The Home Council

Jesus Preaching To Throngs

Meanwhile the people had gathered in thousands, so that they actually trampled on one another, when Jesus, addressing himself to his disciples, began with the warning:

“Be on your guard against the leaven—I mean the hypocricy—of the Pharisees. There is nothing, however covered up, which will not be uncovered, nor anything kept secret which will not become known. Hence all that you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have spoken in the ear, within closed doors, will be proclaimed upon the housetops. To you who are my friends I say, Do not be afraid of those that kill the body, but after that can do no more. I will show you whom you should be afraid of. Be afraid of him who, after killing you, has the power to fling you into the Pit. Yes, I say, be afraid of him. 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.

“Every one, I tell you, who will acknowledge me before his fellow men, the Son of Man, on his part, will acknowledge before God’s angels; but those who disown me before their fellow men will be entirely disowned before God’s angels. All who say anything against the Son of Man will be forgiven, while for those who slander the holy spirit there will be no forgiveness.”

—Luke.

The Desecration Of The Fine Art Of Jesus

If Jesus’ delicate poetry be reduced to prose, and the fair, carved work of His parables be used for the building of prisons, and His lovely portrait of God be “restored” with grotesque coloring, and His lucid principles of life be twisted into harassing regulations, then Jesus has been much wronged, and the world has suffered irreparable loss. This is the disaster Jesus dreaded, and no one will deny that it has, in some degree at least, come to pass.

—John Watson.

Loyalty And Service To One’s Country

(Written of Nathan Hale, a graduate of Tale Univertity, a school teacher and soldier. Just before being hanged without trial by the British he said: “I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my Country.”)

One hero dies—a thousand new ones rise,
As flowers are sown where perfect blossoms fall;
Then quite unknown, the name of Hale now cries
Wherever duty sounds her silent call.
With head erect he moves and stately pace,
To meet an awful doom—no ribald jest
Brings scorn or hate to that exalted face:
His thoughts are far away, poised and at rest;
Now on the scaffold see him turn and bid
Farewell to home and all his heart holds dear.
Majestic presence! all man’s weakness hid,
And all his strength in that last hour made clear;
“My sole regret, that it is mine to give
Only one life, that my dear Land may live!”

—W. O. Partridge.

From Scaffold To Scaffold

Every step of progress the world has made has been from scaffold to scaffold, and from stake to stake. It would hardly be exaggeration to say that all the great truths relating to society and government have been first heard in the solemn protests of martyred patriotism, (ft the loud cries of crushed and starving labor.

—Wendell Phillips.

Alternate Reading: II Peter 1: 2-11.

Flag Day

What Do You See When The Flag Goes By?

What do you see when the flag goes by?
Just a banner of red and white and blue?
Just a patch of gay color against the sky?
What does it mean to you?

Perhaps a vision comes of Betsy Ross—
Red cheeks aflame to meet her land’s appeal,
White, skillful fingers stitching patiently,
And blue eyes flashing with an ardent zeal.

Perhaps some think of blue colonial coats
At Valley Forge that winter long ago,
And crimson stains left by bare patriot feet
That still trudged on across the fields of snow.

To some the red is martyred President’s blood;
The white, Potomac’s city, fair to view,
Across the stream from Arlington where sleep
In honored peace the men who wore the blue.

And some will see the poppies flaming red
Beneath blue skies that lie across the sea,
And brave young souls made white by sacrifice—
The sacrifice by which a world is free.

What do you see when the flag goes by?
Just a banner of red and white and blue?
Just a patch of gay color against the sky?
What does it mean to you?

—B. Y. Williams.

O That Starry Banner

O that starry, starry banner,
Do I know its hallowed worth?
Have I felt the pangs of anguish
Such as wrought its sacred birth?
Is it mine? Have I helped make it
Emblem of fair Liberty?
In those red bars, is there mingled
Blood that was a part of me?
Are those white bars made more stain free
By my living, living right?
Is it I who’ve helped to keep them,
Keep them bars of spotless white?
And that field of purest azure—
Field of Heaven’s high-born blue—
Have I helped to guard that blueness
By my living, living true?

—H. Fortesquire.

Alternate Reading: I Peter 5: 1-11.

