The Home Council

The Best Picture

Oh, good painter, tell me true,
Has your hand the cunning to draw
Shapes of things that you never saw?
Aye? Well, here is an order for you.

When you have done
With woods and corn fields and gracing herds,
A lady, the loveliest ever the sun
Looked down upon you must paint for me:
Oh, if I only could make you see
The clear blue eyes, the tender smile,
The sovereign sweetness, the gentle grace,
The woman’s soul, and the angel’s face
That are beaming on me all the while
I need not speak these foolish words:
Yet one word tells you all I would say,—
She is my mother: you will agree
That all the rest may be thrown away.

—Alice Cary.

Greatness Measured By Service

Jesus called the ten to him, and said:

“Those who are regarded as ruling among the Gentiles lord it over them, as you know, and their great men oppress them. But among you it is not so. No, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to take the first place among you must be the servant of all; for even the Son of Man came, not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

—Mark.

The home and civilization will perish together.

The Confusion Of Values

For a cap and bells our lives we pay.
Bubbles we buy with a whole soul’s tasking,
‘Tis heaven alone that is given away,
‘Tis only God that may be had for the asking.

—James Russell Lowell.

A Prayer For Mothers

O God, we offer Thee praise and benediction for the sweet ministries of motherhood in human life. We bless Thee for our own dear mothers who built up our lives by theirs; who bore us in travail and loved us the more for the pain we gave; who nourished us at their breast and hushed us to sleep in the warm security of their arms. We thank Thee for their tireless love, for their voiceless prayers, for the agony with which they followed us through our sins and won us back, for the Christly power of sacrifice and redemption in mother-love. We pray to forgive us if in thoughtless selfishness we have taken their love as our due without giving the tenderness which they craved as their sole reward. And if the great treasure of a mother’s life is still spared to us, may we do for her feebleness what she did for ours.

We remember before Thee all the good women who are now bearing the pain and weariness of maternity. Grant them strength of body and mind for their new tasks. Widen their vision that they may see themselves, not as the mothers of one child alone, but as the patriot women of the nation, who alone can build up the better future with fresh and purer life. Put upon the girls of our people the awe of their future calling, that they may preserve their bodies and minds in purity and strength for the holy task to which the future may summon them.

Bestow Thy special grace, we beseech Thee, on all women who have the yearnings of motherhood, but whose lives are barren of its joys. If any form of human sins has robbed them of the prize of life, grant them righteous anger and valiant hearts to fight that sin on behalf of those who come after them. Help them to overcome the bitterness of disappointment and to find an outlet for their thwarted mother-love in the wider ministrations to all the lonely and unmothered hearts in Thy great family on earth.

As the protecting love of motherhood wrought blindly in the earliest upward climb of life, may it now, with open eyes and strong with Christly passion, set its tireless strength to lift humanity from the reign of brutal force and to found the larger family of men on the blessed might of love.

—Walter Rauschenbusch.

Alternate Reading: John 6:1-15.

Universal Harmony

The universe is all music, but it is not all music to our ear. We only hear a few chords, and they are minor chords. The minor chords seem discords when they stand alone; they want the full symphony to bring out their symmetry. Brother, do not complain that you are living in a world of discords. You are living in a world of perfect music, only you hear but a small portion of the music. The melody is not to come later in God’s program, it has come already. The morning stars sang together, and have always sung together. The universe is one glorious love song and all who are in love with life can hear and enjoy some measure of it.

—George Matheson.

Music In All Things

How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank!
Here will we sit, and let the sounds of music
Creep in our ears; soft stillness, and the night,
Become the touches of sweet harmony.
Sit, Jessica. Look! how the floor of heaven
Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold.
There’s not the smallest orb, which thou behold’st
But in his motion like an angel sings,
Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubim;
Such harmony is in immortal souls.
But, whilst this muddy vesture of decay
Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it.

-William Shakespeare.

Alternate Reading: John 14: 1-14.

The Responsibilities Of Wealth

And, as Jesus was resuming his journey, a man came running up to him, and threw himself on his knees before him.

“Good Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to gain Immortal Life?”

