The Penn's Grove record., 1899-03-03

For the Genesis and Rounding Out o
Characteristic Family Circle a Hayei
of Refuge From the Worlds Storms.
TEXT: "Let them learn FIRST to show
piety at home."-I Timothy ", 4.
During the summer months the tendency
Is to the fields, to visitation, to foreign
travel and the watering places, and the
ocean steamers are t%hronged, but In the
winter it is rather to gather in domestic
circles, and during these months we spend
many OF the hours within doors, and the
apostle comes to us and says that we oughl
to exercise Christian behavior amid al
such circumstances. "Let them learn first
to show piety at home"
There are a great many people longing
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 proves, They admlrt
Paul making Felix tremble, and they only
wish that they had some such grand coca
sion in which to. preach righteousness,
temperance and Judgment to come. All
they want Is an opportunity to exhibit
their Christian heroism. Now, the apostle
practically says: II will show you a place
where you can exhibit nil that Is grand and
beautiful and glorious In Christian charae-
ter and that Is the domestic circle. Let
them learn first to show piety at home
II one Is not faithful in an insignificant
sphere, he will not be faithful In a res ouud-
Ing sphere. 1fPeter will not help the Grip
pie at the gate OF the temple, he will
never be able to preach 5000 into the king
dom at the pentecost. II Paul will not
take pains to instruct In the way OF saliva
tion the jailor OF the Philippian dungeon,
he will never make Felix tremble. He
who Is not faithful in a skirmish would not
ha fnfEhP,.1 L. d. E,-Ul1z. M Bal
Is, we are all placed In Just the position 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 a while gain, but the all absorb
ing question with you and with me ough.
to be, Lord, what wilt Thou have me now
and here to do?"
tion around which the most of u
thoughts will revolve. That word is
home" Ask ten different men the mean
Ing ofthat word and they will give you
ten different definitions. To one it means
love at the hearth. plenty at the table, In
dustry at the work stand, intelligence at
the books, devotion at the alter. In that
household discord never sounds its war;
whoop, and deception never tricks with Its
false face. To him 1t means a greeting at
the door and a smile at the chair, peace
lowering Ike wings, Joy clapping It's hands
with laughter. Life L. a tranquil lake.
Pillowed on the ripples sleep the shadows.
Ask another man what home Is and he will
tell 1t Is want looking out OF a cherries
hre-grate, kneading hunger In an empty
bread tray. The damp air shivering with
curses. No Bible on the shelf. Children
robbers and murdcrers In embryo. OBJ
scene songs their lullaby. Every face a
picture OF ruin. Want in the background
and sin staring from the front. No Sab
bath wave rolling over that doorsill. Yes
tibule OF the pit. Shadow Of Internal
walls. Furnace for forging everlasting
chains. FagOts for an unending funeral
pile. Awful word. 1t is spelled with
curses, it weeps with ruin, it chokes with
woe, 1t sweats with the death agony of de-
spair. The word "home" in the one case
means everything bright. The word
"home" in the other case means every
thing terrific.
Ishall speak now of home as a test OF
character, HON as n refuge, home as a po-
litical safeguard. home as Rschool, and
home as a type OF heaven. And in the
first place, home Is q powerful test of char
acter, The disposition In public may be In
gay costume, while in private 1t Is disha-
bile. As play actors may appear in one
way on the stage and may appear In an
other way behind the scenes, so private
character may be very different from pub
lie character. Private character is often
public character turned wrong side out.
A mar may receive you into his parlor as
though he was q d~istillation OF smiles, and
yet his heart may be a swamp Of nettles.
There are business men who all day long
are mild and courteous, and genial and
good natured In commercial life, damming
back their irrltability and their petulance
and their discomfort, but at nightfall the
dam breaks, and scolding pours forth in
foods and freshets.
As at sunset sometimes the wind rises, so
after a sunshiny day there may be q tenn
pestuous night. There are people who in
public act the philanthropist who at home
act the Nero with respect to their slippers
and their gown, Audubon, the great orni-
biologist, with gun and pencil went
through the forests of America to bring
down and to sketch the beautiful birds, and
after years OF toll and exposure completed
his manuscript and put It In a trunk in
Philadelphia and went of for a few days OF
recreation and rest and came back and
found that the rats had utterly destroyed
the manuscript, but without any discom-
posure and without any fret or bad temper
he again picked up his gun and his pencil
and visited again all the great forests OF
America and reproduced his immortal
work. And yet there are people with the
ten-thousandth part OF that loss who .are
utterly irreconcilable, who at the loss OF a
PtbClt " All hItlSl5 VI TdlutuL VIII DiDW as
long and loud and sharp as a northeast
storm. Now, that man who is affable in
public and who Is irritable in private Is
making q fraudulent and overissue Of stock,
and he is as bad as n bank that might have
$500 900 or $500, 900 Of bills in circulation
with no specie In the vault. Let US learn
to show piety at home. II we have it not
there, we have 1t not anywhere. If we have
not genuine grace In the family circle, all
our outward and public plausibllity merely
springs from the fear of the world or from
the Shiny, putrid pool OF our own selfish
ness. / tell you the home is a mighty test
OF character. What you are at home you
are everywhere, whether you demonstrate
1t or not.
Again, home is a refuge. Life is the
United States army on the national road
anon a skirmish and a battle. At eventide
We pitch our tent and stack the arms, we
hang up the war cap, and our head on the
k%napsack we sleep until the morning bugle
calls us to march to the action. How
pleasant 1t Is to rehearse the victories and
the surprises and the attacks of the day
seated by the still campfire of the home
circlel Yea, life Is u stormy sea. With
shivered masts and torn sails and hulk
aleak we put in Mt the harbor OF home.
Blessed harborl There we so for repairs
In the drydock The candle in the window
is to the toiling man the lighthouse guild
ing him into port. Children go forth to
meet their fathers as pilots at the Narrows
take the hand of ships. The doorsill OF the
home is the wharf where heavy life Is un-
laden. There is the place where we may
talk OF what we have done without being
charged with self adulation. There is the
place where we may lounge without being
thought ungraceful. There is the place
where we may express affection without
being thought silly. There is the place
where we may forget our annoyances and
exasperations and troubles. Forlorn earth
pilgrim, no home? Then die. That is bet
ter. The grave is brighter and grander
and more glorious than this world with no
tent from marching, with nc harbor from
the storm, with no place of rest from this
scene of greed and gouge and loss and
gain. God pity the man or the woman who
has no homel
Further, home Is a political safeguard.
The safety OF the State must be built on
the safety Of the home. Why cannot
france come TO a placid republic? Mac
Mahon appoints his ministry, and all France
is aquake lest the republic be smothered.
Gambette dies, and there are hundreds of
thousands of Frenchmen who are fearing
the return OF q monarchy. The Dreyfus
case is at this M a slumberlng earth
quake under Paris. France, as a nation,
has not the right kind of a Christian home.