The Christian Home by Samuel Philips
page 286 of 301 (95%)
page 286 of 301 (95%)
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Do they think of the outcast far away,
And breathe for me a prayer? That early home I shall see no more, And I wish not there to go, For the happy past may nought restore-- The future is but woe. But 'twould be a balm to my heavy heart Upon its dreary way, If I could think I have a part In the prayers of home to-day!" Every thing within the memory of home will question our hearts whether we have been faithful to her parental ministry. Every cherished association; every remembered object, and even the old scenes and objects around the homestead, will challenge our faithfulness. The trees under whose shade we frolicked and of whose fruit we ate; the streams that meandered through the meadow; the hills and groves over which we gamboled in the sunny days of childhood; the old oaken bucket and the old ancestral walls that yet stand as monuments of the past,--these will all question your fidelity to the training you received in their midst; and oh, if they assume, in the courts of memory, the attitude of witnesses against you; if nursery recollections speak of forgotten prayers and abandoned habits, what a deep and painful sense of guilt and ingratitude will this testimony develop in your bosom, and "Darken'd and troubled you'll come at last, To the home of your boyish glee." How precious are the mementoes of home! Memory needs such auxiliaries. That lock of silken hair which the mother holds with tearful contemplation, and |
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