lace
Among the myriad homes of earth,
Like a new star sprung to birth,
And rolled on its harmonious way
Into the boundless realms of space!

.....

"For two alone, there in the hall,
Is spread the table round and small;
Upon the polished silver shine
The evening lamps; but, more divine,
The light of love shines over all;
Of love that says not mine and thine,
But ours, for ours is thine and mine.

.....

"They want no guests; they needs must be
Each other's own best company."

What sort of a home shall the new one be? Shall it be the abode of happy
hearts and pure and noble lives, or shall discontent and misery prevail?
Jane Welch Carlyle says truly: "If ever one is to pray--if ever one is
to feel grave and anxious--if ever one is to shrink from vain show and
vain babble--surely it is just on the occasion of two human beings
binding themselves to one another, for better and for worse, till death
part them."

Great is the difference in households. As one walks along a beautiful
street in a city there is nothing in the fronts of the houses to
indicate the kind of life which passes within doors. But an intimate
acquaintance, such as a faithful pastor gains in the course of his
labors, often reveals the fact that in some of the most magnificent
houses there is no peace or joy, while in some of the humblest cottages
there is a calm and loving spirit which continues and grows from year to
year.

The kind of a house, even the adornments which wealth and luxury bring,
do not determine the true home. The two people who establish the new
household decide its quality.

That the people who occupy a home decide its quality is beautifully
expressed by Nathaniel Cotton, a poet of the last century:

"If solid happiness we prize,
Within our breast this jewel lies;
And they are fools who roam:
The world has nothing to bestow;
From our own selves our joys must flow,
And that dear hut, our home."

If those who occupy the home resolve to be happy and contented, to avoid
envying persons of larger means and higher social position, to lead a
life of mutual confidence and esteem, and to serve God with trustful
love, their home will be to them a sacred place. I was once pastor of a
church in Fulton Street, Elizabeth, N. J., where the most of the members
were mechanics and laborers and on the railroad. Their circumstances
were limited, and