6.  Home ties.—­The young man or young woman who love their home and love their mother can be safely trusted under almost any and all circumstances, and their life will not be a blank, for they seek what is good.  Their hearts will be ennobled, and God will bless them.

[Illustration:  Home amusements.]

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Home power.

“The mill-streams that turn the clappers of the world arise in solitary places.”—­Helps.

  “Lord! with what care hast Thou begirt us round! 
  Parents first season us.  Then schoolmasters
  Deliver us to laws.  They send us bound
  To rules of reason.”—­George Herbert.

1.  School of character.—­Home is the first and most important school of character.  It is there that every human being receives his best moral training, or his worst, for it is there that he imbibes those principles of conduct which endure through manhood, and cease only with life.

2.  Home makes the man.—­It is a common saying, “Manners make the man;” and there is a second, that “Mind makes the man;” but truer than either is a third, that “Home makes the man.”  For the home-training includes not only manners and mind, but character.  It is mainly in the home that the heart is opened, the habits are formed, the intellect is awakened, and character moulded for good or for evil.

3.  Govern society.—­From that source, be it pure or impure, issue the principles and maxims that govern society.  Law itself is but the reflex of homes.  The tiniest bits of opinion sown in the minds of children in private life afterwards issue forth to the world, and become its public opinion; for nations are gathered out of nurseries, and they who hold the leading-strings of children may even exercise a greater power than those who wield the reins of government.

4.  The child is father of the man.—­The child’s character is the nucleus of the man’s; all after-education is but superposition; the form of the crystal remains the same.  Thus the saying of the poet holds true in a large degree, “The child is father of the man;” or as Milton puts it, “The childhood shows the man, as morning shows the day.”  Those impulses to conduct which last the longest and are rooted the deepest, always have their origin near our birth.  It is then that the germs of virtues or vices, of feelings or sentiments, are first implanted which determine the character of life.

5.  Nurseries.—­Thus homes, which are nurseries of children who grow up into men and women, will be good or bad according to the power that governs them.  Where the spirit of love and duty pervades the home, where head and heart bear rule wisely there, where the daily life is honest and virtuous, where the government is sensible, kind, and loving, then may we expect from such a home an issue of healthy, useful, and happy beings, capable as they gain the requisite strength, of following the footsteps of their parents, of walking uprightly, governing themselves wisely, and contributing to the welfare of those about them.