“Why do you call me good?” answered Jesus. “No one is good but God. You know the commandments—

“‘Do not kill. Do not commit adultery. Do not steal. Do not say what is false about others. Do not cheat. Honor thy father and thy mother?'”

“Teacher,” he replied, “I have observed all these from my childhood.”

Jesus looked at the man, and his heart went out to him, and be said:

“There is still one thing wanting in you; go and sell all that you have, and give to the poor, and you shall have wealth in Heaven; then come and follow me.”

But the man’s face clouded at these words, and be went away distressed, for he had great possessions.

Then Jesus looked round, and said to his disciples:

“How hard it will be for men of wealth to enter the Kingdom of God!”

The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again:

“My children, how hard a thing it is to enter the Kingdom of Godl It is easier for a camel to get through a needle’s eye, than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God.”

“Then who can be saved?” they exclaimed in the greatest astonishment.

Jesus looked at them, and answered:

“With men it is impossible, but not with God; for everything is possible with God.”

“But we,” began Peter, “we left everything and have followed you.”

“I tell you,” said Jesus, “there is no one who has left house, or brothers, or sisters, or mother, or father, or children, or land, on my account and on account of the Good News, who will not receive a hundred times as much, even now in the present—houses, and brothers, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and land—though not without persecutions, and, in the age that is coming, Immortal Life. But many who are first now will then be last, and the last will be first.”

—Mark.

The loss of a battle, or of a million dollars, is nothing compared with the loss of a home.

A key to the life of Jesus is His regard for the sanctity of the home.

Marriage As A Sacrament

When the Christian Church sought to make its distinction between the secular and sacred, and to determine the essential sacraments, it embraced marriage in them; and it is one of the saddest retrogressions of religion that we have removed it from its holy place.

—C. S. Macfarland.

The Old House

Oh, the auld house, the auld house,—
What though the rooms were wee?
Oh! kind hearts were dwelling there,
And bairnies fu’ o’ glee;
The wild rose and the jasamine
Still hang upon the wa’:
How mony cherished memories
Do they, sweet flowers, reca’!

Oh, the auld laird, the auld laird,
Sae canty, kind, and crouse,—
How mony did he welcome to
His ain wee dear auld house;
And the leddy too, sae genty,
There sheltered Scotland’s heir,
And dipt a lock wi’ her ain hand,
Frae his lang yellow hair.

The mavis still doth sweetly sing,
The bluebells sweetly blaw,
The bonny Eam’s clear winding still,
But the auld house is awa’.
The auld house, the auld house,—
Deserted though’ye be,
There ne’er can be a new house
Will seem sae fair to me.

—Lady Nairne.

Alternate Reading: I John 1: 5-10.

Two Truths

“Darling,” he said, “I never meant
To hurt you”; and his eyes were wet.
“I would not hurt you for the world:
Am I to blame if I forget?”

“Forgive my selfish tears!” she cried,
“Forgive! I knew that it was not
Because you meant to hurt me, sweet,—
I knew it was that you forgot!”

But all the same deep in her heart
Rankled this thought, and rankles yet,—
“When love is at its best, one loves
So much that he cannot forget?”

—Helen Hunt Jackson.

The House Of The Mind

Seek no more abroad, say I,
House and Home, but turn thine eye
Inward, and observe thy breast;
There alone dwells solid rest.
That’s a close immured tower
Which can mock all hostile power.
To thyself a tenant be,
And inhabit safe and free.
Say not that this house is small,
Girt up in a narrow wall;
In a cleanly sober mind
Heaven itself full room doth find.
The Infinite Creator can
Dwell in it; and may not man?
Here content make thy abode
With thyself and with thy God.

—Joseph Beaumont.

Alternate Reading: Psalms 1:1-3.

Obedience

If you’re told to do a thing,
And mean to do it really;
Never let it be by halves;
Do it fully, freely!

Do not make a poor excuse,
Waiting, weak, unsteady;
All obedience worth the name,
Must be prompt and ready.

—Phoebe Cary.

Love Is Enough

Love is enough. Let us not seek for gold.
Wealth breeds false aims, and pride and selfishness;
In those serene, Arcadian days of old,
Men gave no thought to princely style and dress.
The gods who dwelt in fair Olympia’s height
Lived only for dear love and love’s delight;
Love is enough.

