February, 1915
EVERYBODY’S FRIEND
3
Make Childhood Sweet
Wait not till tbe little hands are at rest
Ere you till them full of Howers;
Wait not for the crowning tuberose
To make sweet the last sad hours;
But while in the busy household band
Your darlings still need your guiding hand,
Oh. fill their lives with sweetness! .
Give thanks each morn for the sturdy boys;
Give thanks for the fairy girls;
With a dower of wealth like this at home,
Would you rifle the earth for pearls?
Wait not for death to gem love’s crown,
But daily shower life’s blessings down,
And fill young hearts with sweetness.
Remember the homes where the light has lied,
Where, the rose has faded away,
And the love that glows in youthful hearts
Oh. cherish it while you may!
And make your home a garden of flowers,
Where joy shall bloom thru childhood's hours,
And till young hearts with gladness. Anon.
The Child in the Home
•‘Home is not merely roof and room,
It needeth something to endear it;
Home is where the heart can bloom,
Where there’s some kind soul to cheer it.”
Whenever man and woman unite their lives
in the intimate relations of marriage, there God
designs a home for the rearing of a family. If
the man and wife are God’s children, they will
sooner or later see it in the same light, and real-
ize that the home is empty and incomplete with-
out cl i dien.
There are many homes, however, where a
child never comes, no matter how much it is
longed for. To the Jew in their better days the
saddest thing in life was a childless home, and,
though it is not generally known, many homes
in our day regret their childlessness almost as
much. This leaves a vacancy, a restless dis
content in the heart which destroys happiness
and darkens hope. She who is the home-keep-
er, who is so often left alone with her own
thoughts, feels this loneliness the most. Yet
often the man, when he turns to his silent home
from his labors or the cares of business, feels
the incorapletenss of that home very heavily.
Sometimes when women are unable longer to
bear the silence of an empty home and the
yearnings of a hungering heart, they lavish the
pentup affections on dogs or other pets, and are
severely censured for it. Let us be forbearing
with them: God made them for women and gave
them mother-hearts; they may be better than
these who miss the children little, and appre-
ciate their presence less. Perhaps those women
have never learned that it is possible to get
a bright, well endowed child to bring up as an
own son or daughter. It may be that an un-
sympathetic husband prevents the taking of
a child, or her circumstances may not permit
the adopting of one into the home.
Several times we have placed a child with
such a woman, and in every instance it soon
won its rightful place in her heart, while the
dog was relegated to the place where dogs be-
long. Each time it proved to be an excellent
Home for the child. Be not too harsh with such
women, for it is better to love even a dog, when
there is no child to love, than to let the heart
grow cold and selfish, and love nothing.
We have placed many children where they
waited long and lonely years for tbe child that
never came, and in each such home the child
has proved a source of great and ever increasing
joy, and a brightener of life. Often such people
say they do not see how they got along as long
as they did without it.
The words of the daughter of the king of
Egypt, “Take this child and nurse it for me and
1 will give thee wages,” was never more true
than now, but in our day it is the Great King
himself who makes the promise, and who pays
in something better than any earthly coin. No
work that is done, for the Lord is rewarded with
more liberal wages than nursing a child for Him
—with wages of joy and happiness and hope.
This is the unvarying testimony of those who
are speaking from experience.
In nearly every instance where a home has
thus been gladdened by a child or two, the peo-
ple show their gratitude by giving liberally to
help in the work of finding other needy children
and placing them in homes where they are need-
ed to make the home complete. This kind of evi-
dence is stronger than words, and no one can
question the sincerity of it