Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1897-02-16

in Philadelphia for a few days of recre-
alton and rest, and came back and
found that the rats had utterly de-
strOyed the manuscript: but without
any discomposure and without any fret
or bad temper. he again picked up his
gun and pencil and visited again all
the great forests of America and repro
duced his immortal work. And yet
there are people with the ten-thous-
andth part of that loss who are utterly
irreconcilable, who, at the loss Of PEN
ell or an article of raiment, will blow
as long and sharp as northeast
storm.
Now that man who is affable in pub
lie and who is irritable in private is
making fraudulent overissue of stock,
and he is as bad as a bank that might
have four or five hundred thousand
dollars of bills in circulation with no
/ specie in the vault. Let us learn Ito
/ show piety at home" If we have it
not there We have it not anywhere. Ii
we have not genuine grace in the fam
/ lily circle. all our outward and public
E
/ of the world or from the Shiny, putrid
/ pool of our own se!fishness. | tell you
/ the home is Il mighty test of character.
/ What You are at home you are every
where, whether You demonstrate it or
J not.
/ Again. | remark that home is ref
/ uge Life is the United States army
on the national road to Mexico. a long
march with ever and anon skirmish
and battle. A: eyentide we pitch our
tent and stack our arms; we hang up
the war cap and lay our head on the
! llnapsack; We sleep until the morning
! bugle calls us TO marching and action.
How pleasant it is to rehearse the vic
! tories and the surprises and the at
lacks of the day. seated by the still
campfire OF the home circle.
Yea, life is a sto, my sea. With shiv-
! cred masts and torn sails and hulk
| aleak. we put into 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 toilng
man the lighthouse 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 be-
ing charged with self-adulatiOn. There
is the place where we may lounge with
out being thought ungraceful There
is the place where we may express af-
lection without being thought silly
| There is tie place where we may for
get our annoyances and eXasperations
and troubles. ForIorn 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
to rest from this scene of greed and
gouge and loss and gain. God pity the
man or woman who has no home,
Get you no hint of cheerfulness from
grasshopper's leap and lambs frisk,
and quaifs whistle, and garrulous
streamlet, which. from the rock at the
mountain-top clear down to the mead
ow ferns under the shadow of the
steep, comes looking for the steepest
place to leap off at, and talking just
to hear itself talk? If all the skies
hurtled with tempest, and everlasting
storm wandered over the sea, and every
mountain stream went raving mad,
I OF hn xx,if
and there were nothing but simoons
blowing among the hills, and there
were neither larks carol nor humming
birds trill nor waterfalls dash: only
bears bark, and panther's scream. and
VOLTS howl, then you might well gath
er into your homes only the shadows.
But when God has strewn the ear, tn
and the heavens with beauty and with
gladness, let us take unto our home
circles all innocent hilarity, all bright
ness, and all good cheer. A dark home
makes bad boys and bad girls. in prep
aratiOn for bad men and bad women.
Above all. my friends. take into
your 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 sup
plication at hight for protection?
What! No thanksgiving in the morning
for care? How, my brother, my sister.
will you answer God in the day of iudg-
ment with reference to your children?
1t is a plain question, and therefore |
ask it, In the tenth chapter of jeremiah
God says he will pour out his fury upon
| the families that call not upon His
name. o, parents, when you are dead
and gone and the moss is covering the
inscription of tho tombstone. will your
children look back and think of father
and mother at family prayer? Will
! they take the old family Bible and omen
! it and see the mark of tears of coptri-
! ton and tears of consoling promise.
/ wept by eyes long before gone out into
/ darkness? Oh, If you do not inculcate
| Christian principles in the hearts OF
| your children, and do not warn them
! against evil, and do not invite them to
holiness and to God. and they wander
off into dissipation and into infidelity,
and at last make shipwreck of their i'm
mortal souls, on their deathbed and in