open it and see the mark Of tears
Of contrition and tears Of consoling promise
wept by eyes long before gone out into dark
ness! Oh, if you do not inculcate Christian
principle into the hearts Of your children, and
YOU do not warn them against evil, and you
do not invite them to holiness and to God,
and they wander off into dissipation and in
fidelity, and at last make shipwreck of their
their day of Judgment they will curse you!
Seated by the register or the stove, what if
on the wall should come out the history
of your children. What a history
the mortal and immortal life Of
your loved ones Every parent
IS writing the history Of his child. He is
writing it, composing it into song or turn
ing it into groan.
Nv mind runs back to one Of the best Of
early homes Prayer, like roof over it.
Peace, like an atmosphere in it. Parents,
personifcations Of faith in trials and comfort
in darkness. The two pillars Of the earthly
home long ago crumbled to dust. But shall
ever forget that early home? Yes, when
the flower forgets the sun that warns it.
Yes, when the mariner forgets the star that
guided him. Yes, when love has gone outon
the hearts altar and memory has emptied its
urn into forgetfulness Then, the home of
NV childhood, I will forget thee: the family
altar Of fathers Importantly and mothers
tenderness, the voices Of affection, the fun
erals of our dead father and mother with
interlocked arms like INTERVIEWING branches
of trees making a perpetual arbor OF
love and peace and kindness-then
I will forget thee-then and
only then, you know, my brother, that q
hundred times you have been kept out Of sin
by the memory of such ascene sa as ~ have been be a
temptations, but you know what has held
you with supernatural grasp. tell you a
man who has hsd such good home as that
never gets over it, and man who has had
bad early home never gets over it.
Again I remark that home is type OF
heaven To bring us to that home Christ left
his home Far,lp and far back in the history
of heaven there came period when its most
illustr1ous citizen was about to absent him
beach; we have often done that, He was not
gong to put out from one hemisphere to an
other hemisphere; many Of us have done that.
But he was to sail from world to world, the
places unexplored and the immensities un-
travelled. Noworld had ever hailed heaven and
heaven never had hailed any other world. l
think that the windows and the balconies were
thronged and that the pearline beach was
crowded with those who had come to see Him
sail out the harbor of light into the oceans be-
yond. Out and out and out and on and on
aud on and down and down and down He
sped until one night with only one to greet
Him He arrived. His Decentralization so un-
pretending, so quiet that it was not known
on earth until the excitement in the cloud
gave intimation that something grand and
glorious had happened. Who comes there?
From what port did he sail? Why was this
the place Of his destination? I question the
shepherds, I question the camel drivers, I
question the angels. I have found out He
was an exile But the world has had plenty
of exiles. Abraham an exile from Ur Of
Chaldee, John an exile from Ephesus,
Kosciusco an exile from Poland, Mazzini an
exile from Rome, Emmett an exile from Ire
land, Victor H lgo an exile from France, Kos
suth an exile from Hungary. But this one of
whom I speak to-day had such resounding
farewell, and came into such chilling recep-
e. a. hoctlar. 1xant ont with hiS