The Home Council

How Strange It Will Be

How strange it will be, love—how strange, when we two
Shall be what some lovers become;
You frigid and faithless, I cold and untrue—
You thoughtless of me, and I careless of you—
Our pet names grown rusty with nothing to do—
Love’s bright web unravelled, and rent, and worn through,
And life’s loom left empty—ah hum!
Ah, me,
How strange it will be!

How strange it will be, love—how strange, when we meet
With just a chill touch of the hand!
When my pulses no longer delightedly beat
At the thought of your coming, the sound of your feet—
When I watch not your going, far down the long street;
When your dear loving voice, now so thrillingly sweet,
Grows harsh in reproach or command—
Ah, me,
How strange it will be!

How strange it will be, when we willingly stay
Divided the weary day through!
Or, getting remotely apart as we may,
Sit chilly and silent, with nothing to say,
Or coolly converse on the news of the day,
In a wearisome, old-married-folks sort of way!
I shrink from the picture—don’t you?
Ah, me,
How sad it will be!

Dear love, if our hearts do grow torpid and old,
As many others have done;
If we let our love perish with hunger and cold,
If we dim all life’s diamonds, and tarnish its gold,
If we choose to live wretched, and die unconsoled,
‘Twill be strangest of all things that ever were told
As happening under the sun!
Ah, me,
How sad it will be!

—Frank E. Holliday.

Marriage is a holy sacrament; woe unto him who is guilty of desecrating it!

Alternate Reading: Matthew 19:13-14.

Jesus Condemns Hypocrites

“Alas for you, Teachers of the Law and Pharisees, hypocrites that you are! You clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are filled with the results of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the dish, so that the outside may become clean as well. You are like white-washed tombs, which indeed look fair outside, while inside they are filled with dead men’s bones and all kinds of filth. It is the same with you. Outwardly, and to others, you have the look of religious men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and sin. Alas for you, Teachers of the Law and Pharisees, hypocrites that you are! You build the tombs of the Prophets, and decorate the monuments of religious men, and say, ‘Had we been living in the days of our ancestors, we should have taken no part in their murder of the Prophets!’ By doing this you are furnishing evidence against yourselves that you are true children of the men who murdered the Prophets. Fill up the measure of your ancestors’ guilt. You serpents and brood of vipers! How can you escape being sentenced to the Pit? That is why I send you prophets, wise men, and Teachers of the Law, some of whom you will crucify and kill, and some of whom you will scourge in your Synagogues, and persecute from town to town; in order that upon your heads may fall every drop of innocent ‘blood spilt on earth,’ from the blood of innocent Abel down to that of Zechariah, Barachiah’s son, whom you murdered between the Temple and the altar. All this, I tell you, will come home to the present generation.

Jesus Laments The Fate Of Jerusalem

“Jerusalem! Jerusalem! she who slays the Prophets and stones the messengers sent to her—Oh, how often have I wished to gather your children round me, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not come! Verily, your House is left to you desolate! For nevermore, I tell you, shall you see me, until you say—

“Blessed is The One Coming in the Name of the Lord!”

—Matthew.

Declaration Of Faith

I trust in the living God, Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and earth and of all things and creatures visible and invisible. I trust in the kindness of His law and the goodness of His work. I will strive to love Him and keep His law and see His work while I live. I trust in the nobleness of human nature, in the majesty of its faculties, the fullness of its mercy, and the joy of its love. And I will strive to love my neighbor as myself, and even when I cannot, I will act as if I did. I will not kill or hurt any living creature needlessly, nor destroy any beautiful thing, but will strive to save and comfort all gentle life and guard and perfect all natural beauty on earth. I will strive to raise my own body and soul daily into all the higher powers of duty and happiness, not in rivalship and contention with others, but for the help, delight, and honor of others and for the joy and peace of my own life.

—John Ruskin.

Humanity As It Is

Once in a while, in order that I may be informed in this matter of marital advantage—or disadvantage—I climb as high as I can in the ether of disinterestedness and train my eyes on the domesticity below. And this I see: many houses and few homes; many men and women living together and few real husbands and wives; crowds of accidental offspring and only now and then a child who is the result of spiritual conspiracy planned in the star chamber of intelligence and love— love so sure of its own worth and divinity that it longs for perpetuation in the ampler life of another and later soul.

—Richard Wightman.

