The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-05-04
The Great Goals of Everyday Life

The Great Goals of Everyday Life
Terse Comments on the Uniform
Prayer Meeting Topic of the Young
| Peoples Societies-Ch :1stian En-
Duty and Privilege. Conduct in the
Home and SCHOOL, Eph. 6:1-6.
Mark 5:19.
Religion is not a mood. but a life:
not a seasonal observance, but a con-
tinual practice.
A person is not more Christian in
his character than he is in his con-
duct when engaged in the humdrum
pursuits of every day. The man who
shouts at the Sunday services. and
yet shows never a sign of religion in
the workshop; and the young person
who is glib in Christian Endeavor
meeting. but silent when the recrea-
ton that is going forward gives op-
portunity for a quiet. modest Witness
| bearing his faith, are both lacking
in a primary conception of the real
nature of religion.
Many young women are enamored
of vague ideas of "a career who
ought to come straight to their senses
and get married, settling down to that
largest and most useful work in the
world. the making OF Christian
home.
Some homes do not know how to
pray. 1ncIC are never any games
about the evening lamp. The science
of fun-making is unknown as the
black arts of ancient Mesopotamia
Every normal home needs play as well
as study and work and intelligent So
cial conversation. The typewriter
recently made me say "funatics'' for
fanatics" the word thus accidentally
coined is a good one. Would that ev-
| cry home might have it's "funatics,"
or tireless promoter of good times.
! The flavor of home life is surely
| sweetest when it is permeated with
| religion. At the family altar spirit
blends with spirit A common faith
| is the strongest of all home ties. The
family that is one in faith comes
nearest to realizing the highest hap
piness ever vouchsafed to mortals.
There can be no adequate substitute
mot the Sunday school nor the
church-for religion in the home.
That is the influence that strikes
deepest in the characters of children
and fits them for the responsibilities
| of citizenship When mother and ia
| Their share with the boys and girls
the great verities of the spirit. and
when the seriousness and refine
ment and love of Christ dominate the
| table talk. the family pleasure and
reading and the daily chores. then
the most that is possible for parents
| to do for children has been done for
their training and happiness.
! Any alert public school teacher will
admit that the school is either in COM
petition with or in cooperation with
the pupils home. When the latter is
not the abode of correct speech, good
taste and large outlook, it can undo
all the efforts OF the school teacher.
| For the essential and abiding part of
! every persons education is received in
the home.
| George AIDE says, You may lead a
boy to college, but you cannot make
him think" And it is the thinking
that is done in college that makes
real education, rather than the in
struction that is impaired by the
| teacher. To fail to learn to think
! thing clearly, consecutively and fear
| lessly-is to fail in the first require
ment of culture.
There are myriads of educated per-
sons who have never seen the inside
of college; and thousands OF fools
who own sf1eepskins. Sometimes we
| make a fetch of school-room train
ing. Life has many teachers and
many classrooms The perso. whose
capacities are trained and under con-
troll. who knows the sphere in which
he lives, and who can successfully
relate his powers to present condi-
tons, is an educated man.
The spirit of a home is more i'm
portant than the pictures on the walls
or the rugs on the floors. Where the
sweetness IT Christs presence is
found, there the highest charm OF
home radiates.
Trivial and loveless gossip, and ILL
natured talk about one another, are
never heard at the table where the
Guest from Galilee sits.
II we are to, lose from our modern
homes the race of pious mothers and
godly fathers, who rear their chill
dren in the fear and admonition of the
Lord. then we are within sight of the
dread day when our Christian civiliza-
ton must be confessed failure. The
charge is frequently made that the
woman of today cares chiefly for
clothes, for society, for appearing in
public places. and making an impress
sion upon other people; and that she
has lost her taste Tor the domestic
pursuits and the deeper interests of
religions. Which. bluntly put. means
that some persons believe that we are
losing the Christian mothers who are
the glory of Christendom. Whether
this be true or not is for every indiv-
idual woman to answer for herself.
Christ and the world both lose their
best friends IL the mothers of men are