Daily Davenport Gazette

Home Influence.

Would'st thou listen to its voice, low teaching,

Loud and deeper, and laden how are preaching,

At thy restless yearnings it would still thee.

Truly it has been said, that 'our duties are like the circles of a whirlpool, and the innermost includes home.' A modern writer has designated home, 'heaven's fallen sister;' and a melancholy truth lies shrouded in those few words. 'Our home influence is not passing, but an abiding one; and strike, for happiness or misery. Each separate Christian home has been linked to a central sun, around which revolves a happy and united band of warm loving hearts, acting, thinking, rejoicing, and sorrowing together. Which member of the family group can say, 'I have no influence!' What sorrow, what happiness, lies in the power of each!

'A lighted lamp,' writes McCheyne, 'is a very small thing, and it burns calmly and without noise, yet it giveth light to all who are within the house.' And so there is a quiet influence, which like the flame of a scented lamp, fills many a home with light and fragrance. Such an influence has been beautifully compared to a carpet soft and deep, which, while it diffuses a look of ample comfort, deadens many a creaking sound. It is the curtain, which from many a beloved form, wards off at once the summer's glow and the winter's wind. It is the pillow on which sickness lays its head, and forgets half its misery.' This influence falls as the refreshing dew, the invigorating sunbeam, the fertilizing shower, shining on all with the mild lustre of moonlight, and harmonizing in one soft tint many of the discordant hues of a family picture.