Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1898-10-28
HIVE God For a Gnest.

My first counsel to you is, have God
in your new home, if it be new home.
and let him who was guest at Bethany
be in your household. Let the divine
blessing drop upon your every hope and
plan and expectation. Those young peo-
pie who begin with God end with
heaven. Have on your right band the
engagement ring Of the divine affection.
If one of you be a Christian, let that
one take the Bible and read few verses
in the evening time and then kneel
down and commend yourselves to him
who setteth the solitary in families. |
want to tell you that the destroying
angel passes by without touching or en-
tering the doorpOst sprinkled with
blood of the everlasting covenant. Why
is il that in some families they never
get along and in others they always get
along well? have watched such cases,
and have come to a conclusion. In the
first instance nothing seemed to 60
pleasantly, and after awhile there cane
a devastation, domestic disaster or es-
arrangement. Why? They started wrong.
In the other case, although there were
hardships and trials and some things
that had to be explained, still things
went on pleasantly until the very last.
Why? They started right.
The Angel In the House.
Ny second advice to you in your home
is to exercise TO the very last pOssibil-
ity of your nature the law Of forbesr-
ance. Prayers in the household will not
make Up fer egtrytting. Some Of the
best people in the void are the hardest
to get along with. There are people
who stand up in prayer meetings and
pray like angels who at home are un-
compromising and cranky. You may
not have everything just as you want
it. Sometimes it will be the duty Of
the husband and sometimes Of the wife
to yield, but both stand punctiliously
on your rights, and you will have a
Waterloo with no Blucher coming up
at nightfall to decide the conflict.
Never be ashamed to apologize when
you have done wrong in domestic af-
fairs. Let that be law Of your house
hold. The best thing ever heard OF my
grandfather, whom 1 never saw, was
this, that once having unrighteously re-
buked one Of his children, he himself
having lost his patience, and, perhaps
having been misinformed Of the chlld's
doings, found out his mistake and in
the evening Of the same day gathered
all his family together and said "Now,
have one explanation TO make and one
thing 10 say Thomas, this morning |
rebuked you very unfairly. | am very
sorry for it, Irebuked you in the Pres
ence Of the whole family. and now ask
your forgiveness in their presence. " IL
must have taken some courage 10 10
that. II was right, was it not: Never
be ashamed to apologize for domestic
inaccuracy. Find out the points-what
are the weak points, II may call them
so, Of your companion, and then stand
aloof from them. Do not carry the fire
Of your temper too near the gunpowder.
If the wife be easily fretted by disorder
in the household, let the husband be
careful where he throws his slippers.
If the husband come home from the
store with his patience exhausted, do
not let the wife unnecessarily cross his
temper, but both stand up for your
rights and | will promise the eyerlast-
ing sound of the waTwhOop. Your lie
will be spent in making up, and mar
riage will be TO you an unmitigated
curse. Cowper said:
The kindest and the happiest pair
Will find occasion 10 forboar
And something, every day they live,
To pity and perhaps forgive.
| advise, also. that you make your
chief pleas1re circle around about, that
home. II is unfortunate when it is 9TH
erwise. If the husband spend the most
of his nights awaS,from home Of choice
and not of necessity, he is not the head
of the household. He is only the cashier.
If the wife throw the cares Of tho house
hold into the servants lap and then
spend five nights Of the week at the
opera or theater, she may clothe her
children with satins and laces and rib
hons that would confound a French
milliner, but they are orphans. 1t Is
sad when a child has no one TO say Its
PRAYERS TO because mother has gone on
to the evening entertainment! In India
they bring children and throw them to
the crocodiles, and it seems very cruel,
but the jaws of social dissipation are
swallowing down more little children
today than all tine monsters that ever
crawlcd upon the banks Ct the Ganges
have seen the sorrow Of gcdless
mother on tie death Ct child sac lad
neglected. 1t was not so much suet
that she felt from the fact that the
child was dead as the fact that she bad
neglected it. She said, IF bad only
watched over and cared for the child, l
know God would not have taken it. ~
The tears came not; it was dry, blis-
teriug tempest-a scorcEing simoOm OF
the desert. w ueu euc " uhb III h"HNA'i
it seemed as if she would twist her fin
gers from their sockets; when she seized
her hair, it seemed as if she had, IN
wild terror, grasped a coiling serpent
with her right hand. No tears! Com
rades of the little one came in and wept
over the coffin; neighbors came in and
the moment they saw the still face OF
the child the shower broke. No tears
for her God gives tears as the sumner
rain to the parched soul, bst in all the
universe the driest and hottest the
most scorching and consuming thing, Is
a mothers heart if she has neglected her
child. when once it is dead. God may
forgive her. but she will never forgive
herself. The memory will sink the eyes
deeper into the sockets, and pinch the
face and whiten the hair and eat up the
heart with yultures that will not be
satisfied, forever plunging deeper their
iron beaks. Oh. you wanderers from
your home, go back to your duty Ihe
brightest flowers in all the earth are
those which grow in the garden OF a
Christian hSrr'hold, clambering over
.h,, ,,,,,-oh "a aRehrisfian home