The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1899-03-25

Wa Vic OiAhAS lAC WIouS way. Leu
the light, which puts gold ON the gem
tian and spots the pansy, pour into your
dwellings. Do not expect the little
feet to keep step to dead march. Do
not cover up your walls with such pic
lures as Vests Death on Pale Horse"
or Tintoretto's Massacre of the In
nocents." Rather cover them If you
have pictures with "The Hawking Par
ty," and "The Mill by the Mountain
Stream" and "The Fox Hunt" and the
Children Amid Flowers" and the
Harvest Scene" and "The Saturday
Night Marketing" Get you no hint of
cheerfulness from grasshopper's leap
and lambs frisk and quail's whistle
and garrulous streamlet, which from
the rock at the mountain top clear
down to the meadow ferns under the
shadow of the steep comes looking to
see where it can find the steepest place
to leap off at and talking just to hear it.
self talk? If all the skies hurtled with
tempest and everlasting storm, wan
dered over the sea, and every mountain
stream were raving mad, frothing at
the mouth with mud foam, and there
was nothing but simooms blowing
among the hills and there were neither
lark's carol nor humming birds trill,
nor waterfalls dash, but only bears
bark and panther's scream and VOLTS
howl then you might well gather into
your homes only the shadows. But
when God has strewn the earth and the
heavens with beauty and with gladness,
Let us take into our home circles all in
nocent hilarity, all brightness and all
good cheer. A dark home makes bad
boys and bad girls in preparation tor
bad men and bad women.
Above all, my friends. takeinto your
homes Christian principle. Can it be
that in any of the comfortable homes
whose inmates I confront the voice of
prayer is never lifted? What! No sup
plication at night for protection?
What! No thanks giving in the morn
ing for care? How, my brother, my
sister, will you answer God in the day
of judgment with reference to your
children? It is plain question. and
therefore ask it. In the tenth chapter
of Jeremiah God says He will pour out
His fury upon the families that call
not upon His name. Oh, parents, when
you are dead and gone, and the moss
is covering the inscription of the tomb
stone, will your children look back and
think of father and mother at family
prayer? Will they take the old family
Bible and open it and see the mark Of
tears of eontrition and tears of consol-
ing promise wept by eyes long before
gone out into darkness? Oh, if you
do not inculcate Christian principle in
the hearts of your children, and you do
not warn them against evil, and you do
not invite them to holiness and to God.
and they wander off into dissipation
and into infidelity and at last make
shipwreck of their immoral soul, ON
their deathbed and in the day of judg-
ment they will curse you!
Seated by the register or the stove,
what if, on the wall, should come out
the history of your children? What a
history-the mortal and immortal life
of your loved ones! Every parent is
writing the history of his child. He il
writing it, composing it into song, or
pointing it with groan.
My mind runs back to one of the best
of early homes. Prayer like roof over
it. Peace like an atmosphere in it.
Parents personiications of faith in trial
| and comfort in darkness. The two
pillars of that earthly home long crum-
bled to dust. But shall I ever forget
that early home? Yes, when the flower
forgets the sun that warmed it. Yes,
when the mariner forgets the star that
guided him. Yes, when love has gone
out on the hearts altar, and memory
has emptied its urn into forgetfulness.
Then, the home of my childhood, will
forget thee! The family altar of IA
theirs importantly and mothers ten
derness, the voices of affection, the
funeral of our dead, the father and
mother with interlocked arms like in
tertwining branches of trees making
a perpetual arbor of love and peace and
lindness-then I will forget thee
then, and only then! You know, my
brother, that hundred times you have
been kept out Of sin by the memory
of such scene as I have been describ-
ing. You have often had raging tempta-
tons, but you know what has held you
with supernatural grasp. l tell you q
man who has had such good home AZ
that never gets over it, and man who
has had q bad early home never gets
over it.
| Again, home is q type Of Heaven. Al
our best estate we are only pilgrimsand
strangers here. Heaven is our home"
Death will never knock at the door OF
that mansion, and in all that country
there is not single grave. How glad
parents are in the holidays to gather
their children home again! But i have
noticed there is almost always son OF
daughter absent-absentf from home,
perhaps absent from the country, per
haps absent from the world. Oh, how
glad our Heavenly Father will be when
He gets all His children home with Him
in Heavenl And how delightful it will
be for brothers and sisters to meet aft
err long separation! Once they parted
at the door of the tomb. Now they
meet at the door of immortality. Once