THE HOME, AND ORNAMENTATION OF 



HOMES. 



BY MRS. JEREMIAH BROWN OF BATTLE CREEK. 



Gentlemex: — You have given me a subject, significant, far reacliiug, and 

 of deeper meaning than its simple title indicates. It is susceptible of endless 

 illustration, and would require a wiser head and more skillful pen than mine 

 to do it full justice. I trust that it will not be considered out of place here if 

 I quote the words of the Rev. E. H. Chapin, for I imagine all who have ar- 

 rived at the idea of adorning their homes realize the responsibilities that abide 

 in that home, and will be strengthened in the desire to make it all it should 

 be by the words of so eminent a thinker, which, if not given precisely in the 

 line of our subject, yet seem to me very nearly connected with it. He says : 

 " If we make home only a place to eat and sleep in, — if we are employed mere- 

 ly in making provision for it and securing temporal good ; then the Divine 

 purpose is not fulfilled." * * "In the soil of home grow filial love, frater- 

 nal affection, the sentiments of mutual dependence and mutual trust ; yes, even 

 the religious reverence which man carries into the higher postures of the soul, 

 and by which he is taught to conceive of the Heavenly Father." The sub- 

 ject, then, of making homes attractive and educative, is fraught with vital im- 

 portance to every individual, every community, every country ; most especial- 

 ly to a Republican country. 



Home! The sacredness of home is our bulwark of safety. From this cen- 

 ter radiates all that is known of honor, morality, patriotism and all the higher 

 principles which endow a free people with wisdom for self-government. Then 

 how imperative the duty to make a home such as will lead to the highest de- 

 velopment of the minds and souls of its members. 



In view of the inimitable ornamentation in all the works of the Creator, we 

 are taught the lesson that this ornamentation is an essential teacher and in- 

 spirer to the souls that have been attuned to its appreciation, and every step 

 taken in our homes, in this direction, is an advancement toward the higher 

 and better. 



In a large degree the home is what tlie mother makes it, what kind of an at- 

 mosphere her life and character breathes through it. Here again I must bor- 

 row the language of Dr. Chapin. " The most exaggerated conception of a 

 mothers influence cannot furnish any reason for a father's neglect. * * * 

 With all that she can do, the home that does not feel his sympathy is not a 



