The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1899-03-10
TALMAGE ON HOME
THE PLACE FOR THE DEVELOP
WENT OF CHRISTIAN CHAR
ACTER
RecoIleetions Stirred by the
Recall of Scenes of Boyhood and
Elroanda

Ffreslde
Copyright, 1899. by American Press AS
sociation.)
Many tender recollections are stirred by
DIR. Talmage's discourse and scenes OF
boyhood and girlhood days will be lived
over again; text, I Timothy V, 4, Let
them learn first to show piety at home"
During the summer months the tend
ency is to the fields, to visitation, to
foreign travel and the watering places.
and the ocean steamers are thronged. but
in the winter is rather to gather in do
mestic circles. and during these months
we spend many of the hours within doors
and the apostle comes to us and says
that we ought to exercise Christian be-
hayfor amid all 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 prowess. They
admire Paul making Felix tremble, and
they only wish that they had some such
grand occasion in which to preach right
eousness, temperance and judgment TO
come. All they want Is an opportunity 10
exhibit their Christian heroism. Now,
the apostle practically says: Il will show
you a place where you can exhibit all
that is grand and beautiful and glorious
in Christian character and that is the
domestic circle. Let them learn first to
show piety at home" If one is not faith
full in an insignificant sphere, he will not
be faithful in a ~resounding sphere. If
Peter will not help the cripple at the gate
of the temple, he will never be able to
preach 1900 into the kingdom at the Pen
fnnnCt IF pnnl uUi1 NOT take Mains tn in
struct in the way of salvation the jailer
of the P%hilippian dungeon, he will never
make Felix tremble. He who is not
faithful in a skirmish would not be faith
full in an A~rmageddon. The fact is, we
are all placed in just the position in
which We can most grandly serve God,
and we ought not to be chiefly thought
full about some sphere Of usefulness witch
we may after awhile gain, but the all alb
sorbing question with you and with me
ought to be, Lord, wilt thou nave
me now and here to do?"
There is one word in st. Paul's adjura-
ton around which the most of our
"home.' Ask ten different men the
meaning of that word and they Will give
means love at the hearth, plenty at the
table. industry at the work stand, intel
ligence at the books, devotion at the al
tar. In that household discord never
sounds it's warwhoop, and deception never
tricks with it's false face. To him 1t
means q greeting at the door and a smile
at the chair, peace nOVerlnS ike wings,
JOY clapping it's hands with laughter.
Life is a tranquil lake. Pillowed on the
ripples sleep the shadows. Ask another
man what home is and he will tell you 1T
is want looking out of a cheerless fire
CRATE, kneading hunger in an empty
bread tray. The damp air shiver1ng with
curses. No Bible on the shelf; Children
robbers and murderers 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
hath yuoua rolling nVpr that dOOrSiH. VeS-
tibule of the pit. Shadow of internal
walls. Furnace fol forging everlasting
chains. Fagots for an amending funeral
pile. Awful word. 1t is spelled with
curses, it sweats with the death agony
of despair. The word home" in the one
case means everything bright. The word
'home'' in the other case means every
thing terrific.
AS A TEST OF CHARACTER.
1 shall speak now Of home as a test
of character, home as a refuge, nome
as a political safeguard, nome as a
school, and home as a type of heaven.
And in the first place, home is a power
full test of character. The disposition
in public may be in gay costume, while
in private it is dishabille. AS play ac-
tors may appear in one way on the stage
and may appear in another way behind
the scenes, so private character may be
very different from public character. Pri-
waite character is often public character
turned wrong side out. A man may re-
ceive you INTO his parlor as though he
was a distillation of smiles, and yet his
heart may be a swamp of nettles. There
are business men who all day long are
natured in commercial life, damming
hack their irritability and their petu-
lance and their discomfort, but at night
fall the dam breaks, and scolding pours
forth in floods and freshets.
Reputation is only the shadow OF char
acter, and a very small mouse sometimes
will cast a very long shadow. TIL lips
may seem to drop with myrth and cassia
and the disposition to be as bright and
warm as a sheath of sunbeams, and yet
they may only be a magnificent show
window for a wretched stock of goods.
There is many a man who is affable In
public life and amid commercial spheres
who in a cowardly way takes his anger
and his petulance home and drops them
in the domestic circle. The reason men
is because they do not want to be
knocked down. There are men who hide
their p~etulance and their irritability just
for the same reason that they do not
let their notes go to protest-it does not
pay-or for the same reason that they
do not want a man in their stock com.
pany to sell his stock below par lest IL
depreciate the value.
AS at sunset some times the wind
rises, so after a SunSh1ny day there may
be a tempestuous night. There are peo-
Die who in public act the philanthropist
who at home act the Nero With respect
to their slippers and their gown. Audi
bon the great of tHSrd,Sgb 81 W ~ornsg gun an
America to bring down and to sketch
the beautiful birds, and after years OF
toll and exposure completed his manu-
script and put it in a trunk in PhiladeI-
phia and went off for a few days of rec
reation and rest and came back and
found that the rats had utterly destroyed
the manuscript, but without any discom-
posture and without any fret or bad tenn
per 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 peo-
pie with the ten-thousandth part of that
loss who are utterly irreconcilable, who
at the loss of a pencil or an article OF
raiment will blow 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 a fraudu-
Lent and overissue of stock, and he is as
bad as a bank that might have 100000
or $O0, 900 of bills in circulation with no
specie in the vault. Let US learn to show
piety at home. If we have it not there. we
have it not anywhere. If we have not
genuine grace in the family circle, all
our outward and public plausibility mere
ly springs from the fear Of the world or
from the Shiny, putrid pool of our own
~selfshness. I tell you the home is a
mighty test of character. What you are