The Home Council

Correct Living

Begin your day with this reflection: I shall meet the meddler, the ingrate, the scorner, the envious one, the cynic. Yet these men are thus because they know not how to distinguish between good and evil. But I, who am able to discern the quality of goodness, that it is beautiful, and of evil, that it is loathsome, know also the real being of the wrong-doer that he is kindred to me; not kindred in blood or race, but partaker in intelligence and part also of the Divine.

None of these men can harm me, for none of these can force upon me the evil that I hate. I cannot, then, be angry with my kinsmen nor scorn them. For we are all made to work together, like feet, hands, eyelids, the rows of the upper and lower teeth. Not to work together, therefore, is against nature. And to be vexed with and scorn one another is to strive against one another.

Our life is but a point in time; our bodies hasten to their decreed decay; the future is a mystery, and glory is vanity. Life itself is a battle, or the sojourn of a traveler. What, then, shall guide man aright? One thing, and one thing alone—the love of wisdom. And this is wisdom to keep the Divine spirit within us serene, undefiled, high above pleasure and pain; acting always thoughtfully, simply, sincerely; not dependent upon another man’s action or inaction; accepting all that befalls us or is decreed unto us as coming thence whence we ourselves have come.

Be always doing something serviceable to mankind, and let this constant generosity be your only pleasure, not forgetting in the meantime a due regard to the Deity.

—Marcus Aurelius Antonius.

Spiritual Rivalry

Be good at the depths of you, and you will discover that those who surround you will be good even to the same depths. Therein lies a force that has no name; a spiritual rivalry that has no resistance.

—Maurice Maeterlinck.

How To Honor God

I have honored Thee on the earth by completing the work which Thou hast given me to do; and now do Thou honor me, Father.

—Jesus.

Growing Old Gracefully

The noble soul in old age returns to God as to that port whence she set forth on the sea of this life. And as the good mariner, when he approaches port, furls his sails, and with slow course gently enters it, so should we furl the sails of our worldly affairs and turn to God with our whole mind and heart, so that we may arrive at that port with all sweetness and peace. And in regard to this we have from our own nature a great lesson of sweetness, that in such a death as this there is no pain nor any bitterness, but as a ripe fruit is easily and without violence detached from its twig, so our soul without affliction is parted from the body in which it has been. And just as to him who comes from a long journey, before he enters into the gate to his city, the citizens thereof go forth to meet him, so the citizens of the eternal life come to meet the noble soul; and they do so through her good deeds and contemplations: for having now rendered herself to God, and withdrawn herself from worldly affairs and thoughts, she seems to see whom she believes to be nigh unto God.

The noble soul then at this age renders herself to God and awaits the end of life with great desire; and it seems to her that she is leaving the inn and returning to her own house, it seems to her that she is leaving the road and returning to the city, it seems to her that she is leaving the sea and returning to port.

And also the noble soul at this age blesses the past times; and well may she bless them, because revolving them through her memory she recalls her right deeds, without which she could not arrive with such great riches or so great gain at the port to which she is approaching. And she does like the good merchant, who when he draws near his port, examines his getting, and says: “had I not passed along such a way, I should not have this treasure, nor have gained that which I may enjoy in my city to which I am drawing near”; and therefore he blesses the way which he has come.

—Dante.

Alternate Reading: Psalms 16: 5-9.

Life’s Heaviest Loss

Upon the white sea sand
There sat a pilgrim band,
Telling the losses that their lives had known,
While evening waned away
From breesy cliff and bay,
And the strong tides went out with weary moan.

Some talked of vanished gold;
Some, of proud honors told;
Some spoke of friends that were their trust no more,
And one, of a green grave
Beside a foreign wave,
That made him sit so lonely on the shore.

But when their tales were done,
There spake among them one,
A stranger, seeming from all sorrow free:
“Sad losses have ye met,
But mine is heavier yet,
For a believing heart hath gone from me!”

“Alas,” those pilgrims said,
“For the living and the dead;
For fortune’s cruelty and love’s sure cross;
For the wrecks of land and sea!
But, however it came to thee,
Thine, stranger, is life’s last and heaviest loss.”

—Francis Brown.

The Hour Of Decision

Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide,
In the strife of Truth with Falsehood, for the good or evil side;
Some great cause, God’s new Messiah offering each the bloom or blight,
Parts the goats upon the left hand, and the sheep upon the right;
And the choice goes by forever ‘twixt that darkness and that light.

—James Russell Lowell.

Alternate Reading: Matthew 13: 36-52.

Jesus Talks With The Chief Priests

After Jesus had come into the Temple Courts, the Chief Priests and the Councillors of the nation came up to him as he was teaching, and said:

“What authority have you to do these things? Who gave you this authority?”

