. It is only a heathen lodging
place, by J. R. Miller. Parents are the custodians
of their children's lives. If they would meet their responsibility
and be able to look God and their children in the face at the judgment,
they must make their homes as nearly gardens of Eden as possible. The way to save your children
from the temptations of the streets is to make your home so bright,
so sweet, so beautiful, so happy, so full of love, joy, and prayer,
that the streets will have no attractiveness for them, no power
to win them away. Do not be overcome by evil, but
overcome evil with good. Romans 12, 21. The place of the home life among
the influences which mould and shape character is supreme in
its importance. Our children are given to us
in tender infancy to teach them and train them for holy, worthy,
beautiful living. It is not enough to have an opulent
house to live in, it is not enough to have fine foods and luxurious
furniture and expensive entertainments. Most of the world's worthiest
men and women, those who have blessed the world the most, were
brought up in plain homes, without any luxury. It is the tone of
the home life that is important. We should make it pure, elevating,
refining, inspiring. The books we bring in, the papers
and magazines, the guests we have at our tables and admit
to our firesides, the home conversation, the pictures we hang on our walls,
all these are educational. As in everything, love is the
great master secret of home happiness. The religious influences are
also vitally important. In that first garden home, the
Lord came and went as a familiar friend. Christ must be our guest,
if our home is to be a fit place, either for our children or for
ourselves. If there is no sincere prayer
in it, it is not a true home at all. It is only a heathen
lodging place. How can we make new Edens of
our homes? What are some of the secrets
of home happiness? I might gather them all into
one word and say, Christ. If we have Christ as our guest,
our home will be happy. He must be welcomed into our
life. He must be in each heart. He
must sit at our tables and mingle with us in all our family interaction. Christ can bless our home only
through the lives of those who make the home circle. Make your
home so sweet, so heavenly, with love and prayer and song and
holy living, that all through it there shall be the fragrance
of the heart of Christ.