The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1895-06-26
Sweetcning the Home.


we should be uniformly at our best be-
haviour, and make the maximum OF
our acceptability our general average,
that place is home. There we find the
best market for our most complete
stock of all "the things that make for
peace" and to meet the demand it
should be our earnest endeavor to keep
a full line Of that class of goods, and
display and serve them to the best pos
sible effect. Our homes are where we
really live, and where we can least af-
ford 10 impose or to be imposed upon.
We may resort to our philosophy aud
make the best of bad bargains in other
directions and departments, but for
home failure there can be no compensa-
ton. IC is the worst species of heart
failure.
There is little to show for all the toll
and struggle and sharp competition
for the worlds prizes. even though
large success should crown our efforts,
If they were not digested and assimila-
ted into our home comforts and satis-
faction. Home is our refuge and our
asylum after our conflicts with the op-
posing forces Of the outside world.
Home is the sweet harbor where we
drop anchor after stemming adverse
currents and eDcountering the battling
blasts to which on life's seas we are ex-
posed in their force. So, "Whatever
brawls disturb the street," or the mar
ket, or office, or shop, or whatever may
be the point Of our contact or conflict
with our fellow-men, There should be
peace at home" Truly, There is no
place like home"
But the "sweet home" we sing OF
and the real homes We live in are
sometimes quite distinct. In this, as
on some other, lines, the song standard
is often in advance of actual realiZa-
ton, and the "no-place.like-home'
is susceptible Of some very variant
prose translations. There is opportun-
ity for considerable practical difference
between "only home" or 'home
only" az the standard of estimation.
The difference is the same in character
and effect between surveying and OBJ
ect through field-glass directly or
inversely.
There are some people who put on
their best manners, as they do their
best clothes, when they 60 visiting,
but entirely modify garb and bearing
at home. Many who are very impress
sive abroad are very oppressive at
home. Your bread may not be good,
but sour looks are worse, and crusty
tones and manners are more serious
impediments to home health and
happiness than undone or overdone
meats or pastry.
Ifin the family life. in the assem-
bling of parents and children around
the hearth and board, all would put
themselves "under bonds to keep the
peace" then the peace would keep it.
self. Home is an evolution which de-
pends upon the involution. The divi-
dend is in proportion to the invest
ment. A good manypeople fall natur-
ally and easily into the habit of max
ing a note Of every little adverse condi-
lion and circumstance. They emphas-
ize every contretemps, and as there is
no lack of such opportunity, there is a
constant buzz. like sWarming gnats, of
tritiiug annoyances flying around. The
simple remedy for this is in one word
"Don'tw 1t is just as easy to turn on
the faucets of kindliness and good hu-
NOR as to hiss out petulance and ir-ita-
bility. Old John Wesley used to say
that he would as soon swear as fret
and worry" And we believe his NOR
al estimate of the proportionate evils
was correct. Bad as is profanity, vul-
gar, cowardly and wicked, it does not
accomplish the harm it is not as great
a disturbing force as the constant sub
lection to the fine worrying and fret
fulness in which many good people in
dulge, and which is answerable for the
sin of much home discomfort.
The wise man says that he who rul-
eth his spirit is greater than he who
laketh a city. Very many people can
bear great trials with fortitude and res
ignation, and yet are unable to resist
the minor prov0cations and petty
annoyances which are as innumerable
as the sources from which they spring
Of certain eminent theologian and
teacher it was said that he would have
gone grandly TO stake or block, but
could not endure the buZzing of a fly.
These little ambushed foes which
spring upon US at unaWares and cap
ture us before we know it are perhaps
the greatest disturbing element in our
homes. Home, like life, consists not
in the abundance of the possessions. II
is not so much the objective attain
ment as the subjective condition
which d. cihes its character, and the
way to make home sweet is to be made
sweet ourselves,-C Christian Intelligent
Ger.