| Home Making |
Chapter 9 |
Page 17 |
It can do us no harm in these later days to recall and keep in mind the mediaeval piety which sought thus to place a memorial of Christ at the entrance to every room, building into every part of the very house itself the symbol of his great love. The form itself is nothing. It wards off no evil. It brings no blessing to a home. But if the symbol suggest thoughts of Christ and his love and holiness whenever the eye rests upon it, its influence must be to soften the heart, to check and restrain evil words and tempers, to kindle the spirit of devotion and to sweeten all the life of the home. Anything that helps to keep us in mind of the presence of Christ and of his loving spirit cannot do us harm.
But far more important is it for us to make sure that we have Christ himself in our home. Symbols are nothing unless they are the true pictures of sacred facts. If Christ be indeed remembered daily and hourly in the home, if his presence be consciously realized and its transforming power felt in each heart, and if everything be done and every word spoke in his name, – the household life will be pervaded by the spirit of heaven, and the home memories will be tender with all the hallowed tenderness of the warmest love.
We are fast moving on through this world. Soon all that will remain of us will be the memories of our lives. No part of our work will then afford such a true test of our living as the memorials we leave behind us in our homes. No other work that God gives any of us to do is so important, so sacred, so far reaching in its influence, so delicate and easily marred, as our home making. This is the work of all our life that is most divine. The carpenter works in wood, the mason works in stone, the smith works in iron, the artist works on canvas, but the homemaker works on immortal lives. The wood or the stone or the iron or the canvas may be marred, and it will not matter greatly in fifty years; but let a tender human soul be marred in its early training, and ages hence the effects will still be seen. Whatever else we slight, let it never be our home making. If we do nothing else well in this world, let us at least build well within our own doors.
Page 17
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