Love is enough. Why should we care for fame?
Ambition is a most unpleasant guest:
It lures us with the glory of a name
Far from the happy haunts of peace and rest.
Let us stay here in this secluded place,
Made beautiful by love’s enduring grace;
Love is enough.

Love is enough. Why should we strive for power?
It brings men only envy and distrust;
The poor world’s homage pleases but an hour,
And earthly honors vanish in the dust.
The grandest lives are ofttimes desolate;
Let me be loved, and let who will be great;
Love is enough.

Love is enough. Why should we ask for more?
What greater gift has God vouchsafed to men?
What better boon of all His precious store
Than our fond hearts that love and love again?
Old love may die; new love is just as sweet;
And life is fair, and all the world complete;
Love is enough.

—Ella Wheeler Wilcox.

Alternate Reading: John 3:1-15.

Speak Gently

Speak gently; it is better far
To rule by love than fear;
Speak gently; let no harsh word mar
The good that we do here.
Speak gently to the little child;
Ite love be sure to gain;
Teach it in accents soft and mild;
It may not long remain.

Speak gently to the young, for they
Will have enough to bear;
Pass through this life as best they may,
‘Tis full of anxious care.
Speak gently to the aged one.
Grieve not the care-worn heart,
Whose sands of life are nearly run;
Let such in peace depart.

Speak gently to the erring; know
They must have toiled in vain;
Perchance unkindness made them so;
Oh, win them back again.
Speak gently; Tis a little thing
Dropped in the heart’s deep well;
The good, the joy, that it may bring,
Eternity shall tell.

—Anon.

Love The Beautiful

Love the beautiful,
Seek out the true,
Wish for the good,
And the best do!

—Moses Mendelssohn.

The bravest are the tenderest, The loving are the daring.

—Jeremy Taylor.

Alternate Reading: James 3:1-12.

The Chief Priests Plot The Death Of Jesus

Upon this the Chief Priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the High Council, and said:

“What are we to do, now that this man is giving so many signs? If we let him alone as we are doing, every one will believe in him; and the Romans will come and will take from us both our city and our nationality.”

One of them, however, Caiaphas, who was High Priest that year, said to them:

“You are utterly mistaken. You do not consider that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, rather than that the whole nation should be destroyed.”

Now he did not say this of his own accord; but, as High Priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was to die for the nation—and not for the nation only, but also that he might unite in one body the children of God now scattered far and wide.

So from that day they plotted to put Jesus to death.

—John.

Home is the character school; all other education is secondary to this.

A Prayer Of Praise

Great God, to whom since time began
The world has prayed and striven;
Maker of stars, and earth, and man,
To Thee our praise is given.

Of suns Thou art the Sun,
Eternal, holy One;
Who us can help save Thou?
To Thee alone we bow!
Hear us, O God in heaven!

—Richard Watson Gilder.

Two Sinners

There was a man, it was said one time,
Who went astray in his youthful prime.
Can the brain keep cool and the heart keep quiet
When the blood is a river that’s running riot?
And boys will be boys, the old folks say,
And the man is the better who’s had his day.

The sinner reformed; and the preacher told
Of the prodigal son who came back to the fold.
And Christian people threw open the door.
With a warmer welcome than ever before.
Wealth and honor were his to command,
And a spotless woman gave him her hand.

And the world strewed their pathway with blossoms abloom,
Crying, “God bless layde, and God bless groom!”

There was a maiden who went astray,
In the golden dawn of her life’s young day.
She had more passion and heart than head,
And she followed blindly where fond Love led.
And Love unchecked is a dangerous guide
To wander at will by a fair girl’s side.

The-woman repented and turned from sin,
But no door opened to let her in.
The preacher prayed that she might be forgiven,
But told her to look for mercy—in heaven.
For this is the lay of earth, we know:
That the woman is stoned, while the man may go.

A brave man wedded her after all,
But the world said, frowning, “We will not call.”

—Ella Wheeler Wilcox.

Nip sin in the bud. It is easier blowing out a candle than a house on fire.

—Anon.

Alternate Reading: John 8: 1-11.