The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-03-14
OUR GOOD AND BAD HOMES.
M. Talmage Adds Another to His Series
OfSermons on "The Marriage Ring
The Domestic Hearth Field for the Display
Of Christianity-The Love, the Patience,
the Cheerfulness That All Can Bring.

On Sunday, March Z, Rev. 7. Dewitt Tai
mage, D. D., preached in the Brooklyn Taber-
nacle, the ninth of his series of sermons on 'The
Marriage Ring the subject being 'The Domes-
tic Circle Before the sermon he read the names
Of seventy new members, making the present
humber Of communicates about thirty three
hundred. The hymn sung was:
''Oh could speak the matehless worth
Oh. could sound the glores forth
That in my Savior shinel"
Appropriate passages of scripture were read
and expounded by DR.. Talmaee, after which he
cook his text from Mark v, 10: go 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 oppor-
tunity in which to display their Christian
prowess. They admire Paul making Felix trem-
ble and they only wish that they had some such
grand occasion in which to preach righteousness,
temperance and Judgment to come: all they
Christian heroism. Now the Apostle comes to
as, and he practically says: II will show you q
place where you can exhibit all that is grand,
and beautiful, aud glorious in Christian charac-
Ger, ana I0aE Is the u0moSIlc Clfci6.
If one is not faithful In an Insignificant sphere,
he will not be faithful in resounding sphere
4f Peter will not help the cripple at the gate of
the temple, he will never be able to preach 600
souls into the kingdom at the Pentecost Ii
Paul will not take pains to instruct in the way Of
salvation the jailer Of the Philippian dungeon
he will never make Felix tremble He who is not
faithful in skirmish would not be faithful in an
Armagedden. The fact is, we are all placed in
Just the position in which we can most grandly
- h. A1s "A
thoughtful about some sphere Of usefulness
which we may after while gain, but the all-ab-
soRbing question with you and with me ought to
be: Lord, what wilt Thou have me now and
here to DOR
There is one word in my text around which
the most OF our thoughts will this morning re-
vclve That word is Home" 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, industry at the workstand, intelligence at
the books devotion at the altar. To him it
means greeting at the door and a smile at the
shair. Peace towering like wings Joy clapping
Its hands with laughter. Life tranquil lake
Pillowed on the ripples sleep the shadows.
Ask another man wlat home is. and he will
tell you it is want, looking out OF cherries
Ere crate. kneading hunger in an empty bread
tray. The damp air shivering with curses. No
Bible on the shelf Children, robbers and MUIR
aerers in embryo Obscene song their lullaby
Every face a picture Of ruin. Want in the
background and sin staring from the front No
Sabbath wave rolling over that door-sill Vesti-
bule Of the pit. Shadow OF internal walls.
Furnace for forging everlasting chains. Fag-
COTS for an amending funeral pile. Awful word!
It is spelled with curses, it weeps with ruin, it
ehokes with woe. it sweats with the death agony
Of despair
The word home" in the one case means every
thing bright. The word 'shome" in the other
case means everything terrific.
shall speak to you this morning of home as a
test of character, home as refuge, home as q
political safeguard, home as a school and home
rs type of heaven. And in the first place I
remark that home is a powerful test of charac-
Ter. The disposition in public may be in gay
costume, while in private it is in dishabille. rs
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 differ
acter is often public character turned
wrong side out A man may receive
you into his parlor as though he were dstilla-
zion of smiles. and yet his heart may be a swamp
of nettles There are business men who all day
long are mild, and courteous, and genial, and
goodnatured in commercial life, damming back
their irritabilty. and their petulance, and their
discomfort but at nightfall the dam breaks, and
scolding pours forth in floods and freshets.
Population is only the shadow of character,
and very small house sometimes will cast a
very long shadow. The lips may seem to drop
with myrrh and cassia, and the disposition to be
as bright and warm as a sheef OF sunbeams and
yet they may only be magnificent show win
dow to wfetched stock of goods. There is
many man who Is affable in public life, and
amid commercial spheres, who, in q cowardly
way, takes his anger and his petulanee home,
and drops them on tho domestic 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 irritabiity just for the same reason
that they do not let their notes go to protest-it
~-nAw Gru& he &1ck< ~
do not want man in their stock company to sell
his stock for less than the right price, lest it de-
preciate the value. AS at some times the wind
rises. so after a sunshiny Cay there may be a
tempestuous night. There are people who in
public act the philanthropist, who at home act
the Nero, with respect to their slippers and their
gown.
Audubon, the great orui.hologist, 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 Philadel-
phia for few days of recreation and rest. and
came back and found that the rats had utterly
destroyed the manuscript; but, without any dis
eomposure and without any fret or bad temper,
he again picked up his gun and pencil and visit
cd again all the great forests Of America and re-
produced his immortal work. And yet there are
people with the ten-thousandth part of that loss
who are utterly unreconcilable who, at the loss
of pencil or an article of raiment, will blow as
long and sharp as northeast storm
Now, that man who is affable in public, and
who is irritable in private, is making fraudu-
lent oyer-issue of stock, and he is as bad as
bank that might have four or FIVE hundred
thousand dollars Of bills in circulation, with no
specie in the vault Let US learn to show piety
at-home. If we have it not there. we have it
not anywhere. If we have not genuine grace in
the family circle. all our outward and public
plausibility springs from fear of the world, or
from the Shiny, putrid pool of our own selfish
4 all synu ma is n MIC taSt 0f
character. What you are at home you are
everywhere, whether you demonstrate it or not
Again remark that home is refuge. Life is
the United States army on the national road to
Mexico long march with ever and anon a
skirmish and battle. At eventide we pitch our
tent and stack our arms, we hang up the war
cap and lay our head on the knapsack, we sleep
until the morning bugle calls us to marching
and action How pleasant it is TO rehearse the
victories, and the surprises and the attacks Of