The Yale expositor. (Yale, St. Clair County, Mich.) 1894-current, 1899-07-21


the net, hand over hand, and hand over
hand. and it is a long while before the
| captured fins begin to feel the net, and
then they dart this way and that, hop
ing to get out, but find themselves ap-
preaching the shore, and are brought
up TO the very feet of the captors, SO
the memory Of an early home some
times seems to relax and let men out
| further and further from God, and fur
| Their and further from shore-fiye
| years, ten years, twenty years, thirty
years; but some day they 1nd an ire
sistible mesh drawing them back, and
they are compelled to retreat from
their prodigality and wandering; and
though they make desperate effort 20
escape the impression, and try to dive
deeper down in sin, after wSile are
brought clear back and held upon the
Rock OF Ages.
If it be possible o father and moth
er! let your sons and daughters so out
into the world under the seml-omnipo-
tent memory of a good pure home.
About your two or three rooms in a
clearinghouse, or a family hotel, you
can cast nosuch glorious sanctity. They
will think of these public carava=sa-
ries as an early stopping place. mall
cdorous with old victua,s, coffees r.
petually steaming, and meats in ever
lasting stew or broil, the air sur
charged with carbonic acid, and corri-
doris along which drunken boarders
come staggering at one o'clock in the
morning, rapping at the door till the
affrighted wife lets them in. 10 not
be guilty Of the sacrilege of blasphemy
of calling such a place a home.
A home is four walls enclosing one
family with identity OF interest. and
privacy from outside inspection so
complete that 1t Is a world in itself,
no one entering except by permission
bolted, and barred, and chained against
all out side hquisitiveness. The phrase
so often used in law books and legal
circles is mildly uggested-every
mans house is his castle. AS
much so as though it had drawbridge,
portcullis, redoubt, bastion, and armed
turret. Even the officer of the law may
not enter to serve a writ. except the
door be voluntarily opened unto him;
burglary, or the invasion of it, crime
so offensive that the law clashes It's
iron Jaws en- any one who attempts IL.
Unless it be necessary to stay for
longer or shorter time in family hotel
or boarding house-and there are thou
sands of instances in which II is nee
essary' as / showed you at the begin
nlng-unless in this exceptional case.
let neither wife nor husband consent
TO such permanent residence.
The public residence OF hotel and
clearinghouse abolishes the grace OF
hospitality. Your guest does not want
10 come to such table. No one wants
TO run such a gauntlet Of acute and
merciless hyper-criticism. Unless you
have a home of your own you will not
be able to exercise the best rewarded
of all the graces. For exercise of this
grace what blessing came to the Shun-
ammite in the restoration of her son
to life because she entertained Elisha,
and to the widow of Zarephath in the
perpetual oil well OF the miraculous
cruise because she fed a hungry proph-
ct, and to Rahab in the preservation
of her life at the demolition OF Jericho
because she entertained the spies, and
to Laban in the formation Of an in
teresting family relation because OF
his entertainment of Jacob, and TO Lot
in his rescue from the destroyed city
because of his entertainment OF the
angels, and to Mary and Martha and
Zaccheus in spiritual blessing because
they entertained Christ, and TO Publius
in the island of Melita in the healing
OF his father because of the entertain
ment Of Paul. drenched from the ship
wreck, and of innumerable houses
throughout Christendom upon which
have come blessings from generation
to generation because their doors
swung easily open in the enlarging,
ennobling, irradiating and divine grace
Of hospitality. / do not know what
your experience has been, but / have
had men and women visiting at my
house who left benediction on every
room-in the blessing they asked at
the table, in the prayer they offered
at the family altar, in the good advice
they gave the children, In the gospeli-
cation that looked out from every line
ament of their countenances; and their
departure was the sword of bereave-
ment. The Queen OF Norway, Sweden
and Denmark had a royal cup of ten
curves, or lips, each one having on
it the name of the distinguished person
who had drunk from it. And that cup
which we offer to others in Christian
hospitality, though it be of the plainest
earthenware, is a royal cup, and God
can read on all its sides the names
Of those who have taken from it re-
freshment. But all this is impossible
unless you have home OF your own.
Young married man, as soon as you
can, buy place even If you have to
put on 1t mortgage reaching from
base to capstone. The much-abused
mortgage which is ruin to a reckless
man, to one prudent and provident Is
the beginning of competency and
fortune for the reason he will not be
satisfied until hp has maid ~ off mud