St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1886-03-20

| eventide we pitch our tent and stack tn,
arms, we hang up the war cap and lay ou
| head on the knapsack, we sleep until thu
! morning bugle calls us to marching and &C
| ton, How pleasant it is to rehearse the
victories and the surprises and the attacks
of the day, seated by the still camp fire Of
| the home circle.
Yes, life lisa stormy sea. With shivered
masts and torn sails and hulk aleak, we
put in at the harbor of home. Blessed
harbor! There we go for repairs in the
dry dock of quiet life. The candle in the
window is to the toiling man the light
house guiding him into port. Children go
forth to meet their fathers as pilots at the
"Narrows" take the hand of ships. The
door-sill Of the home is the wharf where
heavy life is unladen.
There is the place where we may talk of
what we have done without being
charged with self-adulation. There is
the place where we may lounge without
being thought un2raceful. There is the
place where we may express affe elton
without being thought silly. There is the
place where we may forget our annoy
ances and sxasperations 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
man OF the woman who has no nome.
Further, remark that home is polti-
cal safe-guard. 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 anon there is threat of
national capsize. France as nation has
not the right kind of a Christian home.
The Christian hearth-stone is the only
corner stone for republic. The virtuap
cultured in the family circle are an abs, u
lutte necessity for the State. II there ae'
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. Confounded be all
those Babels of inquiry which would over
tower and destroy the home. The same
storm that upsets the ship in which the
family sails will sink the frigate of the
Constitution. Jails and penitentiaries and
armies and navies are not our best de-
Tense. The door of the home is the best
fortress. Household utensils are the best
artillery, and the chimnoys of our dwelling
houses are the grandest monuments of
safety and triumph. No home, no republic.
Further, remark that home is 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 and life will come
up in safter life luxuriantly. Every time
you have given smile Of appreciation, all
the good cheer of your life will come up
again in the geniality of your children.
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 gentan and spots on the
pansy pour into your dwellings. Do not
expect the little feet to keep step to dead
march. Do not cover up your walls with
such pictures as Vests :'Death on a Pale
Horse" or Tintoretto's "Ma sacre of the
Rather cover them, if you
have pictures, with "The Hawking Party"
and 1.-The Mill by the Mountain Stream"
and 1.-THE Fox Hunt" and The Children
Amid Flowers" and "The Harvest Scene"
and "The Saturday Night Marketing."
Above all, my friends, take into your
lomes Christian principle. Can it be that
n any of the comfortable homes of my
the voice of prayer is never
fitted? What! No supplication at night
or protection? What! No Thanksgiving
n the morning for care? How, my broth
r, my sister, will you answer God in the
lay of judgment with reference to your
hildren? 1t is a plain question, and
therefore, 1 ask it. In the tenth chapter of
eremiah God says he will pour out his
ury upon the families that call not upon
is name. O, parents! when you are dead |
nd gone and the moss is covering the in
cription of the tombstone, will your chill |
rem look back and think of father and |
Mother at family prayer? viii they take
he old family Bible and open it and see
he mark Of tears of cnntrition aud tears of
onsoling promise wept by eyes long be-
ore gone out into darkness: Oh, if you
o not inculcate Christian principle in the
carts of your children, and you do not
'arn them against evil, and you do
OF invite them to holiness and to
+od, and they wander off into dissipation
nd into infidelity, and at last make ship
'reck of their immortal souls, ON their
eath-bed and in their day of Judgment
ley will curse you! Seated by the regis
Or or the stove, what if on the wall
aould come out the history of your chill