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CHAPTER
11
HOME
WHAT
a hallowed name! How full of enchantment and how dear to the heart! Home is the
magic circle within which the weary spirit finds refuge. Home! That name touches
every fiber of the soul and strikes every cord of the human heart with its
angelic fingers. Nothing but death can break its spell. What
tender associations are linked with home! What pleasing images and deep emotions
it awakens! It calls up the fondest memories of life and opens in our nature the
purest, deepest, richest gush of consecrated thought and feeling. Home of my
childhood! What words fall upon the ear with so much of music in their cadence
as those which recall the scenes of innocent and happy childhood now numbered
with the memories of the past? How fond recollection delights to dwell upon the
events which marked our early pathway when the unbroken home circle presented a
scene of loveliness vainly sought but in the bosom of a happy family!
Intervening years have not dimmed the vivid coloring with which memory has
adorned those joyous hours of youthful innocence. We are again borne on the
wings of imagination to the place made sacred by the remembrance of a father’s
care, a mother’s love, and the cherished associations of brother and sister. Home!
How often we hear persons speak of the home of their childhood. Their minds seem
to delight in dwelling upon the recollection of joyous days spent beneath the
parental roof, when their young and happy hearts were as light and free as the
birds who made the woods resound with the melody of their cheerful voices. What
a blessing it is, when weary with care and burdened with sorrow, to have a home
to which we can go and there, in the midst of friends we love, forget our
troubles and dwell in peace and quietness! There
is music in the word “home.” Among the many songs we are wont to listen to,
there is not one more cherished than the touching melody of “Home, Sweet
Home.” None can tell how often the commission of crime is prevented by the
memories of home and loved ones. If, then, the spell of home is so powerful, how
important it is to make it pleasant and lovable! Many a time a cheerful home and
smiling face do more to make good men and women than all the learning and
eloquence that can be used. How
sweet the words “Mother, Home, and Heaven”! And one might almost say that
the word “home” includes them all; for who can think of home without
remembering the gentle mother who sanctified it by her presence? and is not home
the dearest name for heaven? We think of that better land as a home where
brightness will never end in night. Oh, then, may our homes on earth be the
centers of all our joys; may they be as green spots in the desert, to which we
can retire when weary of the cares and perplexities of life, and drink the clear
water of a love which we know to be sincere and always unfailing. Heaven is to be our eternal home. Through the rich grace of Christ Jesus may we all reach it.
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