“I, too,” said Jesus in reply, “will ask you one question; if you will give me an answer to it, then I, also, will tell you what authority I have to act as I do. It is about John’s baptism. What was its origin? divine or human?”

“If we say ‘divine,’ he will say to us, ‘Why, then, did you not believe him?’ But if we say ‘human,’ we are afraid of the people, for every one regards John as a prophet.”

So the answer they gave Jesus was—”We do not know.”

“Then I,” he said, “refuse to tell you what authority I have to do these things. What do you think of this?

Parable Of The Two Sons

“There was a man who had two sons. He went to the elder and said, ‘Go and work in the vineyard to-day, my son.’

“‘Yes, sir,” he answered; but he did not go. Then the father went to the second son, and said the same. ‘I will not,’ he answered; but afterwards he was sorry and went. Which of the two sons did as his father wished?”

“The second,” they said.

“I tell you,” added Jesus, “that tax-gatherers and prostitutes are going into the Kingdom of God before you. For when John came to you, walking in the path of righteousness, you did not believe him, but taxgatherers and prostitutes did; and yet you, though you saw this, even then were not sorry, nor did you believe him.”

—Matthew.

The Most Valuable Land

A hundred foot lot with a home is worth more than a million homeless acres.

Be not simply good,—be good for something.

—Henry D. Thoreau.

That Only Is Important Which Is Eternal

Over the triple doors of the Cathedral of Milan there are three inscriptions spanning the arches. Over one is carved a wreath of roses with the legend, “all that which pleases is but for a moment.” Over another is sculptured a cross accompanied by the words, “all that which troubles is but for a moment.” But on the great central entrance to the main aisle is the inscription, “That only is important which is eternal.”

What is the goal of life? We may answer the question by asking another, and tiying to live up to an affirmative answer: Are we tender, loving, self-denying, and honest, trying to fashion our lives after that of the model Man of Nazareth,—the first true gentleman that ever breathed?

—O. S. Marden.

Marriage

Marriage on earth seems such a counterfeit,
Mere imitation of the inimitable;
In heaven we have the real and true and sure;
‘Tis there they neither marry nor are given
In marriage, but are as the angels; right,
O how right that is, how like Jesus Christ
To say that! Marriage making for the earth,
With gold so much,—birth, power, repute so much,
Or beauty, youth so much, in like of these!
Be as the angels, rather, who, apart,
Know themselves into one, are found at length
Married, but marry never, no, nor give
In marriage; they are man and wife at once
When the true time is; here we have to wait.
Not so long, neither!

—Robert Browning.

Alternate Reading: Matthew 13: 23-30.

Moses And The Worm

The great Moses, the man of God, came to his tent one day,
And called his wife, Safurja, and his children from their play.
“O Sweetest orphaned children! O dearest widowed wife!
We meet, dear ones, no more on earth, for this day ends my life.
Jehovah sent His angel down, and told me to prepare—”
Then swooned Safurja on the ground; the children in despair
Said, weeping, “Who will care for us, when you, dear father, go?”
And Moses wept and sobbed aloud to see his children’s woe.
But then Jehovah spoke from Heaven, “And dost thou fear to die?
And dost thou love this world so well that thus I hear thee cry?”
And Moses said: “I fear not death; I leave this world with joy;
And yet my heart would break for my dear orphaned girl and boy.”
“In whom, then, did thy mother trust, when in thy basket-boat,
An infant on the Nile’s broad stream, all helpless thou didst float?
In whom didst thou thyself confide when by the raging sea
The host of Pharaoh came in sight? “Then Moses said, “In Thee!
In Thee, O Lord, I now confide, as I confided then.”
And God replied, “Go to the shore; lift up thy staff again.”
Then Moses lifted up his rod; the sea rolled wide away,
And in the midst a mighty rock, black and uncovered, lay.
“Smite thou the rock!” said God again. The rock was rent apart,
And then appeared a little worm, close nestled to its heart.
The worm cried, “Praise to God on high, who hears His creatures’ moan,
Nor did forget the little worm concealed within the stone!”
“If I remember,” said the Lord, “the worm beneath the sea,
Shall I forget thy children, who love and honor Me?”

—J. G. Von Herder.

Already And Always Members Of God’s Family

Dear Friends, we are God’s children now; what we shall be in the future has not yet been revealed. What we do know is that, if it should be revealed, we shall be like Christ; because we shall see him as he really is. And every one who has this hope in regard to Christ tries to make himself pure—pure as Christ is.

—John.

Alternate Reading: Psalms 91.

The Awakening Of Immortality

Through the midnight heavens an angel flew,
And a soft low song sang he,
And the moon and the stars and the rolling clouds
Heard that holy melody.

