Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1897-11-26
Published by Request.
THANKSGIVING SERMON.

Home Protection, the True Secret o
National Prosperity. Thanksgiving
Sermon by Rev. Wilbur L. Crafts
Pm. d, Superintendent of the ketoin
Bureau, Washington, D. c., at lh;
Union Service, Alexandria, Va, Nov
25 1897.
Deut. 22:S, "When thou buildest s
new house, then shalt thou make bat
tlement for thy roof, that thou bring
not blood upon thy house, if auy mat
fall from thence"
Ia this home protection law, at once
divine and civil, which WAS made neces
sary by the fact that the fat roof of al
oriental house is the family sitting
room after sunset, we see in proper re
l4tlous the two great factors Of The his
toric Thanksgiving Day, home ant
government. That home protection st
fundamental function of government
God himself here teaches Us, and his
cory further teaches, out Of tragedies
AID triumphs alike, that home protec
ton is the true secret OF national pros
perity.
Note that in this authoritative
opinion of the Supreme Court O.
the universe, the very battlemeuts O
the home proclaim that q mans house
IS not "his castle" in any sense thai
would permit him to even endanger hi
children or his neighbor. 1t is within
he jurisdiction OF both divine and civi
government to be haitlemented agt ins
perils from within as well as without
ny home ne protection laws
This annual home day may we'll ro-
mind US, amid increasing perils Of tie
nome, that it is the oldest of social III
st buttons, the mother of both church AID
State. The only institutions that have
come down from before the fall are th
lauiy and he Sabbath, the Jachin aud
Bosz pillars of strength and beauty be.
fore mans E ieuc home, and, though
SC ,rred by the fall, still they stand, like
majestic pillars amid surrounding
novels at Rome, and behind those pill
lars, in the Christian Sabbath at home,
we find still, nearer than anywhere
else on earth, our paradise rege'nt d.
Oa the other hand, nothing is so near.
ly hell on earth es family which has
been invad ded by u AZ triumvirate of ad-
versitv, Intemperance, Iupurity aid
Gambling, whose advance ageut is
Sabb. th- -brt aking. Families beiag the
u1itary blood drops of the State,
wherever immoral families abound it
must die of blood poisoning, as We have
oeen warned in the histories of BABY
Ion, G..eece, Rome, Renaissance Italy
aud now again 10 France, the modern
Babylon, on whose wall bl4zes wAru-
ing to-day in the falling of the birth rate
below the death rate, OF the retributloE
to men and nations alike that follows
violations of the fourth and seventh
commandments "a warning needed even
in our own land where increasing mum
t ;rs are profaning Gods holy vessels,
the sacred Sabbaths and the sacred
loves of man and woman, with the wine
of disobedience and debsuchery.
X X
The true home is the worlds training
school of Ioue, where we learn to love
God as the universal father aud mother
through the love of earthly parents,
and in the relation of sister and brother
are prepared for universal brotherhood
The family unit of society is unity in
trinity, tue father; the motuer and the
child, the first of the circles of love, OF
which the outermost ripples are love
for the world and for God. The chic
spiritual function of the family seems 70
me to be to wean the Individual from
his sel6shness, first drawing out bis
heart like the moon drawing the tides
bythe love of a woman, then drawing Il
out on the other side slso by the love
of their child, each of the three made in
measure unselisn by love for the othel
Two. This prepares for the widening
love of neighbors through sympathy
for their similar joys and sorrow
which, in turn, prepares for city pa
triotism and love of State and countr,
beyond which is the yet larger
nobler love for humanity; grea.ei
than which is the love for God, whicb
though largest is not last, for no one
can love far of men as III brothers until
he has loved the universal Father.
In the two great commandments re-
ouiring love to God and love to man
Christ included not only all of law, but
all of life. This truth, which isyetso 'a'
beyond the conception OF those mer-
chants, whose motto is Every man
for himself" and of those politicians
that 90 no further than to seek the ad
vantage of their own country, is beau
tifully expressed by the southern poet
William Timrod (whose singing has
ceased on eartb), in what | regard as
the finest sonnet OF the last ten years;
Most men know love hut as part of ilt';
They hide it in some corner of tie breast,
Even from themselves; and on y when th'
rest
In the brief pauses of that daily stri e,
Wherewith the world might else be not 81
rife,
They draw it forth las one draws forth toy
To sooshe some sIdent, kissing exactns
And hold it up to sister, child or wife.
All. me- why may not lie ana love o'
one?
WHY walk we thus alone, when by our side
love. like visible-God. might be oui
guide? -,
How would the msrts grow noble, and inc
Worn like dungeon floor by weary feet,
Seem then a golden courtway Of the sun.
a