Elk City mining news. (Elk City, Idaho) 1903-1913, 1907-07-13
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CHARACTER BUILDING.

By Rev. William G. Stimsor


To-day l must abide at thy house.
Luke 10: 5.
When Christ entered the home or
| Zaccheus the publican, 1t meant not
only a changed life for Zaccheus, but
for his wife and children and every
one connected with that home IL
meant alteration of habits, associations
and environment.
Why is it that you can detect d
Christian home almost as soon as you
enter it? May it not be that the Chris
tian lives, the Christian customs, the
Christian conversation Of the occu-
pants give to it a sort Of sacred atmos-
phere? A man told me once that re-
Duke which he could never forget came
from the lips of his sanity father,
who, upon entering the new-made
home, said: ''My son, this house Is
beautiful, but 1 see nothing here to in
dictate distinctively that it is Chris
tian home"
The lowest conception Of home Is to
speak Of it as place where mans ma
terial wants are satisfied. We can OBJ
tain this satisfaction In a hotel. A
man living in one room In a hotel or
boarding house seems like a grapevine
In fiowerpot, movable, shifted from
place to place, locked at the root and
short at the top. No doubt 1t Is an
Inevitable condition to which many
people must submit, but this "cabined,
cribbed, confined" home life Of the cities
is initiating against the best interests
Of the family institution.
Whatever the material shape or ac-
commOdations Of the home, 1t should be
the place where hearts and lives are
united in loving compact The home
has been called "the institute Of the
affections" Where does the home be-
gin2 At the marriage altar. When
should a home begin? When the
hearts and lives of man and a wom-
an feel that each is made for the other
and can enter the marriage relations
htelligently, resolutely, hopefully, with
the spirit of bear and forbear, deeply
mindful Of all the legitimate conse-
Quences of such relation.
Blessed is the home that is estab-
lished on the basis of love, and no
home can be a home, however attrac-
tive or comfortable or abundant its ma
terial environment, where love Ia not
the regnant principle, the unifying
bond.
There Is no other educative agency
comparable to the home. The parent is
both teacher and priest. The father and
mother there make vows for the child.
The child, knowing the love, the care,
the compassion, the wisdom of the faith
er on earth, soon passes into larger
knowledge Of the heart and character
Of the great father in Heaven. Human
fatherhood Is divine trust.
An eminent business man recently
said that If he had his life to live over
again he would perhaps accumulate
less wealth, but he would spend more
time at home with his sons, so that the
relations between them might be more
Intimate and that he might determine
In them as none others can. the great
Issues of character.
What a child between the years of
and IL learns from the parents. and
especially from the mother. of dutv
honor, love, sympathy, obedience. can
never be wholly misplaced or lost.
Oh, for the home of the Bible the
family altar, the blessing at the meal.
the sacred song, the home that is Join
ed hard to the church! Such homes
are the true domestic commemorative.
From such republics have come the
men and women into the larger repub-
lie, winning honor In every sphere of
life, devoting time, strength and mon
ey to the service Of God and their fell
low men.