THE INFLUENCE OF THE HOME

We are profoundly concerned with whatever affects the moral character of our youth. Mental, or intellectual training, good and necessary in its place, is a valued equipment for the journey through life, but it is the moral training alone that can bloom and blossom into eternal fruition and therefore, it is towards this training that we direct our energies. To this end let us labor unceasingly to teach our children that there is a God to Whom they are responsible for their conduct, that there is a God Whose Sacred Law must be obeyed, and in this work a great auxiliary is the school. But, while we realize the inestimable, the incalculable value of the parochial school in the training of our youth, we know, too, that neither school, nor teacher, nor preacher can effect the proper formation of character unless it be begun and carried out in the home. It is to the home therefore, that we may look for the beginning of most of the evils which confront society today.

The influence of the home upon the life of a community cannot be overestimated. The influence that is brought to bear upon the minds of children will survive the strongest storms of life and the bitterest experiences of the world. We can never quite forget the hallowed memories of Christian peace and happiness that make the old home so dear in childhood, and in the calmer contemplation of older years we thank God for the sweet, imperishable memories that remain with us, of that sacred circle of long ago. But where is the old-fashioned home today? Where is the old home where parental authority was revered and respected and where a mother’s love transformed even the poorest cottage into a happy, peaceful home? What has become of the old-fashioned home where the whole family gathered in the living-room at night, the father reading the Bible or some other good writer’s works after his day of honest toil, the mother busily mending the rents of youthful struggles, the children, with pencil or paper or slate, preparing their school lessons for the following day? Where is the unity of authority between father and mother which existed in the old-fashioned home, where the mutual respect for each other was always in evidence, where their differences were settled between them, far away from youthful ears, where the authority of the one found staunch support in the other and thus united, they ruled the home with no unseemly clamor? Where today, is that patient but authoritative discipline which ruled the comings and goings of the children, when the father knew his boy’s meanderings as well as his ambitions, where the daughter could whisper her most sacred confidence into her mother’s willing ear and where evening prayers were said in common before retiring for the night? That Christian home is gone, (forever?) and think what has taken its place! Father is off on business, or at the club or “out with the boys”, perhaps guzzling more contraband booze than is not good for him; mother must attend this or that meeting of her circle, or it is the night her bridge party meets, and more often than not brings home only a strong breath, from either drink or smoking, to greet her children; the boys and girls are off to a party to dull their senses with synthetic gin, or to the movies where their virtue is wounded or to the dance hall where their virtue is destroyed, or speeding along a cement highway on the straight road to hell. Are father and mother worried when son or daughter fails to get home before midnight? Not a bit of it; they go to sleep confident that their children know how to take care of themselves.—TRUTH.

Deze tekst is geautomatiseerd gemaakt en kan nog fouten bevatten. Digibron werkt voortdurend aan correctie. Klik voor het origineel door naar de pdf. Voor opmerkingen, vragen, informatie: contact.

Op Digibron -en alle daarin opgenomen content- is het databankrecht van toepassing. Gebruiksvoorwaarden. Data protection law applies to Digibron and the content of this database. Terms of use.

Printen