He sang of the bliss of sinless souls
‘Neath the tents of Eden-bowers;
Of God—the Great One—he sang; and unfeigned
Was his praise of Jehovah’s powers.

A little babe in his arms he bore,
For this world of woe and tears;
And the sound of his song in the soul of the child
Kept ringing, though wordless, for years.

And long languished she on this earth below,
With a wondrous longing filled,
But the world’s harsh songs could not change for her
The notes which that angel trilled.

—M. Y. Lermontov.

Two Angels Note The Deeds Of Men

They have a saying in the East:—
Two angels note the deeds of men,
And one is first, and one is least.
When men do right, one takes his pen
And magnifies the deed to ten.
This angel is at God’s right hand,
And holds the other in command.
He says to him when men do wrong, “The man was weak, temptation strong,—
Write not the record down to-day;
To-morrow he may grieve and pray.”
It may be myth; but this is sooth—
No ruth is lasting as God’s ruth;
The strongest is the tenderest;
He who best knows us loves us best.

—M. R. Knight.

Alternate Reading: Matthew 13:1-21.

Jesus In The Temple

Jesus went into the Temple Courts, and drove out all those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money-changers, and the seats of the pigeon-dealers, and said to them:

“Scripture says—

“‘My House shall be called a House of Prayer’;

but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.'”

While he was still in the Temple Courts, some blind and some lame people came up to him, and he cured them. But, when the Chief Priests and the Teachers of the Law saw the wonderful things that Jesus did, and the boys who were calling out in the Temple Courts “God save the Son of David!” they were indignant, and said to him:

“Do you hear what these boys are saying?”

“Yes,” answered Jesus; “but did you never read the words—

“‘Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings thou hast called forth perfect praise’?”

Then he left them, and went out of the city to Bethany, and spent the night there.

—Matthew.

Future generations will cherish the homes of their great characters above all other shrines of patriotism.

Lost, Two Golden Hours

Lost, yesterday, somewhere between sunrise and sunset, two golden hours, each set with sixty diamond minutes. No reward offered, for they are gone forever.

—Horace Mann.

The Home Builder

She built it herself; and yet she did not know that she had a monument. She lived in it; but she did not know that it existed.

She never dreamed that she was great; or that she was specially useful; or that she had achieved anything worth living for. Sometimes, when she read the stories of historic heroines, she, too, had her “dream of fair women,” and looked with a sigh upon her life made up of little deeds, so little that even she who did them was not conscious of the doing, she whose loom moved so noiselessly that she neither thought how long die was at it nor what a beautiful pattern she was weaving. Indeed, it would have seemed to her, if she had ever thought about herself or her work, to weave itself. But she did not think about herself. Self-consciousness would have destroyed her monument.

Her monument was her home. It grew up quietly, as quietly as a flower grows; and no one knew, she did not know herself, how much she had done to tend and water and train it. She began to build the monument in her teens. She did not finish it until she lay down to her last rest.

—Lyman Abbott.

God’s Partiality To The Home

Search everywhere and you will find that God has reserved the sweetest joys for the home alone.

For The Common Good

When shall all men’s good
Be each man’s rule, and universal peace
Lie like a shaft of light across the land,
And like a lane of beams athwart the sea.
Through all the circle of the golden year?

—Alfred Tennyson.

Alternate Reading: Matthew 12: 46-50.

When The Heart Is Full Of Love

There is beauty in the forest
When the leaves are green and fair;
There is beauty in the meadow
Where the wild flowers scent the air;
There is beauty in the sunlight
And the soft blue sky above;
Oh, the world is full of beauty,
When the heart is full of love.

—W. L. Smith.

Love As The Key To Life

Do not wonder, Brothers, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed out of Death into Life, because we love our Brothers. The man who does not love remains in a state of Death. Every one who hates his Brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has Immortal Life within him.

We have learnt to know what love is from this— that Christ laid down his life on our behalf. Therefore we also ought to lay down our lives on behalf of our Brothers. But, if any one has worldly possessions, and yet looks on while his Brother is in want, and steels his heart against him, how can it be said that the love of God is within him? My children, do not let our love be mere words, or end in talk; let it be true and show itself in acts.

By that we shall know that we are on the side of the Truth; and we shall satisfy ourselves in God’s sight, that if our conscience condemns us, yet God is greater than our conscience and knows everything. Dear friends, if our conscience does not condemn us, then we approach God with confidence, and we receive from him whatever we ask, because we are laying his commands to heart, and are doing what is pleasing in his sight. His command is this—that we should put our trust in the Name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, in accordance with the command that he gave us. And he who lays his commands to heart maintains union with Christ, and Christ with him. And by this we know that Christ maintains union with us—by our possession of the Spirit which he gave us.

—John.