The Washington herald., 1918-01-11

children and his housenold atter Nun
And I win be perfectly satisfied II
they are as good and on the square
keSAbraham- Il know him for he
will command his children and his
household after him"
am going to throw myself upon
the prayerful sympathy Of this con-
gregation. with a prayerful hope that
what have to say may arrest your
attention and grip your heart Some
body has said that the sweetest words
IN the language which We speak. no
matter what cline, whether where the
snnbeams dancing in sunny la belle
France or upon Ceylon's perfumed
shores or India's coral strand. or
where the Frost King holds sway in
the Klondiks Of the North, the sweet
est word in the language Is Home"
whether It means that to the Esquimo
IN bis igloo or whether 1t means 1t to
the Indian in his tepee on the plains,
or to the millionaire in his palace on
FIFTH Avenue.
Home Is Sacred Spot.
I want you to go with me for a
brief time to the most sacred spot in
all the world, the one around which
clusters more sweet associations and
precious memories than any other I'm
the universe-and that Is home. The
longer 1 live and the more visit up
and down the land and see the Joys
and the sorrows and the successes and
the failures OF men and women, the
I more I become convinced that the
home Is one Of the greatest problems
wo have.
The homes are like streams pouring
forth their current into the great
world. and they should be the center
of everything that Is noble and in
spring. Nothing should ever be per-
nnitted to wriggle its Infamous des-
troying carcass across your threshold
TO assassinate virtue. or to murder
any Thought that might lead that boy
or girl toward God, or on their knees
to develop a Christian character.
You walk up and ask ten differ
ent men for definition of home you
get ten different difinitions. To one
i Is love of hearth. TO another it
d plenty to wear. To another II is
warmth To another it is comfort. To
another it Is intelligence. To another
1t Is devotion. To another IL is a
regretful goodby when you go away,
and greetings with a smile and a kiss
when YOU return.
To another It is want, looking out
of a cherries fire, and it is hunger
IN an empty tray, and the damp air
shivering with curses, no Bible, no
sabbath wave rolls over the thres-
hold, the children are robbers in en-
bryO. = Obscene songs. their lullaby.
EveEy face is a picture of squalor
and OF want. It is a vestibule to the
pit and IL is a furnace forging chain.
think the proper or improper set
flement Of the home question ~ the
rlost important thing in the world.
and you never can settle il right, my
friend, unless you settle first of all
that you as a father and mother will
be a Christian and serve Jesus Christ.
II will mean the joy and sorrow or
the veal and woe Of more boys and
girls than any tmilar question that
comes up.
Parents Suffer for wayward.
OH you may build your palaces.
You may amass your fortunes. You
may pile up your luxuries around you.
Your larders may be filed with the
most delicate viands that the fields
and markets of this old world can
produce and by your wealth you may
be enabled to put them on your table
until It groans and staggers with the
weight Of the luxuries. You can
spread the carpets of fabulous wealth,
or Persian rugs on your floors. You
can sit beanth the fash of the can
>delabrum of wealth. You can eat your
food from hand painted china. You
can have priceless tapestry hanging
on your walls Paintings from the
easles of the famous masters Of old
may gaze upon you from the walls.
But nothing will ever make happy
the father or the mother who waits
for the coming footsteps or some girl
who has become careless and frivo-
lous and coquettish, and II won't be
long until. perhaps, she will help to
feed the brothel, or she will become
the mother Of an illegitimate child
because of her indifference. Or some
whiskey-soaked boy who bears your
name Is putting a stain upon the fam
iIv escutcheon that wealth and culture
can never in the universe be able to
erase.
Not only does happiness center
about the home, but the social and
the moral and the civil and the re-
1igious power centers about the
home. The downfall OF most men
and women can be traced to some
defect in the home. Not all of them.
for there are homes where the
children are trained rightly, but
they get out with some God-forsak-
en-, good-for-nothing moral assas-
sins who electrocute and murder
eve-v thought and ambition that
might lead them to be decent and
serve God; and they go down the
long line with a bunch whose
names are synonymous with whis-
ky, with booze. with blasphemy,
with everything that is degrading
and polluting and injecting and in
Testing and blighting and pestilen-
tial
Every gambler leaning over his
card table and stalking his soul on
the next show down; every drunk
ard reeling and staggering and jab-
berfng and maundering and mutter-
ing and vomiting and spewing and
puking; and eevry debauched char
acter: and every fallen woman mer-
chandising her womanhood for
gain in some dark. rotten. fester-
ing spot of a great city, once was
as pure as the morning dew. They
kneIt by their mothers side and
perhaps said: Now I lay me down
to sleep. pray thee, Lord, my soul
to keep"
Tagrancy Brings Crime.
Now nearly one-half OF the in
mates who are in the reformatories
IN this country committed the crimes
in this country committed crimes
Gr which they were incarcerated
while they were in a state of vol
untary or involuntary vagrancy.
The genesis OF ,vagrancy is too
big q question for me or anybody
else to attempt to handle In one ad-