Jesus Denounces The Pharisees

As Jesus finished speaking, a Pharisee asked him to breakfast with him, and Jesus went in and took his place at table. The Pharisee noticed, to his astonishment, that Jesus omitted the ceremonial washing before breakfast. But the Master said to him:

“You Pharisees do, it is true, clean the outside of the cup and of the plate, but inside you yourselves are filled with greed and wickedness. Fools! did not the maker of the outside make the inside too? Only give away what is in them in charity, and at once you have the whole clean. But alas for you Pharisees! You pay tithes on mint, rue, and herbs of all kinds, and pass over justice and love to God. These last you ought to have put into practice without neglecting the first. Alas for you Pharisees! You delight to have the front seat in the Synagogues, and to be greeted in the markets with respect. Alas for you! You are like unsuspected graves, over which men walk unawares.” Here one of the Students of the Law interrupted him by saying:

“Teacher, when you say this, you are insulting us also.”

But Jesus went on:

“Alas for you, too, you Students of the Law! You load men with loads that are too heavy to carry; but do not, yourselves, touch them with one of your fingers. Alas for you! You build the monuments of the Prophets whom your ancestors killed. You are actually witnesses to your ancestors’ acts and show your approval of them, because, while they killed the Prophets, you build tombs for them. That is why the Wisdom of God said— ‘I will send to them Prophets and Apostles, some of whom they will persecute and kill, in order that the “blood” of all the prophets “that has been spilt” since the creation of the world may be exacted from this generation —from the blood of Abel down to the blood of Zechariah, who was slain between the altar and the House of God.’ Yes, I tell you, it will be exacted from this generation. Alas for you Students of the Law! You have taken away the key of the door of knowledge. You have not gone in yourselves and you have hindered those who try to go in.”

—Luke.

Too much rest is rust.

—Walter Scott.

Song Of Life

A traveller on a dusty road
Strewed acorns on the lea;
And one took root and sprouted up,
And grew into a tree.
Love sought its shade at evening-time,
To breathe its early vows;
And Age was pleased, in heights of noon,
To bask beneath its boughs.
The dormouse loved its dangling twigs,
The birds sweet music bore—
It stood a glory in its place,
A blessing evermore.

A little spring had lost its way
Amid the grass and fern;
A passing stranger scooped a well
Where weary men might turn.
He walled it in, and hung with care
A ladle on the brink;
He thought not of the deed he did,
But judged that Toil might drink.
He passed again; and lo! the well,
By summer never dried,
Had cooled ten thousand parched tongues,
And saved a life beside.

A nameless man, amid the crowd
That thronged the daily mart,
Let fall a word of hope and love,
Unstudied from the heart,
A whisper on the tumult thrown,
A transitory breath,
It raised a brother from the dust,
It saved a soul from death. O germ! O fount! O word of love!
O thought at random cast!
Ye were but little at the first,
But mighty at the last.

—Charles Mackay.

Two men looked out from prison bars,
One saw the mud, the other the stars.

—Anon.

Alternate Reading: Psalms 42: 1-9.

The Most Holy Name,—Mother

The destiny of nations lies far more in the hands of women—the mothers—than in the hands of those who possess power. We must cultivate women, who are educators of the human race, else a new generation cannot accomplish its task.

—Friedrich Froebel.

A Mother

You! You! a mother! That most holy name,
Which Heaven and Nature bless,
I may not vilely prostitute to those
Whose infants owe them less
Than the poor caterpillar owes
Its gaudy Parent Fly.
You were a mother! at your bosom fed
The babes that loved you. You, with laughing eye,
Each twilight-thought, each nascent feeling read,
Which you yourself created. Oh, Delight!
A second time to be a Mother,
Without the Mother’s bitter groans;
Another thought, and yet another,
By touch, or taste, by look or tones,
O’er the growing Sense to roll,
The Mother of your infant’s soul!
The Angel of the Earth, who while he guides
His chariot-planet round the goal of day,
All trembling gazes on the eye of God,
A moment turned his face away;
And as he viewed you, from his aspect sweet
New influences in your being rose,
Blest Intuitions and Communions fleet
With living Nature, in her joys and woes!

—S. T. Coleridge.

Alternate Reading: I Peter 3: 8-22.

Love The Greatest Of All Gifts

Yet I can still show you a way beyond all comparison the best.

