Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1897-02-08
HIS PRAISE OF HOME.
AN ELOQUENT AND TOUCHING SER
MON BY REV. DR.. TALMAGE.

ject and Pays Fine Tribute to the Do
mestic Hearth AID Its influence.
WASHINGTON, 3eb. This sermon
of Dr.. Talnage viii set many memories
ringing with the good old times. His
subject was ''Harbor Of Home'' and
the text Mark V, 10. eco home to thy
friends and tell them how great things
the Lord hath done for thee. -
There are q great many people long
ing for some grand sphere in which to
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, ard they only wish that they
had some such grand occasion in which
to preach righteousness, temperance and
Judgment to come. All they want is an
opportunity to exhibit their Christian
heroism. 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. -
If one is not faithful in an insignifi-
cant sphere, he will not be faithful in
a resounding sphere If Peter will not
help the cripple at the gate Of the tenn
pie, he will never be able to preach
5000 souls into the kingdom at the
Pentecost. If Paul will not take pains
to instructin the way Of salvation the
sheriff of the Philippian dungeon, he
will never make Felix trelnble. He who
is not faithful in a skirmish would not
be faithful in an Armageddon. The
fact is, we arc all placed in just the po-
sitiOn in 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 ne ought to be,
''Lord, what wilt thou have me (now
and here) to do?''
The Word "Iome."
There is one word in my text around
which the most Cf our thoughts will to-
day revolve. 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. To
him it means q greeting at the door and
a smile at the chair. Peace lowering
like wings. Joy clapping its hands with
laughter. Life tranquil lake. Pillowed
ON the ripples sleep the shadows
Ask another man what home is, and
he will tell you it is want, looking out
of a cherries fire CRATE ard kneading
hunger in an empty bread tray The |
damp air shivering with curses. No BIZ
bic on the shelf. Children, robbers and
murderers in embryo. Vile songs their
lullaby. Every face 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 |
wordl 1t is spelled with curses; it weeps
with ruin; it chokes with woe; it sweats
with the death agony of despair.
The word ''homc" in the one case
means everything bright The word
"home" in the other case means every
thing terrific.
L shall speak TO you CT home as q test
OF character, homo as a refuge, home as
and home as a type Of heaven.
And in the first place I remark that
home is q powerful test of character
The disposition in public may be in gay
costume while in private it is in disha-
bile. 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 parlCr as though he were a dis
tlllation of smiles, and yet his heart
may be q swamp Of nettles There are
business men who all day long are mild
and courteous ard genial and good ma
tured in commercial life, keeping back
their irritability and their petulance
and their discomfort, hut at nightfall
the dam breaks. and scolding pours forth
in floods and freshets.
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 a sheaf of sun
beams, and yet they may only be a
show window to a wretched
stock of goods. There is many a man
who is affable in public life and amid
commercial spheres, who, in cowardly
way, takes his anger and his petulance
home 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-