| Show HOME LIFE Domestic life is deteriorating our homes are being constantly undermined under-mined Such was the opinion expressed ex-pressed by Bishop Henry C Potter of New York recently in a newspaper interview on the subject of ideal home life leI the rather startling statement of the bishops is true then it is time to become alarmed for the safety of the Whole social and even political fabric For if the home life of our people is deteriorating if the home is being undermined then the fountain heads of those tiny streams which make up the great river of our social and national na-tional life are being corrupted and if they are corrupted then the great stream into which they flow can be no other than fouland loathsome I follows fol-lows as truly as the night follows the day I follows as truly as i is true that the national morality and the national na-tional character depends upon the morality and character of American homes In proof of his assertion that our domestic life is deteriorating and that the home is being undermined the bishop points to the Increasing frequency fre-quency of divorce owing doubtless to the ease with which it can be obtained Cun anyonedeny he asks that the marital relation is on the decline Not if he keeps his eyes open to the world Divorce grows more popular every year and separations multiply at an alarming rate Add to these the unhappy and incompatible alliances that are not brought to the public gaze the number of husbands and wivEs between be-tween whom there is a feeling jealousy jeal-ousy or lack of sympathy and confidence dence but whose pride leads them to conceal their situation to the world and you will have I venture to believe a large majority of all married relations rela-tions That is a sad picture While one if neither deaf nor blind cannot fail to know that there is a vast amount of domestic misery in human life we have believed and even now hope notwithstanding not-withstanding the bishops conclusion that the balance in the account would be on theside of domestic peace and happiness rather than on the side of domestic misery But the bishop does not let us off even with these assertions in respect of the infelicity between husbands and wives He points to deterioration in other relations notably that of brothers broth-ers and sisters Brothers and sisters he remarks do not love each other a much or confide in each other as much as they might or as they used to I you would know how weak this bond is a bond that should be the tenderest and most tenacious see how easily they are weaned from each other after marriage how quick they are to fall out at the Last provocation how hard it is for them to have amicable business busi-ness dealings with each other and how prone they are to quarrel and become enemies over the division and distribution distribu-tion of their inheritance The greatest evil at work in American Ameri-can homes the bishop thinks is secularity Gradually the world creeps into them and takes possession of everything and everybody i finds there He then proceeds to depict the manner in which the Sabbath is kept or rather how it I desecrated by the large maority of families In New York City Not a thought of the churoh he concludes not a thought of God the day through but an Irreligious a godless home from beginning be-ginning to end This Sabbath desecration dese-cration is an index of the rest of the life of the home The Bible fares no better than the Sabbath A family altar is unthought of religious instruction in-struction to children absolutely neglected neg-lected The little ones are taught perhaps to say their prayers but there responsibility stops All the religion re-ligion they ever get I secured from without at the hands of others and all the religion that finds Its way Into SUch homes Is the religion which the children bring to it This Is rather a discouraging view to have thrust upon us amid all our boasts of Christian civilization and enlightenment en-lightenment Yet who can say that the bishop is not correct in his statement state-ment Substantially we believe he is correct and we believe it is not a good thing to turn away from this subject however disagreeable it maybe may-be 1 I is best to face it squarely and gol about a solution of it Compare no We mean contrast this picture of home life drawn by Bishop Potter with that described by Burns II I < I Jj3 M I > J f R in his Catters Saturday Night where In the humble cottage of the poor man the holy sentiments of religion re-ligion are cultivated and where in artless simplicity the great moral lessons les-sons that make men and nations great are laid down in unconscious eloquence I elo-quence The children gathered in from service among the neighbors on Saturday Satur-day nightthe cheerful supper done with serious faces they round the fireplace fire-place form a circle The sire turns with patriarchlal grace the family Bible Bi-ble once his fathers pride and with bonnet reverently laid aside he chooses a portion with judicious care the priestlike father reads the sacred page They chant their artless notes they tune their hearts and Italian thrills are tame Then kneeling down to heavens eternal kIngthe saint the father and the husband prays prays that thus they all shall meet In future daysthere ever bask In uncreated un-created rays no more to sigh or shed the bitter tear together hyming their creators praise in such society yet still more dear while circling time moves round in an eternal sphere No wonder the poet exclaimed I Compared pride with this how poor religions In all the pomp of method and of art Where men display to congregations wide Devotions every grace except the heart The power incensd the pagent will desert de-sert The pompous strain the sacerdotal stole But haply In some cottage far apart May hear well pleased the language of the soul at And in the book of life the Inmates poor enroll This is what our times need more home worship more home society more home communion and with i will come a purer religious sentiment a higher morality deeper affections stronger sympathies better citizens holier Christians Parents are prone to trusttoo much to kindergartens schools churches etc but none of these should or can take the place of the home which in its power for good outweighs them all Let but the American people turn their attention to purifying these springs that feed the streams of social and I national life and the growth of evil I will be checked There will be less illwill and more peace less bitterness and fewer criminals there will be more charity and fewer divorces |
