Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1903-04-15
NEED OF HOME LIFE.

We shall have strong states If we have
happy homes. We shall have peace
among the nations if we have peace
able homes. We shall nave good men
and good women If we have glad and
cheerful homes, and only so.
This is not to be gained by instruc-
ton in homes. Instruction is one
thing and education is quite another.
Such education as one wants in a
home is gained when the life Of home
is a large one. and not a small one.
No / am not asking to have instruc-
ton, as they call it, forced into home
life; a catechism now, a code of man
nCrs half an hour hence, botany in
thirteen lessons sandwiched in be-
tween; politics in six lessons and re-
ligion in three. We will not make
home an annex of the high school or
the grammar school run by power
from the same steam engine by a
band across the street. But we will
see that life of home shall be a large
life and not small one. 1t must
make home look outside to the com
mon life of mankind, not satisfied
with the two-penny talk of No. p or
No 436. The rights of the little peO-
pie at home are that they shall share
with fathers and mothers and uncles
and aunts and kings and queens and
emperors and popes; whatever is nice
and good. they shall have q share in.
This means large life. 1t means in
finite life. In the smallest family the
father, the mother and the child, it
means there shall always be present
the fourth companion.
THAT every house Thy house may be
And every home home for Thee"
The daily bread at breakfast is
Gods bread. His sunshine ripened
that grain and His steam drove the
engine. The Mayhower by Mary's
plate is Gods Mayhower He dis
TILED its fragrance and He painted
the petals. The song mamma sings
is His song, for Robert Burns also
was His child. The story book John
has brought from the library is His
story hook, for He led Robert Steven
son up the highways and down the
bay. taught His secrets and quickened
his love so that SHe might write the
story. Mamma loves her and papa
loves her You love me and l love
you, and this is because the good God
loves us ALL This home is His home
as it is ours 1t is ours because it is
His and we are always in His arms.
If your children grow up in such life
and such love there is no fear that
home life win become petty. They
will know what they mean when they
say: Thy kingdom come"
We must not stop here. If we have
made our home what our home should
be we shall all know what brothers
owe to brothers the world over. We
shall know as well what the whole
world can give to each of us.
The leaf on the elm draws up from
the damp soil, perhaps a hundred feet
away. the moisture It needs. 1t draws
up the material for its growth and
also it sends down to the tree what
the tree needs, and so We see the tree
in its beauty of thousands and thou
sands of leaves and we enjoy its shell
ter. The leaf does its duty by the
tree. the tree does its duty by the
leaf. Now, each one of us in this
world has such a duty TO do for the
world and in return the world for
which he has been living its duty by
him. Each for all and all for each.
This is the glad tidings of the gospel.
This is the center of the gospel-"He
who Is greatest among you shall be
your servant" AS st. Paul says.
Bear We one another's burdens This
geenration of ours hardly compre-
bends that muddy, Shiny. dark loneli-
ness into which men stumbled, led
alas by what was called religion, -
while they were only trying to save
their own souls and bearing no bur
dens but their own. Their religion
died out in such selfish devotion as
men looked in and not out. They were
like the Eastern faker contemplating
his own machinery, counting their
own pulse throbs. "Hosannas Ian
guished on their tongues and their
devotion died" 1t is noticeable even
to-day that until our own time the
thrift of all poetry but the best was
self-absorbed. The shield was polish
ed-yes, that the knight might see
his own face the better.
For this mutual life home is the
school, brothers with brothers, sisters
with sisters. sisters with brothers.
brothers with sisters. really teach
each other the great lesson of together
''all for each, each for ALL" This lesson
sooner or later. takes us out into the
highways where the nations war. or
into the hyways where the beggar
counts his crust.
Il have been learning to read
Where is the blind man / can read
to?
Il have been learning to sew; God
may send me, if He chooses, 10 clothe
the naked.
did you say there was seine one
alone in an attic? Here am 1, send
me
Did you say that the widow Dorcas
had no time TO plan her garden? You
shali not say it again"
AS the new century begins this is
the lesson which you and l have to
teach TO the century. These are little
things In comparison, but the age
which LIS seen such little CHANGES