Alternate Reading: Matthew 18:1-9.

The Value Of Time

He that is choice of his time will also be choice of his company, and choice of his actions; lest the first engage him in vanity and loss, and the latter, by being criminal, be a throwing his time and himself away, and a going back in the accounts of eternity.

God hath given to man a short time here upon earth, and yet upon this short time eternity depends; and so for every hour of our time we must give an account to the great Judge of men and angels.

—Jeremy Taylor.

For To-Morrow And Its Needs

Lord, for to-morrow and its needs
I do not pray;
Keep me, my God, from stain of sin
Just for to-day.
Help me to labor earnestly,
And duly pray;
Let me be kind in word and deed,
Father, to-day.

Let me no wrong or idle word
Unthinking say;
Set thou a seal upon my lips
Through all to-day.
Let me in season, Lord, be grave,
In season gay;
Let me be faithful to Thy grace,
Dear Lord, to-day.

—Ernest Wilberforce.

Sinful thoughts are even more dangerous than sin itself.

—The Talmud.

Alternate Reading: Matthew 17:14-20.

The New Commandment

My children, I am to be with you but a little while longer. I give you a new commandment—Love one another; love one another just as I have loved you. It is by this that every one will recognize you as my disciples —by the love you bear one another.

—Jesus.

Ruskin’s Idea Of A Satisfactory Life

It may be proved, with much certainty, that God intends no man to live in the world without working; but it seems to me not less evident that He intends every man to be happy in his work. It is written, ” In the sweat of thy brow “—but it was never written ” in the breaking of thine heart “—” thou shalt eat bread.” And I find that as, on the one hand, infinite misery is caused by idle people who both fail in doing what was appointed for them to do and set in motion various springs of mischief in matters in which they should have had no concern, so, on the other hand, no small misery is caused by overworked and unhappy people, in the dark views which they necessarily take upon themselves and force upon others of work itself. Were it not so, I believe the fact of their being unhappy is in itself a violation of the divine law and a sign of some kind of folly or sin in their way of life. Now, in order that people may be happy in their work, these three things are needed: They must be fit for it; they must not do too much of it; and they must have a sense of success in it—not a doubtful sense, such as needs some testimony of other people for its confirmation, but a sure sense, or, rather, knowledge, that so much work has been done well, and fruitfully done, whatever the world may say or think about it.

—John Ruskin.

A Purblind Race

O purblind race of miserable men,
How many among us even at this hour
Do forge a lifelong trouble for ourselves
By taking true for false, or false for true?

—Alfred Tennyson.

Alternate Reading: Matthew 17:1-13.

Right Relations With God

Jesus, speaking to the crowds and to his disciples, said:

“The Teachers of the Law and the Pharisees now occupy the chair of Moses. Therefore practise and lay to heart everything that they tell you, but do not follow their example, for they preach but do not practise. While they make up heavy loads and pile them on other men’s shoulders, they decline, themselves, to lift a finger to move them. All their actions are done to attract attention. They widen their phylacteries, and increase the size of their tassels, and like to have the place of honor at dinner, and the best seats in the Synagogues, and to be greeted in the markets with respect, and to be called Rabbi by everybody. But do not you allow yourselves to be called Rabbi, for you have only one Teacher, and you yourselves are all Brothers. And do not call any one on the earth your Father, for you have only one Father, the heavenly Father. Nor must you allow yourselves to be called Leaders, for you have only one Leader, the Christ The man who would be the greatest among you must be your servant. Whoever shall exalt himself will be humbled, and whoever shall humble himself will be exalted.

—Matthew.

A good home is the noblest monument anyone can build.

Loveliness Within

Never mind, children dear, about plainness of face,
But strive all you can to be lovely within,
And the beautiful spirit will clothe you with grace,
And this is a joy every mortal can win.

—Celia Thaxter.

The Life Sublime

We all live in the sublime. Where else can we live? That is the only place of life. Though you have but a little room, do you fancy that God is not there, too, and it is impossible to live therein a life that shall be somewhat lofty? Do you imagine that you can possibly be alone, that love can be a thing one knows, a thing one sees; that events can be weighed like the gold and silver of ransom?

—Maurice Maeterlinck.

God Working

Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment:
Who stretchest out the heavens like a curtain.
Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters:
Who maketh the clouds his chariot:
Who walketh upon the wings of the wind:
Who maketh his angels spirits;
His ministers a flaming fire.