Though I speak in the “tongues” of men, or even of angels, yet have not Love, I have become mere echoing brass, or a clanging cymbal! Even though I have the gift of preaching, and fathom all hidden truths and all the depths of knowledge; even though I have such faith as might move mountains, yet have not Love, I am nothing! Even though I dole my substance to the poor, even though I sacrifice my body, that I may boast, yet have not Love, it avails me nothing! Love is long-suffering, and kind; Love is never envious, never boastful, never conceited, never behaves unbecomingly; Love is never self-seeking, never provoked, never reckons up her wrongs; Love never rejoices at evil, but rejoices in the triumph of Truth; Love bears with all things, ever trustful, ever hopeful, ever patient. Love never fails. But, whether it be the gift of preaching, it will be done with; whether it be the gift of “tongues,” it will cease; whether it be knowledge, it, too, will be done with. For our knowledge is incomplete, and our preaching is incomplete, but, when the Perfect has come, that which is incomplete will be done with. When I was a child, I talked as a child, I felt as a child, I reasoned as a child; now that I am a man, I have done with childish ways. As yet we see, in a mirror, dimly, but then—face to face! As yet my knowledge is incomplete, but then I shall know in full, as I have been fully known. Meanwhile Faith, Hope, and Love endure—these three, but the greatest of these is Love.

—Paul to the Corinthians.

One does not “fall into love “—love is an ascension to God-like living.

A Creed

There is a destiny that makes us brothers:
None goes his way alone:
All that we send into the lives of others
Comes back into our own.

—Edwin Markham.

The Character Of An Honest Leader

“The thief comes only to steal, to kill, and to destroy; I have come that they may have Life, and may have it in greater fulness. I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down his life for his sheep. The hired man who is not a shepherd, and who does not own the sheep, when he sees a wolf coming, leaves them and runs away; then the wolf seizes them, and scatters the flock. He does this because he is only a hired man and does not care about the sheep. I am the Good Shepherd; and I know my sheep, and my sheep know me—just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep besides, which do not belong to this fold; I must lead them also, and they will listen to my voice; and they shall become one flock under ‘one Shepherd.’ This is why the Father loves me, because I lay down my life—to receive it again. No one took it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to receive it again. This is the command which I received from my Father.”

—John.

In some Eastern countries it is customary for one to pause at the front door of a home and remove his shoes, but in all countries it should be the custom never to enter a home with a frown.

The Best Gift

God thought to give the sweetest thing in His almighty power
To earth; and deeply pondering what it should be—one hour
In fondest joy and love of heart outweighing eveiy other,
He moved the gates of Heaven apart and gave to earth—
A Mother!

—G. N. Lovejoy.

The Heavenly Urge

No passing burden is our earthly sorrow,
That shall depart in some mysterious to-morrow.
‘Tis His one universe where’er we are—
One changeless law from sun to viewless star.
Were sorrow evil here, evil it were forever,
Beyond the scope and help of our most keen endeavor
God doth not dote,
His everlasting purpose shall not fail.
Here where our ears are weary with the wail
And weeping of the sufferers; there where the Pleiads float—
Here, there, forever, pain most dread and dire
Doth bring the intensest bliss, the dearest and most sure.
‘Tis not from life aside, it doth endure
Deep in the secret heart of all existence.
It is the inward fire,

The heavenly urge, and the divine insistence.
Uplift thine eyes, O Questioner, from the sod!
It were no longer life,
If ended were the strife;
Man were not man, God were not truly God.

—Richard Watson Gilder.

Alone With God

When you have shut your doors, and darkened your room, remember never to say you are alone, for you are not alone; but God is within, and your conscience is within,—and what need have they of light to see what you are doing?

—Epictetus.

Alternate Reading: I Peter 2: 11-25.

Life Sculpture

Chisel in hand stood a sculptor boy
With his marble block before him,
And his eyes lit up with a smile of joy,
As an angel-dream passed o’er him.

He carved the dream on that shapeless stone,
With many a sharp incision;
With heaven’s own light the sculpture shone,—
He’d caught that angel-vision.

Children of life are we, as we stand
With our livee uncarved before us,
Waiting the hour when, at God’s command,
Our life-dream shall pass o’er us.

If we carve it then on the yielding stone,
With many a sharp incision,
Its heavenly beauty shall be our own,—
Our lives, that angel-vision.

—G. W. Doane.

Living With All One’s Might

Resolved, to live with all my might while I do live.

On the supposition that there was never to be but one individual in the world, at any one time, who was properly a complete Christian, in all respects of a right stamp, having Christianity always shining in its true lustre, and appearing excellent and lovely, from whatever part and under whatever character viewed: Resolved, to act just as I would do, if I strive with all my might to be that one, who should live in my time.

I observe that old men seldom have any advantage of new discoveries, because they are beside the way of thinking to which they have been so long used: Resolved, if ever I live to years, that I will be impartial to hear the reasons of all pretended discoveries, and receive them if rational, how long soever I have been used to another way of thinking.

—Jonathan Edwards.

Alternate Reading: II Kings 7.