The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-09-25
Home And It's Influence
By MISS WILLIE GRIFFIN

Home. is the resort of love, of joy. of peace and plenty where, support ing and supported, polished friends and dear relations mingle into bliss"
 Home. That word touches every fiber of the soul. and strikes every cord of the houman heart with itsA fingers. What tender associations al e linked with home. It calls to us the fondest memories of life. and opens in our nature the purest. deepest, richest. thought and feeling.
 Even the little child, home is hi world. He knows no other than, the fathers love, the mothers smile, the sisters embrace and brothers well come, and makes 1t as attractive to him. as the home of angles. Home is the place where the child pours out all his complaints, and sorrows. But home is the place where these are soothed and banished by the sweet lullaby of mothers voice.
 Ask the lonely wanderer as he goes his weary way, bent with the weight of years, and white with age. Ask him what is home? He will tell you.
 "It is green spot in memory, an
 oasis in the desert, a center about
 which the fondest recollections of his grieved heart clings with all the memory of youths first love. It was once a glorious, happy reality, but now it rests only as an image in the mind" Wherever the heart wan ders it carries the thought of home with it.
 There is one vision that never leaves us. and that is the vision of mother and home. and the influence they received there. No man in all his wandering ever goes out beyond the shadow of home. A man standing on the beaten coast Of the Atlantic listening to the waves of the ocean, every fash of waves whispers nome,
 sweet home. Home makes age reel young again, inspires the sailor in the midnight watch, inspires the sol dier with courage on the fields of battle. ,, Home is the foundation of civlli- zation. Our laws are made in the home. Things said there g1Ve to character far more than sermons lectures. newspapers and books. No audience Is so susceptible and re- ceptible as those gathered aoou. | the table and fireside. The founda, ton of our life is in their hands, And | by their influence makes 1t send | forth waters bitter or sweet.
 Rv the kind influence of the nome the gentle grace of the mother lives | in the daughter long after her heao
 is pillowed in the dust of death' anu l fatberlv kindness finds itself in the | character of sons. who come to wear
 his name and fill his place. While. on 1 the other hand. from an unhappy,
 misgoverned and illordered home
 go forth boys and girls who Will
 make other homes miserable, fuil or 1 sorrow and sadness
 ! Voices of experience rise in the l f, -1life. Though we have our trials, 1t
 strengthens us in the stern struggle
 in our after years. We have our du- | ties to teach us our responsibilities.
 To have true home we must
 guard well our thoughts and actions.
 A single bitter word may disquiet the 1 home for a whole Aay. Kind words and gentle acts and sweet disposition make glad the home where peace and blessing dwell. It makes no differ ence how humble home may be,
 there is no place like home" Homes are not made up of material
 things. It is not fine house. rich 1 furniture. 8 flowery garden and car
 that make home. An ideal home
 should be Christian home, and where loveflowers bloom ana peace | offerings are daily.
 l The affections and love of home are
 graceful things. especially among the
 poor. The wealthy homes may be l proud, but the poor man, in his hum 1 bIe home, is as true metal, and beans | the stamp of heaven. It is the poetry 1 of human life which means so much l to us.
 By the great opportunity and in fluence we get from> home we should everyone have & mark or aim of life