—Psalms.

Vicarious Living

As for myself, my blood is being shed already; the time of my departure is close at hand. I have run the great Race, I have completed the Course, I have preserved the Faith. And now the wreath awaits me, the reward for righteousness, which the Lord, the just Judge, will give me on That Day—and not only to me, but to all who have loved His Appearing.

—Paul.

God’s Bookkeeping

Do not five sparrows sell for a penny? and yet not one of them has escaped God’s notice. No, the very hairs of your heads are all counted. Do not be afraid, then; you are of more value than many sparrows.

—Jesus.

Alternate Reading: Matthew 16: 24-28.

Where Character Grows Best

Stay, stay at home, my heart, and rest;
Home-keeping hearts are happiest,
For those that wander they know not where
Are full of trouble and full of care;
To stay at home is best.

Weary and homesick and distressed,
They wander east, they wander west,
And are baffled and beaten and blown about
By the winds of the wilderness of doubt;
To stay at home is best.

Then stay at home, my heart, and rest;
The bird is safest in its nest;
O’er all that flutter their wings and fly
A hawk is hovering in the sky;
To stay at home is best.

—Henry W. Longfellow.

Home—the place on earth where the faults and failures of humanity are hidden under the sweet mantle of charity.

—Anon.

Too Busy To Be Happy

(Every American should ponder these wise words of a great Chinese Admiral.)

You Americans are too busy to be happy. You do not seem to understand the real meaning of the word happiness. Joy, exhilaration, pleasure, physical comfort are yours in abundance. But quiet, restful contentment and happiness are strangers to you. Happiness implies tranquility. You are always in a rush, as if God could not get along without your immediate aid. Neither are you ever satisfied with what you have or do. In the end you often win too much,—too much of everything but the one essential thing—LIFE!

—Admiral Tsai Ting-Kano.

Alternate Reading: Matthew 15: 21-28.

Immortality

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting;
The soul that rises with us, our life’s star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar:
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God, who is our home:
Heaven lies about us in our infancy!
Shades of the prison house begin to close
Upon the growing boy,
But he beholds the light and whence it flows,
He sees it in his joy;
The youth, who daily from the east
Must travel, still is nature’s priest,
And by the vision splendid
Is on his way attended;
At length the man perceives it die away,
And fade into the light of common day.

—William Wordsworth.

Life A Working Day

Man’s life is but a working day
Whose tasks are set aright;
A time to work, a time to pray,
And then a quiet night.
And then, please God, a quiet night
Where palms are green and robes are white;
A long-drawn breath, a balm for sorrow,
And all things lovely on the morrow.

—Christina G. Rossetti.

Light Through Service

Could we by a wish
Have what we will and get the future now,
Would we wish aught done undone in the past?
So, let him wait God’s instant men call years;
Meantime hold hard by truth and his great soul,
Do out the duty! Through such souls alone
God stooping shows sufficient of His light
For us i’ the dark to rise by. And I rise!

—Robert Browning.

Alternate Reading: Matthew 14:13-21.

Jesus Leaves Little For The Emperor

Then the Pharisees went away and conferred together as to how they might lay a snare for Jesus in the course of conversation. They sent their disciples, with Herodians, to say to him:

“Teacher, we know that you are an honest man, and that you teach the Way of God honestly, and are not afraid of any one; for you pay no regard to a man’s position. Tell us, then, what you think. Are we right in paying taxes to the Emperor, or not?”

Perceiving their malice, Jesus answered:

“Why are you testing me, you hypocrites? Show me the coin with which the tax is paid.” And, when they had brought him a florin he asked:

“Whose head and title are these?”

“The Emperor’s,” they answered: on which he said to them:

“Then pay to the Emperor what belongs to the Emperor, and to God what belongs to God.”

They wondered at his answer, and left him alone and went away.

—Matthew.

Three Steps Of Life

Three steps there are our human life must climb.
The first is Force.
The savage struggled to it from the slime
And still it is our last, ashamed recourse.

Above that jagged stretch of red-veined stone
Is marble Law,
Carven with long endeavor, monotone
Of patient hammers, not yet free from flaw.

Three steps there are our human life must climb.
The last is Love,
Wrought from such starry element sublime
As touches the White Rose and Mystic Dove.

—Katherine L. Bates.