From A Sermon on "Home"

1886

Ask ten different men the meaning of that word and they will give you ten different definitions.

To one it means love at the hearth, it means plenty at the table, industry at the workstand, intelligence at the books, devotion at the altar. To him it means a greeting at the door and a smile at the chair. Peace hovering like wings. Joy clapping its hands with laughter. Life a tranquil lake. Sleeping shadows pillowed on the ripples.

Ask another man what home is, and he will tell you it is want, looking out of a cheerless firegrate, kneading hunger in an empty bread-tray. The damp air shivering with curses. No Bible on the shelf. Children, robbers and murderers in embryo. Obscene songs their lullaby. Every face a picture of ruin. Want in the background and sin staring from the front. No Sabbath wave rolling ever that doorsill, vestibule of the pit. Shadow of infernal walls. Furnace for forging everlasting chains. Faggots for an unending pile. Awful word! It is spelled with curses, it weeps with ruin, it chokes with woe, it sweats with the death agony of despair.

The word "Home" in the one case means everything bright. The word "Home" in the other case means everything terrific. I shall speak to you this morning of home as a test of character, home as a refuge, home as a political safeguard, home as a school, and home as a type of heaven. — Rev. T. DeWitt Talmage.