it is fair and fitting for thy diadem."

Jesus said of little children that those who receive them, in his name,
receive him. May we not then say that children bring great possibility
of blessing and happiness to a home? They come to us as messengers
from heaven, bearing messages from God. Yet we may not know their
value while we have them. Ofttimes, indeed, it is only the empty crib
and the empty arms that reveal to us the full measure of home happiness
that we get from the children. Those to whom God gives children should
receive them with reverence. There are homes where mothers, who once
wearied easily of children's noises, sit now with aching hearts, and
would give the world to have a baby to nurse, or a rollicking boy to
care for. Children are among the secrets of a happy home.

Turning to the life of the household, affectionateness is one of the
secrets of happiness. There are hundreds of homes in which there is
love that would die for its dear ones; and yet hearts are starving
there for love's daily bread. There is a tendency in some homes to
smother all of love's tenderness, to suppress it, to choke it back.
There are homes where the amenities of affection are unknown, and where
hearts starve for daily bread. There are husbands and wives between
whom love's converse has settled into the baldest conventionalities.
There are parents who never kiss their children after they are babies,
and who discourage in them as they grow up all longing for caresses.
There are homes whose daily life is marred by incessant petty strifes
and discourtesies.

These are not exaggerations. Yet there is love in these homes, and all
that is needed is that it be set free to perform its sweet ministry.
There are cold, cheerless homes which could be warmed into love's
richest glow in a little while, if all the hearts of the household were
to grow affectionate in expression. Does the busy husband think that
his weary wife would not care any longer for the caresses and marks of
tenderness with which he used to thrill her? Let him return again for
a month to his old-time fondness, and then ask her if these youthful
amenities are distasteful to her. Do parents think their grown-up
children are too big to be petted, to be kissed at meeting and parting?
Let them restore again, for a time, something of the affectionateness
of the childhood days, and see if there is not a blessing in it. Many
who are longing for richer home ha