Lights and Shadows of American Life

“Domestic happiness thou only bliss Of Paradise that has survived the fall.’’’’

Cowper.

“Ho7ne is the resort Of love, of Joy, of peace and plenty, where, Supporting and supported, polished friends A?id dear relations mingle into bliss

Thomson.

“Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness.^’’ Psalm 112: 4.

The world owes to Christianity all that is meant by motherhood, fatherhood, brotherhood, sisterhood, and wifehood. Canon Farrar says that in all the ancient classics there is no reference to the joys of childhood, and for the very good reason that the childhood of the ancients had little joy in it. The Roman’s child was counted among his household goods. In Sparta the child was the property of the state rather than of the parents, and a father had as much right to correct the children of his neighbor as his own. Home life was nothing, and to-day in some languages there is little difference between the meaning of home and house. Wherever the Bible is honored, as in England, the real home exists, but where the Bible is not read, even in so-called Christian countries, as in France, there is little of home life. When, therefore, you hear an infidel speaking in praise of home and magnifying its

II sweetness and joy, while he rejects the Bible, and refuses to honor Christ, write after his name in great black letters, the word IN-GRATE.

In America, where there is such a mixture of all nationalities, we need not be surprised to find that the home life is esteemed by some, while it is held in contempt by others. The Englishman carries in his heart wherever he goes the sacredness of his home, while the Frenchman is apt to take with him nothing more sacred than a house. In our American life, however, the home is the foundation of the church and the state. As the homes are pure, the churches will be prosperous, and the state permanent.

The fourth verse of the ii2th Psalm gives us the foundation principle of home happiness. “Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness.” Everything depends upon uprightness of purpose, thought, character, and that implies right relation between husband and wife, parent and child, brother and sister, master and servant. In proportion as this right relation exists, the home is full of light; when wrong relation exists, it is certain to be full of darkness.

A dark shadow in many American homes is the disobedience of children to parents. Some parents are bringing up their children in the way they should not go. God commended Abraham because he taught his children obedience, and if obedience is not taught in your home, you are training future anarchists and criminals. If the child does not obey the parent, he is not apt to obey God or the state. It is the duty of every parent to teach his children the relation between obedience and reward, disobedience and punishment. There is a sickly sentimentalism prevalent in some quarters which says that a child should never be punished. Paul asks the question, “What son is he whom the father chasteneth not?” and he declares that such chastisement is the proof of true sonship, for “if ye be without chastisement, then are ye bastards and not sons.” “Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth,” and the father that does not lovingly chasten a child for disobedience is not a true father. Solomon spake truly when he said “he that spareth his rod hateth his son, but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.” I know that Solomon’s advice is considered by some as out of date, old fogyish, but I am simple enough to believe that when he wrote those words he was inspired of God, and he spoke a principle that applies to all ages of the world.

Someone asked a mother if she believed in the laying on of hands for the cure of diseases.

She said she did, for she had effectually cured her boy of smoking cigarettes in that way. Whatever you may think of the laying on of hands as a religious ceremony, if you love your child you must not withhold the proper punishment for disobedience. Let it never be done in anger. If you are mad, cool off, take a shower-bath, sit down and think, wait till to-morrow, do anything rather than provoke a child to wrath by your own hot temper.

Another shadow is discord between husband and wife. I have just noticed in the newspapers that a young man failed to appear when the hour of his marriage came, because his bride objected to his wearing russet shoes and a black tie. It was not said which one prevailed, though there were mutual explanations, and the marriage took place. I fear that the home will be full of shadows. Where tastes are different and each one asserts and magnifies the difference, there can be no harmony, and where there is no harmony there is no happiness.

That there may be harmony. Christian marriages should be in the Lord. “Be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers.” A Christian should not marry an atheist or an infidel. This does not apply to non-church members, for there are many such in sympathy with Christianity, and would like to be Christians. But it does apply with tremendous emphasis to those who are open opponents of Christianity like those around the church to which Paul was writing. At your peril marry one who does not hesitate to express his opposition to the Christ you love. All honor to the Baltimore girl who, a few years ago, returned the engagement ring to her affianced as soon as she learned that he belonged to an infidel club. It brought him to his senses and led him to think seriously of a subject which he had flippantly despised, and the result was his conversion.

It goes without saying that drink is the shadow in many a home, and it is a sad fact that social drinking customs are on the increase. We have spent so much time discussing the political phase of the drink traffic, and advocating prohibition, that we have neglected, I fear, to train the young in the principles of total abstinence. The decanter and the demijohn are going again into the homes of not a few Christian people. I plead with you by the agonies of a drunkard’s wife, and the disgrace of a drunkard’s child, and the terrors of a drunkard’s hell, to keep the accursed stufT out of your homes.

Another shadow in some American homes is extravagance, living beyond one’s income.

Receiving $5 a week and spending $6 means misery sooner or later. It means inability to pay debts, and the loss of manliness that follows. Receiving an income of five thousand dollars and spending five thousand and fifty will bring a shadow. Better a humble home in a cottage, or a garret, with bread and water paid for, than a palace splendidly furnished and supported by an outlay that fills your life with perplexity and burden.

And that brings me to say that one of the common home shadows is everlasting worry. Stanley tells us that few of his men were killed by elephants and tigers. They suffered most from the “jiggers,” little insects that it takes a microscope to sec. They get under the nails and the skin, producing irritation that frequently causes death. The “jiggers” of life worry many people into their graves. I read some time ago the experience of a hunter who shot a tiger, and thought he had killed him, but, on his approaching, the tiger sprang up and seizing the hunter by the knee, crushed the bone, and then fell back dead. The hunter found himself unable to walk, and his cries were not heard. After a few hours, however, he forgot the tiger and even the broken bones in his terrific struggle with thousands of little ants. They covered him, and every nerve seemed to be bored with a hot awl. But for timely rescue he had soon been killed by the ants.

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