The Tupelo journal., 1904-04-29
THE PERFECT HOME LIFE.
Not the Result of Luck or Happy Cir
cumstance, But a Work for
3 Brains and Heart.

hcI 10 OSu that llc ludNllS III
a perfect home is a work of art and
not the result of luck or happy cir
cumstance. There is indeed a genius
for architecture and a genius for po-
etry, a genius for science and a genius
music; but how slow we are to rec
ognize that the perfect home is built
by brains! For. the outside of our
home we choose, if we can afford it,
architect who has studied all styles
and who knows every detail necessary
to a perfect structure. We rejoice TO
see the material expression of his
thought standing before us. with its
many features running together into
unobtruSive but attractive unity. How
seldom it occurs to us that the invisi-
BILE interior, the spiritual and intel
lectual home, the library of luminous
thought, the rooms of love and sweet
courtesy and gracious interchange of
feelings and ideas, are more difficult
to plan and far more difficult to exc
wood! When the vision of the sculp-
tor has taken shape of beauty to our
delighted eyes, we are net silly enough
to glory in the mallet and the chiseI.
We praise the artists mind. Yet II
the rough-hewn block should never
yield its finest possibility, its veins are
not of blood. nor running into nerves
suffer torture. and the s%culptor's'
blunder sends M suffering through the
fiber. But when we mar with
th%oughtless words and cutting speech
the souls intrusted to our love, this
hurts and keeps on hurting. Our
blunder is a cruelty, our carelessneSs a
Now the life in the family is a life
of souls that shape each other daily,
either into ugliness or beauty. The
aged mother. fretful, impatient. imperl-
ous, irritable. disconnected, is the work
too frequently Of selfish husband and
,is%obedients children. They complain
Of her! God forgive them! They
complain of themselves, Or
they have made her what she is.
That pale-faced girl. gentle, uncom-
planning, her | mea with the hectic
upon the cheek, who coughs at
intervals and laughs to hide her cough
why, she is her mothers handicraft
Poor child, her mother always nags
her so! Her fingers are full of rings,
but a clasp of love were worth them
all. Gowns! Dear me. she has no
end of gowns! And the rough broth
.rs are good to her, they think. And
her father speaks of her with pride and
then lets her serve him like a slave,
o these laundering sculptors of a hui
man life, how they mar and mutilate
in sheer neglect and selfishness the
they might create!
But yonder man, so strong, so cheer
full, so s%erenely masterful in times of
dif fculty-whose handicraft, pray tell
is that soul of his? The joint work
likely of God and himself? o no! But
of the mother that loved him. of the
wife that he loves, Of the children that
rise up to call him blessed. And he
has thought about his home. He took
pains and brains to make it perfect.
Busy all his life-for he has performed
great tasks and evaded no duties-he
has for all that never robbed the wife
of his love, by giving to business the
hours that belonged to her; he has
never cheated his children wholly OF
their fathers presence and their IA
thoughtful care. He has faced
calamity. Death. too, has struck him
his cruel wings-there are mo-
ments when his features show the
traces of recollected gloom-but the
children as they gather round him re-
joice to see the touches Of their loving
hands upon their fathers features
even as they feel the touch of his shap-
ing intelligence upon their strong
souls. While the wife Of his love re-
joices in him and in them, knowing
quite we'll that they are the reward
Of her patient thoughtfulness and UNI
wearied hope. This interchange of in
f1uence inside the family is at once
the mystery, the power and the pos
sible destruction of it's peace and joy.
But the law of it must be grasped
early and applied with luminous pa
thence and sagacious love. Each
will encounter it's own prob
lem and each family must face it's own
difficulties; resolutely, ~courageously,
.cheerfully to apply ones mind to the
solution and the conquest of them
is the part of wisdom. But the chief
thing, l repeat, is to recognize the di-
vine ~sacredness of the tasks of fam
lily life, and, having assumed them,
to achieve them with calculating skill
and ~unwavering affection.
But, thirdly, the home must be Gre
ated now. For there is no knowledge
and no device in the grave whittier we
are going. Think, says the wise man,
how helpless are the dead towards the
living. Just what power we may have
over this world when we become i'm
mortal spirits none of US may know.
But one thing is quite clear, any power
we may have hereafter will be lin
tied by the memories Of rs in the
minds of those with whom we lived.
Even Jesus our Saviour submitted to
this law. For He wrought His Image
into the hearts of His disciples, Of
Mary and Martha, and the women who
ministered to Him, SO that when He
reappeared to them after the resurrec-
ton the sound of His voice thrilled
their souls and the sight of His hands
touching the bread He blessed told
who He was. even as He vanished from