New Britain herald., 1924-03-24
TOO MUCH JAzzIN
 THE HOME'OF TODAY
Lack of Parental Influence
 Blamed for Evils of Society

Only $40 men attended the services at Everyman's Bible class yesterday ] The speaker was the Rev. T. Ross | Hicks, prominent Methodist min ister, who spoke on religion and home l life. Rev. John L. Davis was absent l from the city.
 Sometimes live at first sight be- comes divorce at first slight" accord 1 ing to Rev. Mir. Hicks, who accused the newspapers of How ideals" in tile l course Of his address. He said In l part:
 Religion expresses itself through the whole life-eyerything we do, everything we say. everything we think We simply cannot divorce re- ligion from any part of our being. It should begin in the proper place: it should begin in the homo, and the boy or girl who isn't given the anchorage of religion is sadly handicapped as he faces the stern realities and issues of life. "The first place we should think of in connection with religion is not the church, not the Mems Bible class | and the Sunday school. The first place for religion 10 find it's impress sion, the first impressions of religion are made in the home. The Chris tian home is the highest product of society today. the highest product of civilization. In fact there can be no civilization without the home.N
 fsometimes love at first sight be- comes divorce at first slight.
 "The irresponsible young man and carefree young woman come together and take upon themselves the VOWS of married life. Of course there will he disillusionments; they will get to un- derstand each other better after the | first few months and if love is there, that great love that makes home possible, there will be yielding here and there and they will manage to it itheir lives together as a unit even though there may he human weak nesses and some disappointments on | both sides.
 Parents Should Restrain Children T wonder how far the present generation of fathers and mothers is responsible for the conditions - the present conditions, the unlimited free dom of boys and girls today. I am rather thinking that the real reason for some of this freedom, and some Of this undesirable freedom of the boys and girls is the lack Of restraint on the part of the parents. If there's criticism to be placed let's place it where it rightly belongs. X woman complains that her girl does not stay home any more. Someone said, Well, whats the reason?' T don't know?' I remember that on my fathers farm there was a flne herd of cattle. Somo Of the young heifers seemed somehow to get over the fence into the next farm. ! spoke 70 him one day about it. Why do you suppose they are all the time jumping the fence end get. ting into the neishbors farm? And the neighbor said, You don't have forage enough on your side of the fence,' That's tho reason our boys and girls spend their time away from i, home; we don't mskc our homes st- tractire enough for them to stay in. Of course to a certain extent 1t is natural that they should go out and associate with other lives. What kind of an atmosphere do we maintain in our homes? Docs it attract and help 10 keep boys and girls at home or are we indifferent. 50 that they seek their oompanionsiip snd pleasures in al. most any other place except the home. We haye been shifting our responsi. bility We have been turning over oup children to every other institution for training. We send them to Sun day school and expect that the Sun day school will be responsible for tse entire religious training. Parents are God's first teachers and we cannot evade the responsibility of teaching and training our boys and girls in re- ligious things.
 There are chsngcs in the home. of course. In a good many cities today people are living their lives in apart ments Some Of Us remember when We used to live on a farm and ~e had considerable variety Of responsibil- ity We had 10 cut the wood and do the chores. When we want to be warm now we turn on the gas; when we want milk we open the back door and there it is on the steps. Even ,be baking and the preparation of food is largely done outside of the home. We send oud clothes to the laundry. X great many operations that used to be done in the home are done by out side agencies. Perhaps we are not re- sponsible; but because of these changes there have come certain weaknesses; subtle influences have come into the home and made it hard to maintain that delightful and fine Christian spirit in the home that our parents maintained. Then there's sort of propaganda going on at the expense of the home. You who st- tend the theater know that the home snd the marriage relationship is the butt of ell kinds Of jokes Folks do not take the marriage relationship seriously. Cheap magazines arc filled with trashy fnnuendoes against the home. There Is the spirit of freedom in which a man or woman says. T sm going 70 have my ding in fife Perhaps you have read the book, ] do not recall the name now, but The woman simply insisted on having her own way and going her own way. There were three children. a girl and two boys They wouidn't have A ekanre of dndiur out what God was