The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1898-12-01
FOUNDED UPON LOVE.
True Happiness in the Home Circle,
and How it is Attained.
NJ Mutual Lovo and Forbearance are the Prin-
cipal Factors In the maintenance of .
Happy Home, According to DIR.
IAlmASe.

many a domestic circle. The text IS:
The disciples went away again unto'
their own homcs.''-John XX., 10.
\ church within a church, repub-
lie within republic, Il world within
world, is spelled by four letters
Home! If things go right there, they
go right everywhere; if things go
wrong there, they go wrong every
where. The door sill of the dwelling
house is the foundation of church and
state. A man never gets higher than
his own garret or lower than his own
cellar. Domestic life Overreaches and
undergirdles all other life. The high
est house of congress is the domestic
circle; the rocking chair in the nurse
ry is higher than a throne. George
Washington commanded the forces OF
the United States, but Mary Washing
ton commanded George. Chrysos-
TOMS mother made his pen for him.
If man should start out and run 20
years in a strai eht line, he could not
get out from under the shadow of his
own mantelpiece. | therefore talk to
to you about a matter of infinite and
eternal moment when l speak of your
home.
AS individuals we are fragments.
God makes the race in parts, and then
He gradually put us together. What
l lack, you make up; what you lack.
I make up; our defects and surpluses
of character being the cog-wheels in
the great social mechanism. One per-
son has the patience, another has the
courage, another has the placidity, an
other has the enthusiasm; that which
is lacking in one is made up by an
other, or made up by all. Buffoloes in
herds, grouse in broods, quails in
flocks, the human race in circles. God
has most beautifully arranged this. 1t
is in this way that He balances So
ciety; this conservative and that radi-
cal keeping things even. Every ship
must have its mast, cut-water, taffrail,
ballast. Thank God, then for Prince
ton and Andover, for the opposites.
l have no more right to blame Il man
for being different from me than a
driving wheel has a right to blame the
iron shaft that holds it to the center.
John Wesley balances Calvin's Insti-
tutes. A cold thinker gives to Scot
land the strong bones of theology;
DR.. Guthrie clothes them with a
throbbing heart and warm flesh. The
difficulty is that we are not satisfied
with just the work that God has given
us to do. The water-wheel wants to
come inside the mill and grind the
grist, and the hopper wants to go out
and dabble in the water. Our useful
ness and the welfare of society de-
pend upon our staying in just the
place that God has put us, or intended
we should occupy.
For more compactness, and that we
may be more useful. we are gathered
| in still smaller circles in the home
group. And there you have the same
| variety again; brothers, sisters, hus-
band and wife: all different in tenn
permanent and tastes. 1t is fortunate
| that it should be so. If the husband
be all impulse the wife must be all
prudence. If one sister be sanguine in
| her temperament, the other must be
! Emphatic. Mary and Martha are nc
| cessities. There will be no dinner fol
| Christ if there be no Martha; there
will be no audience for Jesus if there
be no Mary. The home organization
is most beautifully constructed. Eder
has gone; the bowers are broker
| down; the animals that Adam stroket
with his hand that morning when the,
shot forth tusk and sting. and growlct
| panther at panther; and, midair, irol
beaks plunge, till with clotted wing
| and eyeless sockets the twain com,
whirling down from under the sun i,
blood and fire. Eden has gone, bu
there is just one little fragment left
1t floatcd down on the river Hiddeke
out of paradise. 1t is the marriag
institution. 1t does not, at the begin
ming, take away from man rib. Nov
it is an addition of ribs.
This institution of marriage has bee
| ueldIllSu III OuI udS. HoOCiillSll an
polygamy, and the most damnable O
all things. freelovism, have been try
ing to tuln this earth into a Turks
harem. While the pulpits have bee
comparatively silent, noveis-thei
cheapness only equaled BY their mast
ness-are trying to educate, have take
upon themselves to educate. this n;
ton in regard to holy marriage, whic
makes or breaks for time and etern
ty. Oh, this is not mere question {
residence or wardrobe! 1t is a que:
ton charged with gigantic JOY or so
row. with Heaven or hell. Alas fc
this new dispensation ofGeorge Sand:
Alas for this mingiing of the nigh
shade with the marriage garland:
Alas for the venom of adders spit in,
the tankards! Alas for the ,vhi1
frosts Of eternal death that kill tt
orange blossoms: The Gospel OF j
sus Christ is to assert what is rigl