se, and
become sick for home, however humble it may be. Its endearments are ever
fresh, as if in the bursting joys of their first experience. They remain
unforgotten in our memories and imperishable in our hearts. When friends
become cold, society heartless, and adversity frowns darkly and heavily
upon us, oh, it is then that we turn with fond assurance to home, where
loved ones will weep as well as rejoice with us.

"Oh, the blessing of a home, where old and young mix kindly,
The young unawed, the old unchilled, in unreserved communion!
Oh that refuge from the world, when a stricken son or daughter
May seek with confidence of love, a father's hearth and heart;
Come unto me, my son, if men rebuke and mock thee,
There always shall be one to bless,--for I am on thy side!"

SECTION II.

HOME IN THE SPHERE OF THE CHURCH.

"A holy home,
Where those who sought the footprints of the Lord,
Along the paths of pain, and care, and gloom,
Shall find the rest of heaven a rich reward."

What is the _Christian_ home? Only in the sphere of christianity does the
true idea of home become fully developed. Home with the savage is but a
herding, a servitude. Even among many of the Jews it was little better
than a Mahommedan seraglio. The most eminent of the heathen world degrade
the family by making it the scene of lust, and introducing concubinage and
polygamy. Plato, one of the most enlightened of the heathen, had base
conceptions of home, and abused its highest and holiest prerogatives by his
ideas of polygamy. We find too that in the ethics of Aristotle, the most
lovely and sacred attributes of the family are totally discarded. The home
which he holds up to view is unadorned with chastity and virtue. And
Sophocles follows in the same path, stripping home of all that is sacred
and essential to its true constitution. And when we come down to the
present age, and view this divine institute in the light of Mormonism and
Socialism, who will say that here we have unfolded its true idea and sacred
character?

How different is the true Christian home! Here the marriage union is
preserved "honorable," held sacred, and woman is raised to her true
position. In the sphere of the Christian church, home is brought fairly and
completely into view. Here it rises above the measure of natural affection,
and temporal interest. It enters the sphere of supernatural faith, and
becomes the adumbration of our home in heaven.