get
an education. They call him a book-worm. Wherever they find him--in
the barn or in the house--he is reading a book. "What a pity it is,"
they say, "that Ed cannot get an education!" His father, work as hard
as he will, can no more than support the family by the products of the
farm. One night Ed has retired to his room and there is a family
conference about him. The sisters say, "Father, I wish you would send
Ed to college; if you will we will work harder than we ever did, and we
will make our old dresses do." The mother says, "Yes, I will get along
without any hired help; although I am not as strong as I used to be, I
think I can get along without any hired help." The father says, "Well,
I think by husking corn nights in the barn I can get along without any
assistance." Sugar is banished from the table, butter is banished from
the plate. That family is put down on rigid, yea, suffering, economy
that the boy may go to college. Time passes on. Commencement day has
come and the professors walk in on the stage in their long gowns and
their classic but absurd hats. The interest of the occasion is passing
on, and after a while it comes to a climax of interest as the
valedictorian is introduced. Ed has studied so hard and worked so well
that he has had the honor conferred upon him. There are rounds of
applause, sometimes breaking into vociferation. It is a great day for
Ed. But away back in the galleries are his sisters in their old plain
hats and faded clothes, and the old-fashioned father and mother; dear
me, she has not had a new hat for six years; he has not had a new coat
for a longer time. They rise and look over on the platform, then they
laugh and they cry, and as they sit down, their faces grow pale, and
then are very flushed. Ed gets the garlands and the old-fashioned
group in the gallery have their full share of the triumph. They have
made that scene possible, and in the day that God shall more fully
reward self-sacrifice made for others, he will give grand and glorious
recognition. "As his part is that goeth down to battle, so shall his
part be that tarrieth by the stuff."

This experience describes a home in the truest sense of the word better
than all the palaces the world has ever known where love is lacking and
the spirit of God is gone.

II

There are two great forces in every home. I speak of the father and
the mother, not but that the children have their part in either making