Year: 1868

We could write o sermon on The atmos-
phere of homes. That such a sermon
ought to be written, and scattered
broadcast over the land we are becom-
ing more and more convinced. 1t
ought to be given in such thrilling
words as would search their way into
every parents heart. Home atmos-
phere feed the life of generations to
come. In them all there will be, there
must be, elements which will greatly
iniure all who partake Of them. But
as we have not space for the sermon,
we will give an extract from one By
Robert Collyer on Healing and Hurt
/ ing Shadows" 1t speaks thus beauti-
fully OF the home-shadows:


Friends, l wonder whether we have
any deep consciousness of the shadows
We are weaving about our children iu
the home whether We ever ask our
selves, if, in the far future, when we
are dead and gone, the shadow our
home casts now will stretch over them
for bane or blessing. 1t is possible we
are full of anxiety to do our best, and
to make our homes sacred to the chill
" = maIAN AlACLE W COfllf uD ElN0A
to turn out good men and women, to be
an honor and praise TO the home out of
which they sprung. But this is the
pity and the danger, that, while we
may not come short IN any real duty of
father and mother, we may yet cast no
healing and sscranantal shadow over
the child. Believe me, friends. it was
not in the words he said, in the pres.
sure of the hand, in the kiss, that the
blessing lay Jesus gave to the little
| ones, when he took them in his arms


So it is not in these, but in the shadow
of my Innermost, holiest self; in that
which IS to US what the perfume is to
the flower, soul within the soul,-it
is that which, to the child, and in the
] home, is more than the tongue Of men
or angles, or prophecy or knowledge,
or faith that will move mountains, or
devotion that will give the body to be
burned. look back with wonder on
that old time and ask myself how it il
! that most of the thugs | suppose my
j father and mother built on especially
/ to mould me to right manhood arf
forgotten and lost out of my life. But
( the thing they hardly ever thought of
the shadow of blessing cast by the
home the tender, unspoken love; the
I sacrifices made, and never thought of
: it was so natural TO make them; ter


thousand little things, so simple as tc
/ attract no notice. and yet so sublime a.
II look back at -them.-they fill my
! heart still and always with tenderness
: when l remember them, and my eyei
I with tears. All these things, and al
that belong to them, still come oyel
me, and cast the shadow that forty
years, many Of them lived in new
world, csnnot destroy.


fear, few parents know what 6
supreme and holy thing is this shadow
cast by the home, over, especially the
/ first seven years of this life of the child
| l think the influence that comes il
this way is the very breadth and bread
of life. may do other things for duty
or principle or religious training they
are all by comparison, as when I cut
and trim and train vine; and when
let the sun shine and the rain fall on it
the one may add the life, the other Is
the life. Steele and string are each
good in their place; but what are they
to sunshine? II is said, that a child
hearing once of Heaven, and that his
father would be there, replied, 40
then, dirna want to gang" He did
not express the holy instinct of child
TO whom the father may be all that il
good, except just goodness-be all any
child can want. except what is indis-
peusahle-that gracious atmosphere OF
blessing in the healing shadow II casts
without which even Heaven would
CONS to be intolerable."