The Clio messenger. (Clio, Mich.) 1907-current, 1919-05-15

| strong man In
~ business or civic
life who was not
made so In the home. 1t Is true that
sometimes we find men OF character
who never had any true home infiu-
ences, but when you find one man
| who has developed into real man.
hood without true home influences,
you find hundreds, who because they
never had them, are moral wrecks.
Set the home be what ii should and
the product turned out will rarely be
disappointing. Our forefathers were
able to lay substantial national
foundation because they were made
stalwart, God fearing men through the
influences of the Christian homes in
which they were nurtured.
When fathers and mothers take heed
to the words of Jesus, Seek We first
the Kingdom of God and his right
eousness" and make him first in the
home, how glorious are the results |!
If they have family worship and seek
Gods help and guidance daily for
themselves and their children and all
their affairs, they find 1t unfailingly
true that God Is faithful" that his
promises never fail, that their every
real need is supplied and that his
favor and blessing surpass all of
earth's riches. God Is love-" and the
home In which he is made first is a
| home filled with love. Fortunate Is
the community and the nation which
has many such homes. The men and
| women nurtured In them are "the salt
| of the EARTH" Without such, cor
ruption and decay inevitably ensue.
Supporting the structure Of all that
is good and true and noble In the
world is the godly home. Remove it.,
and our social and national life will
soon morally disintegrate.
II Ii seem that we are giving the
| godly home a more important place
than the godly individual, where, we
would ask, does the godly individual
come from If not from the godly home?
What workshop produces him? Ger
| tainly not the schools, the shops, the
market place nor even the church,
without the help of the godly home.
| A nail factory turns out nails; shoe
| factory, shoes; wagon factory,
| wagons; and home, humanity.
The ideal for commercial factories
should be to turn out the best product
they can. This though, is not always
| their aim, for low prices and compe-
tition create a demand for articles of
an inferior grade. There is no such
demand, however, for the product Of
the home, for no quality of character
of an inferior grade meets the de-
mands of God or Of the times. If a
manufacturing firm aims to turn out
the very best product they can pos
sibly make, it's members are always
studying the problem of ways and
means to enable them to approximate
their ideal. How much more should
parents study with Gods help to turn
out into the world the very best prod
uct2
In thinking of the home as turning
out into the world a product called
humanity, we should ever bear In
mind that Its product Is to endure
throughout the ages. This leads us
back to our very first proposition,
that IL there IL any place more than
any other on this earth where Jesus
Christ is needed, II is the home. With
out the help and direction Of the
master workman, godly character can
not be produced.
The Scriptures tell us to bring our
children up "in the nurture end adj
monition of the Lord" but this we
cannot do unless we are ourselves
Christians; so back Of the product
is the producer. With all the con-
sequences involved In parenthood, II
seems incredible that men and women
will assume II without being them
selves I'm position to give 10 their
children that which will make them
the very best product, namely godli-
ness. The child is not so much re-
sp0nsible for what he becomes as Is
the parent I'm whose care and train
ing he is brought up. We cannot get
away from the scripture, which says:
Train up child In the way he should
go and when he Is old he Will not de-
part from it,; or, rs the little girl
put II, "Train up child In the way
he should go and when. he is old he
will go so.'