Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1886-03-26

a"u soe surprises and the attacks |
OF the day, seated by the stil camp fra ~
the home circle.
Yes, life lisa stormy sea. With sbiyer.a
masts and torn sails and hulk aiaak ~.
put IN At the harbor of home, R,essod
haroor! There we go for repairs In tho
dry-dock of quiet life. The candle in the
w'ndow is to the toiling man the light.
house guiding him into port. Children %
forth to meet their fathers as pilots at the
"Narrows" take the hand of ships. Tho |
door-sin of the home is the wharf where
heavy life is unladen.
There is the place where we NAV talk of /
What we have done without being
charged with self-adulation. There 10
the place where we may lounge without
being thought ungraceful. There is the
place where we may express affection
without being thought silly. There is the
place where we may forget our annoy
ances and exasperations and troubles.
Forlorn earth pilgrim no home? Then
die. That is better. The grave is brighter
and grander and more glorious than this
world with no tent from %marchings,
with no harbor from the storm, with no
place of rest from this scene of greed and
gouge and loss and gain. God pity the
mar or the woman who has no home.
Further, I remark that home is a politi.
cal safeguard. The safety of the State
must be built on the safety of the home.
Why can not France come to a placid re-
public? Ever and amor there is a threat of
national capsize. France as a nation has
not the right kind of a Christian home.
The Christian hearth-stone is the only
corner stone for a republic. The virtues
cultured in the family circle are an abso-
lutte necessity for the State. Ii there be
not enough moral principle to make the
family adhere. there will not be enough
political principle to make the State adj
here. "No home" means the Goths and
Vandals, means the Nomads of Asia, means
the Numidians Of Africa, changing from
place to place, according as the pasture
happens to change. COMPOUNDED be all
those Babels of inquiry which would over
tower and destroy the home. The same
storm hat upsets the ship in which the
family sails will sink the frigate of the
Constitution. Jails and penitentiaries INT
armies and navies are not our best de-
fense. The door of the home is the best
fortress. Household utensils are the best
artillery, and the chimneys of our dwelling
houses are the grandest monuments of
safety and triumph. No home, no republic.
Further, I remark shat home is a school.
Old ground must be turned up with sub.
soil plows, and it must be narrowed and
reharrowed, and then the crop will not be
as large as that of the new ground with
less culture. Now, youth and childhood
are new ground, and all the influences
thrown over their heart md life will come
| up in after life luxuriantly. Every time
you have given a smile of appreciation, all
the good cheer of your life will come up
again in the gcniality of your children.
And every ebullition of anger and every
uncomfortable display of indignation will
be fuel to their disposition twenty or
thirty or forty years from now-fuel for a
bad fire a quarter of a century from this.
You praise the intelligence Of your child
too much sometimes when you think he is
not aware of it, and you will see the re.
suit of it before ten years Of age in his am
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.. Yon praise his beauty
supposing he is not large enough to under.
stand what you say, and you will find him
standing on a high chair before a fiattering
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 go down in the ancestral line; but
Herod begat Archelaus, SO iniquity is
transmitted. What vast responsibility
comes upon parents i'll view Of this subject
o, make your home the brightest place
on earth if you would charm your children
to the high path of virtue and rectitude
and religion. Do not always turn the
blinds the wrong way. Let the light which
puts gold on the gentian n spots on the
pansy pour into your dwellings. Dc not
expect the little feet to keep step to a dead
march. Do not cover up your walls with
such pictures as Vests "Death OH a Pale
Horse" or Tintoretto's "MaSsacre of the
Innocents." Rather cover them, if yor
have pictures, with "The Hawking Party
and s'The Mill by the Mountain Stream
and "The Fox Hunt" and 1.-THE Children
Amid Flowers and "The Harvest Scene,'
and THE Saturday Night Marketing"
Above all, my friends, a k into youl
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 thanksgiving
in the morning for care? How, my broth
er, my sister, will you answer God in the
day of Judgment with reference to YOU
children? 1t is a plain question, and
therefore l ask it. In the tenth chapter Of
Jeremiah God says he will pour out BIZ
fury upon the families that call not upor
his name. o, parents! when you are deac
and gone and the moss is covering the in
%scription of the tombstone, will your chill
dren look back and think of father anc
mother at family 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 w long be-
fore gone out into darkness: Oh, If yoc
do not i~nculcate Christian principle in the
hearts of your children, and you do not
warn them against evil, and you &c
not invite them to holiness ana &c
God, and they wander off into dissipation
and into inidelity, and at last make ship
wreck of their immortal souls, on their
death bed and in their day of Judgment
thew will curse you! Seated by the regis.
~. ouo ,yhat If on the wall