The Penn's Grove record., 1899-03-03
PENIS GROVE, N. j.. FRIDAY, MARCH 3, 1899.

stroy the homei The same storm that up
sets the ship In which the family sail Will
sink the frigate ofthe constitution. Jails
and penitentiaries and armies and navies
are not our best defenso, The door of the
home Is the best fortress. Household utet-
sils are our best artillery, and the CHM
neys Of our dwelling houses are the grand
est monuments to safety and triumph. No
home, no republic.
Further, home is a school. Old ground
must be turned up with subsoil plow. and
1t must be narrowed and rehsrrowed, aal
then the crop will not be as large as that
OF the new ground with less culture. Now,
youth and childhood are new ground, and
all the influences thrown over their heart
and life will come up in after life luxuri-
antly. Every time you have given u smile
Of appreciation all the good cheer OF your
life will come UP again in the genialltB Of
your children. And every ebullition Of
anger and every uncomfortable display OF
Indignation will be fuel to this disposition
Of twenty or thirty or forty years from now
fuel for a bad fire a quarter Of a century
from this. You praise the intelligence OF
your child too much sometimes when you
think he Is not aware Of 1t, and you will see
the result of it before ten years OF age in
his ~anhoying affectations. You praise his
beauty, supposing he is not large enough
to understand what you say; and you will
find him standing on a high chair before d
nhtterinR mirror.
Oh, make your home the brightest place
! on earth II you would charm your children
I to the high path OF virtue and reetltude
and religion. Do not always turn the
blinds the wrong way. Let the light,
which puts gold on the gentian and spots
the pansy, pour into your dwellings. Do
not expect the little feet to keep step to a
dead march. Do not cover up yonr walls
with snch pictures as Vests "Death on a
Pale Horse" or Tintoretto's "Massacre Of
/ the Innnocents." Rather cover them. II
you haze pictures, with 1.-The Hawking
Party" and 1.-THE Mill by the Mountain
Stream" and 1.-THE Fox Hunt and the
"Children Amid Flowers" and the
Harvest Scene" and 1.-THE Saturday
Night Marketing" Get you no hint Of
cheerfulness from gf~asshopper's leap and
lambs fris& and quail's whistle and
garrulous streamiet, which from the rock
at the mountain top clear down to the
meadow ferns under the shadow OF the
steep comes looking to sea where 1t can
find the steepest place to leap off at and
talking Just to hear Itself talk? If all the
skies burtled with tempest and everlasting
storm wandered over the sea and every
mountain stream were raylng mad, frotn-
ing at the mouth with mud foam, and
there we're nothing but simoons 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 wolfs howl, and 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 innocent hilarity, all brightness
and all good cheer. AdarS home makes
bad boys and bad girls In preparation for
bad men and bad women.
Above ali, my friends, take into your
homes Christian principle. Can 1t be that
In any Of the comfortable homes whose in
mates ] confront the voice Of prayer Is
never lifted? What No supplication at
night for protection2 What No thanks
giving in the morning for care? How, my
brother, my sister, will you answer God in
the day OF judgment with reference to your
children 1t Is a plain question, and there
fore l ask it. In the tenth chapter of Jere-
miah God says he will pour out his fury
upon the families that call not upon His
name. Oh, parents, when you are dead
and one and the moss is covering the In
scrlption OF the tombstone, will your chill
dren look back and think of father and
mother at family prayer VIII they take
the old family Bible and open 1t and see
the mark of tears OF contrition and tears of
~consoling promise wept by eyes long before
gone out into dark ess2 Oh, II you do not
inculcate Christian principle in the hearts
OF your children, and 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 infdelity, and at
last make shipwreck of their immortal
soul, on their deathhed and IN the day of
judgment they will curse you'll
Seated by the register or the stove, what
II on the wall should come out the history
OF your childrenl What a history-the
mortal and immortal life OF your loved
ones! Every parent is writing the history
of his child. He Is writing it, composing
it into q song or pointing it will a groan.
One night, lying on my lounge when very
tired, my children all around about me, in
full romp and hilarity and laughter-on the
lounge, half awake and half asleep-l
dreamed this dream: l was in a far coun-
try. 1t was not Persia, although morethan
oriental luxuriance crowned the cities. 1t
was not the tropics, although more than
tropical fruitfulness Allied the gardens. 1t
was not Italy, although more than Italian
s~oftness filled the air. And wandered
about looking for thorns and nettles, but
| found that none of them grew there. And
/ saw the sun rise, and I watched to see it
set, but 1t sank not. And l saw the people
in holiday attire, and / said, "When will
they put of this and put on workmen's
garb, and again delve in the mine and
swelter at the forge2" But they never put
off the holiday attire.
And / wandered In the suburbs OF the
city to flnd the place where the dead sleep,
and l looked all along the line OF the beau
tiful hills, the place where the dead might
most peacefully sleep, and l saw towers
and castles, but not a mausoleum, or a
monument, or u white slab could l see.
And / went into the chapel of the great
town, and 1 said, "Where do the poor wor-
ship and where are the hard benches on
which they sit2" And the answer was
made me, ave nave no poor In this coun-
try.".e And then l wandered out to find the
novels OF the destitute, and found man
sions of amber and ivory and gold,
but not a tear could I see, not a sigh
could l hear. AndI was bewildered, and
sat down under the branches of a great
tree. and l said, "Where am l and whence
comes all this scene?" And then ont from
among the leaves and up the fowery paths
and across the broad streams there came a
beautiful group thronging all about me,
and as / saw them come | thought knew
their step, and rs they shouted thought
| knew their voices, but then they were SO
glorlously arrayed in apparel such as l
had never before witnessed that l bowed
as stranger to stranger. But when again
they elapped their hands and shouted
'Welcome, welcome" the mystery all van-
ished, and l found that time had gone and
eternity had come, and we wereau together
again In our new home in heaven, and l
looked around and l said, Are we all
here?" and the voices of many generations
responded. "All herel" And while tears
of gladness were running down our cheeks,
and the branches of the Lebanon cedars
we're clapping their hands, and the towers
of the great city were Ginning their vel.
come we all together began to leap and
shout and sing, Home, home, homel'
SPANS OLD, GRIM JEST.
RI