Year: 1869

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The Providence Journal says:


Worship is good, whether it be in
the Sunday congregation or the even
ing lecture, the class-meeting OF the
covenant meeting. But then we won.
der whether an evening at home would
not be apro6table thing to mix in with
these. There are traditions of rood
old days; some old people think they
remember the time when mothers used
to gather their children for evenings al
home, and fill up the few hours before
bedtime with instruction in such old
fashioned lore as catechism and com
mandments. Might not an occasiona
evening of that old style instruction
furnish e basis upon which to build il
the numerous religious meetings of these
days? Christian associations and un-
ions and reading rooms are good so faI
as they afford safe and pleasant retreats
for strangers in the city, who are shut
out from the privileges of the home-cir-
Gle, and lure the wandering from the
temptations of vice. But so far as they
lead our youth from the quiet of home,
and create or increase the craving for
publicity, they are not blessings. Bet
ter the few books and well read of our
fathers in quiet homes, than all the
crowded shelves of great Libraries, than
reading rooms filed with the trashy
sensational literature of the day, with
the loss of the home atmosphere. Our
merchants and wealthy employers are
princely in the bestowment Of their
means to build up public Institutions
for the benefit of the homeless. Would
they not do more good at less expense
by making their homes free to their
clerks and employees, and prosiding for
them pleasant social evenings at home.
Lectures are good things when they
are good, and we are ready to applaud
the zeal of rival associations to furnish
the most brilliant array of talent for
their courses of. lectures. Albeit we
must confess that on the whole the
modern lecture has more of chaff than
wheat, that sense has less chance than
sensation, that smartness and sarcasm
are more in demand than strong
thought. But good or bad, they take
evenings. Now what shall be done?-
There are only about six evenings in
the week-Sundays excepted-and if
a man is public spirited and a Chris
tian-as every man ought to be--and
active in all good work-if he attends
the conference meeting and the church
meeting, to say nothing of the vestry
or committee meeting, and is an active
member of the ward temperance socie-
ty; if he attends the lectures of our
course and concerts of our club
the Philharmonic Mozart Hay Men
delssohn Society--and gives an even
ing to the reading room committee of
our Christian Association for Work,
how is he to find time to take tea and
spend an evening with neighbor Jones,
who was married the same winter he
was, or to invite the Browns to spend
an evening with him, or to have good
time with the young folks at home,
even if he isn't an Alderman or a men,
Der of the Common Council? We know
an excellent lady who positively de-
clares that when her husband gets rich
and retires from business, she intends
to get acquainted with him. We
doubt her success, unless before that
time evenings at home become fash
ionabe. Can not some genius, in these
days of invention, contrive week with
about ten evenings in it, so arranged as
not to infringe upon the original heb
domadal week? By some such means
we might possibly secure the much
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