Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1897-02-13
HIS PRAISE OF HOME.
AN ELOQUENT AND TOUCHING SER
MON BY REV. DR.. TALMAGE.

AN ElOQUENl ANU lOUCHING oCh'
MON BY REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
Re Takes "Hnrbor of Home" For His Sub
ject and Pays u Fine Tribute to the Do
nestle Hearth and Its Influence.
WASHINGTON, Feb. This sermon
of DR.. Tallnage will set many memoric:
ringing with the good old times. His
subject was "Harbor Of Home and
the text Mark V, 10. $50 home to thy
friends and toll them how great things
the Lord hath done for thee. :"
There arc a great many people long
ing for some grand sphere i'll which tc
serve God. They admire Luther at the
diet of Worms and only wish that they
had some such great opportunity in
which to display their Christian Prov
ess. They admire Paul making Felix
tremble, and they only wish that they
had some such grand occasion i'll which
to preach righteousness, temperance and
Judgment to come. All they want is an
opportunity to exhibit their Christian
hcroism. Now the apostle comes to us,
and he practically says, 81 will show
you place where you can exhibit all
that is grand and beautiful and glorious
in Christian character, and that IS the
domestic circle. J"
If one is not faithful in an insignifi-
can't sphere, he will not be faithful in
a resounding sphere. If Peter will not
help the cripple at the gate of the tenn
Pile, he will never be able to preach
5000 souls into the kingdom ut the
Pentecost. If Paul will not take pains
to instruct III the way of salvation t..
sheriff Of the Philippian dungeon,
will never make Felix tremble. He WI.
is not faithful in Il skirmish would not
be faithful in al Armageddon. The
fact is, we arc all placed i'll just the po-
sition III which we can most grandly
serve God, and we ought not to be
chiefly thoughtful about some sphere OF
usefulness which we may after awhile
gain, but the all absorbing question
with you and with me ought to be,
Lord, what wilt thou have me (now
and here) to do?''
The Word "Home."
There is one word in my text around
which the most of our thoughts will to-
day revolvo. That word is home. Ask
ten different men the meaning of that
word, and they will give you ten differ
ent definitions. To one it means love at
the hearth, it means plenty at the table,
industry at the workstand, intelligence
at the books, devotion at the altar. TIC
him it means greeting at the door and
smile at the chair. Peace lowering
like wings Joy clapping its hands with
laughter. Life a tranquil lake. Pillowed
OIL the ripples sleep tho shadows.
Ask another man what home is, and
he will tell you it is want, looking out
of cherries fire CRATE and kneading
hunger in an empty bread tray. The
damp air shivering with curses. No BIZ
BILE on the shelf. Children, robbers and
murderers i'll embryo. Vile songs their
lullaby. Every face a picture of ruin.
Want in the background and sin staring
from the front. No Sabbath wave roll
ing over that doorsill. Vestibule of the
pit. Shadow of Internal walls. Furnace
for forging everlasting chains. Fagots
for an unending funeral pile. Awful
world 1t is spelled with curses; it weeps
with ruin; ii choles with woe; it sweats
with the death agony of despair.
The word "homc" i'll the one case
means everything bright. The word
"home" III the other case means every
thing terrific.
shall speak to you of home as test
of character, home as refuge, home as
a political safeguard, home as school
and home az u type of heaven.
And in the first place remark that
home is powerful test of character.
The disposition i'll public may be in gay
costume while in private it is in disha-
billie. AS play actors may appear in one
way on the stage and may appear In
another way behind the scenes, SO pri-
vate character may be very different
from public character. Private charac-
ter is often public character turned
wrong side out. A man may receive you
into his parlor as though he were dis
tillation of smiles, and yet his heart
may be swamp of nettles. There are
business men who all day long are mild
and courteous and genial and good ma
tured in commercial life, keeping back
their irritability and their petulance
and their discomfort, but at nightfall
the dam breaks. and scolding pours forth
in floods and frcshets.
Good Cheer at Home.
Reputation is only the shadow OF
character, and very small house some
times will cast a very long shadow.
The lips may seem to drop myrrh and
cassia and the disposition to be as
bright and warm as sheaf of sun
beams, and yet they may only be a
magnificent show window to a wretched
stock Of goods There is many man
who is affable in public life and amid
commercial spheres, who, in cowardly
way, takes his anger and his petulance
homo and drops them in the domestic
circle.
The reason men do not display their
bad temper in public is because they do
not want to be knocked down. There
are men who hide their petulance and
their irritability just for the same rea-
son that they do not let their notes go
to protest; it does not pay. Or for the
same reason that they Go not want a
man in their stock company to sell his
stock at less than the right price, lest