Golden Thoughts on Mother, Home, and Heaven
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OLDEN 1HOUGHTS O N FROM POETIC AND PROSE LITERATURE OF ALL AGES AND ALL LANDS. WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY REV. THEO. L. CUYLER, D. D. 'If from our side the first has fled, &nd Home be but a name, Let's strive the narrow path to tread. t\ ic That me the last may gain ! ' Go ILLUSTRATED. liEVIBEQ flffQ EJTLfiliQEQ. NEW YORK: E. B. TREAT, 737 BROADWAY. t R. C. TREAT, CHICAGO. W. H. THOMPSON & CO., BOSTON. SOUTHERN PUB. CO., NEW ORLEANS. QUAKER CITY PUB. CO., PHILA. N. G. HAMILTON, CLEVELAND, O. G. W. KRATZ, PITTSBURGH. E. B. TREAT, COPYRIGHT, 187S-1882. IJVTR O&TIC TIO JST. BY Rev. THEODORE L. CUYLER. HE compiler of this volume has rendered a most valuable service by collecting into one sheaf these golden glean ings. In order to give his work the greatest richness and variety he has laid under contribution more than three hundred widely-known authors on both sides of the Atlantic. In the main, his selections seem to have been made with excellent taste ; the ruling motive being to choose those things which would be the most practical and the most profitable. Many of them are already familiar to us all — but that very fact proves their value. There are other readers coming on the stage of life who need to know these " house hold words," and one object of this volume is to carry these coined thoughts of standard value into a wide and permanent circulation. My friend who originated and compiled this work has chosen three grand themes. They blend together beautifully, and interlock each other as light, heat and electricity are interlocked in a sunbeam. The Mother is the fountain-head of the Home. The home is the foun tain-head of society and of the Church of Christ. And no influences in the universe contribute so much toward guiding immortal souls Heavenward as the Home and the Mother. If I were asked to name any one principle that seems to have an almost universal application, it would be this one — show me the mother and I will show you the man ! Next to the sovereign grace of God, the influence of a mother's teachings and example is the most effective in moulding character and shaping destiny. Intellec 7 INTRODUCTION. tual power even descends most commonly on the maternal side. Nearly all the most remarkable men have had mothers of more than ordinary mental calibre. Great men often have weak children ; great women seldom have. But it is in the direction of moral training and the development of character that the mother is most powerfully felt. What a faith- fid suggestion lies hid in that brief line from Holy Writ — "his mother made him a little coat ! " The woman who wove that little tunic was Hannah. The lad who wore it was Samuel, who grew from a beautiful boyhood into the holy prophet and the upright ruler. No doubt that it was a modest and a comely garment which the Jewish matron made ; for she was a woman of too much piety and good sense to treat her consecrated child as if he were a plaything or a doll. But that " little coat " has a figurative application to every mother's high calling. For she not only provides her child from infancy's first moments with clothing for the body, but moral " habits " of character and conduct. The mother, more than any one else, helps to clothe the immortal soul in garments of light and loveliness, or else in garments of sin and sorrow and shame. She makes " little coats " which no moth can consume, which never wear out, and which are worn by her offspring long after she has mouldered into dust. She weaves her child's habits of thought and conduct ; and does it, too, as clothes kre made, stitch by stitch. She does this not only by direct deliberate teachings, but by little words and acts, and by silent unconscious influence. Hannah's daily life helped to weave Samuel's noble character. The mother made the man. What a debt of gratitude the world owes to godly-minded Monica ! She trained up Augustine to be the champion-defender of the gospel in a day of dark apostasies. But for good, faithful Susannah Wesley, the world might never have been enriched with John and Charles, the twain founders of Methodism. Richard Cecil says that in his early manhood he tried hard to be an infidel. But he never could get over the unanswerable argument of his own mother's godly life and influence. They were too much for him : they conquered him for Christ. On the other hand, how many lives have been disfigured by the wretched "botch- work" or the 8 INTRO D UCTION. deformities of such mind-garments as weak or wicked mothers have woven for their children. The brilliant Byron might have been a very different man if he had had a different mother, and a wiser early training. Children seldom rise higher than the fountain-head of the mother's character. Occasional exceptions do not shake the solid certainty of this rule. Show me the mother and I will show you the man — is a veracious maxim after all. There are tens of thousands of others who can testify, — with the author of this Intro duction, — that a faithful mother's prayers and teachings were worth more to them than the fortunes of a score of Girards or Vanderbilts. Even the diadem which Victoria wears as Queen of Great Britain and Empress of India shines not with such enviable lustre as that higher crown of the pure wife and exemplary mother. While the relation is so vitally important in shaping lives and determining human destinies, everything which helps to instruct and inspire mothers for their high calling is of great moment. This is one purpose for which this volume was compiled. Not for the amusement of a listless hour, but for quickening, reproof, instruction and encouragement. Amid her routine of home cares, a busy mother may sometimes take up this book, and open to a page which shall be to her a word in season — an " apple of gold in a basket of silver." A single sentence may furnish her food for thought. A brief hint may give her most valuable assistance in the discharge of her sacred duties. If she is under the shadow of a dark sorrow, with an empty cradle in her house or the playthings of a lost darling carefully treasured in her drawer, she may open these pages, and find some precious words of consolation. There is hardly a house in which, at some time or other, there has not " been one dead." No touch makes all of us kin like the touch of bereavement. No writ ings have such perennial interest as those which treat of our home joys and sorrows, and which are inspired by the cradle, the fireside, the ring of wedlock, the family record, or the casket which holds our beloved dead. This volume was prepared for home-use and home-reading. It treats not only of her who is the queen of the household, but of the rules by which home may be governed. If the mother is the foun 9 . lA'TR OV UCTION. tain-head of the household, it is equally true that the household is the fountain-head of society. Both the commonwealth and the church grow out of the family. They both take their character from the family. The real seed-corn whence our republic sprang was the Christian households, which stepped forth from the cabin of the " Mayflower," or which set up the family altar of the Hollander and the Huguenot on Manhattan Island or in the sunny South. All our best characters, best legislation, best institutions, and best church-life were cradled in those early homes. They were the tap-root of the republic, and of the American churches. For one, I care but little for the government which presides at Washington in comparison with the government which rules the eight or ten millions of American homes. No administration can seriously harm us if our home-life is pure, frugal, and godly. No statesmanship or legislation can save us, if once our homes become the abodes of ignorance or the nestling-places of profligacy. The home rules the nation. If the home is demoralized it will ruin it. There are several essentials to a good home. Wealth is not one of those essentials, for in many an abode of honest poverty content ment dwells. Out of such lowly cottages and cabins have sprung our greatest, noblest men and women. The little clapboarded farm houses of New England have been the nurseries of our greatest divines, most useful philanthropists and devoted missionaries. The riches of those humble dwellings were industrious hands and praying hearts. God's Word was the light of the homestead. The Bible, the spinning-wheel, and the family altar stood side by side. The growing refinements of later years have introduced into many rural habitations the piano, the pictures, and the pile of books. But let our people see to it that the increase of culture, money and refine ment is not attended M-ith any decrease of homespun frugality, do mestic purity, and the fear of God. A truly good home is not only one in which God reigns, but it must be an attractive spot. Even all the conscientious Christian par ents do not seem to find this out. The result is that the theatre, the billiard- saloon, the club, the convivial party manage to " out-bid " the home, and to draw away the sons and the daughters.