The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1913-07-30
Hone-What a HalIoWed Name.
lBy John p. Thames

by JO0U uAL4lS.l
How full OF enchantment and how
dear TO the heart: home is the magic
circle within which the weary spirit
finds refuge, it is the sacred asylum to
which the careworn heart retreats tC
find rest from the tolls and iDquietudes
of life.
Ask the lone wanderer as he plods
his tedious way, bent with the weight
OF age. and white with the frost OF
years, ask MIN what is Home" he
will tell you it is green spot in mem
DRY. an oasis in the desert: a center
about which the foodest recollection of
his grief-oppressed heart cling with all
the tepacity of youth S first love. 1t was
once a glorious and happ" reality, but
now it rests only as an image of the
mind.
Home, that name touches every fibre
of the soul, and strikes every chord OF
the human heart with its angelic fin
gers. The word home with its pleasing
images and deep emotions awakens and
calls up the fondest memories OF life
and opens in our nature the ,purest,
deepest, richest gush of coDsecrated
thought and feeling.
Some years ago some twenty thous-
and people gathered in the old castle
garden. New York, to hear Jennie
Lind sing as no other soogstress had
ever sung the sublime composition of
Beethoven. The Swedish nightingale
thought of home, and with deep emotion
began to sing Home Sweet Home"
An uproar stopped the music, some
people cryed tears, and Beethoven were
forgotten. and (home,) that was the
word that spell-bound souls OF the crowd
and Howard Payne triumphed DER the
great masters of song.
When we look at the simplicity OF
this home song we ask what IS the
charm that is concealed in it, and why
does the dramatist and poet find his
reputation resting on so apparently
narrow a basis. The answer is easy, it
IS next to religion, the deepest sentl-
ment in the human soul is the home af-
fections. Every heart vibrates to this
theme.
Home is law to our hearts that binds
US with love that time and change
cannot break, the darkest villainies
which have disgraced humanity cannot
neutralize it, Gray haired and demon
guilt will make his dismal cell the
sacred urn OF tears wept over the mem
cries OF home, and these will soften and
melt into tears of penitence, even the
heart of adamant asks the little child
what is home? 1t will tell you that it is
all the world 10 him or her. He knows
40 other. The fathers love, the moth
er's smile. the sisters embrace, the
brothers. welcome, thrown about is a
heavenly halo, and makes it as attrac-
tive to him as the home of angles.
Home is the spot where the child
pours out all its complaints and it is the
grave OF all it's sorrows Childhood has
its sorrows and its grievances but home
is the place where these are soothed
and banished by The sweet lullaby Of
mothers voice. Was paradise n abode
of purity aud peace? or will the new
Eden above be one OF unmlpgled beau
titude? Then the Paradise OF child
hood" the eden of Home" are names
applied TO the family abode.
10 that paradise all may appear as
smiling and serene TO childhood as the
untainted garden did TO unfallen man,
even the remembrance OF it amid dis
tant scenes of woe has soothed some of
the saddeSt hours of life, and crowds OF
mourners have spoken of
A home that paradise below,
OF sunshine and of flowers;
Where hallowed joys perennial aow,
By calm sequester'd bowers.
And it is realty and not poetry to
speak of my own dear quiet home, the
Eden of my heart. There is nothing on
earth so beautiful as the household on
which Christian love forever smiles,
and where religion walks counsellor
and friend