Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1896-02-26
Our Two Homes.

The Century.
Our Two Homes.
An Inheritance reserved in heaven for you.
1. Peter, l., 4.
If man has happy home his pray
er will be one of gratitude, and he will
have very little to ask of God.
When a boy goes into the world from
a virtuous home he is like a young
knight, we'll protected and well armed,
for if child has been fed on truth and
honor he has slender appetite for i'm
moral allurements.
Our homes are mint and we are the
precious metal which receives it's stamp
therein.
One may be furnished with a COM
plete panoply at his mothers knee, may
be armed cap-a-pie for struggle and
victory.
Show me the home of boy and 1
will prophesy concerning his future
without a tremor of uncertainty. Show
me mans home and can account for
his pecularities, his cheerfulness or his
despair.
A quiet home, on whose altar the
flame of love and confidence never goes
out, is as close to heaven as mortals
can get this side the grave; a home
which lacks love and confidence breeds
germs of misery which multiply until
ruin has done its awful work.
The purpose of marriage is the build
ing of the home. If there is any other
motive-wealth or social position
perform an act of sacrilege, defy the
laws of the universe and reap harvest
oftkaEn4Tr rue love never listens to the
ri {$0id ond if o1oco no nd ho
cause they hold a check book we sim
ply invite the avalanche to crush us.
There are broken lives which might
have been beautified, stormy lives that
might have been filled with sunshine,
desperate lives that might have been
sanity, lives whose misery no plummet
can sound. They are scattered every
where, and they are the consequence
of ambition and selfishness in making
the solemn compact of marriage. Ii
there is one relation on earth which
should be kept free from mere worldli
ness it is the relation between a man
and woman who are to walk in each
others company until death forces a
separation. A merely ambitious
thought is like drop of poison in
tumbler of water, and he who drinks
will never recover from its effects.
There is something of God in a true
home. With what beneficcnce He had
made the arrangement, and what good
things, like stream of molten silver,
fowl from it {! There are many such on
the earth, and they are to the body
polite what the heart is in the physical
system. They constitute the element
of progress, and they contain the secret
of the noblest manhood and the purest
womanhood. Blot out our homes and
we revert to barbarism. Man is mere
animal until he sits by his own hearth
stone; he is the toy of circumstance,
open to the temptations which sing like
sirens and end in destruction.
It is the sense of responsibility which
makes us strong, and when that re-
sponsibility includes the welfare of wife
and children he must be a poor crea
ture indeed who is not broadened and
ennobled by it. What one would not
do for himself he will bravely do for
the protection of his household, and
the man who would not otherwise
think it worth while to struggle will,
for the sake of his home, compel fate
to give him what he demands. The
consciousness of being loved makes us
heroes, and the thought of our dear
ones makes us willing to sacrifice even
life in their behalf.
But the home rests on an insecure
foundation. We can protect it in some
directions, but in others we are help
less. We may give comforts and luxu
ries, but we cannot give continued
health. The circle may remain intact
for awhile, but there comes a time when
it is invaded, and that invasion is ire
sistible. One never feels so powerless
as when he faces disease which has
entered his house unbidden and will
not retire when so ordered. The strong |
est man is only child when he looks |
on the body which is the only thing |
that death has left Death and the lit |
tie one have gone away together.
Then comes time when we are told |
that there is place where these part |
ings are unknown, where love flows on |
IN uninterrupted beauty through count
less ages, and we call that other place |
Dur Home. Two homes we have-one
here. with it's mingled joy and sorrow;
the other there, beyond the stars. The
owed ones who perforce bid us fare
20 penetrate. are led through the val
ey of shadows to eternal mansions,
where, their affection undimmed by
;he change of residence, they patiently
await our coming. And while waiting
or us they minister to our comfort, are
from heaven bearing to our
hearts the good will and help
ul benediction of the Father.
1t is possible to make this lower home
ike unto that above-so like it that
lothing will seem strange when we
each the further shore. 1t is possible
o enjoy the bliss of trustful love here
o such extent that when we are in
iod's nearer presence we shall simply
eel that we have entered a warmer
one. When religion has done its per
ect work in us it will be but one step
rom the home on earth to the Home
q heaven.
GEORGE 81 HEPWORTu