the church; and from the
morning prayer they went forth to the day of victory, while from the
evening prayer they went to sleep the undisturbed sleep of the just,
with the angels of heaven keeping watch over them.

I recall another home in the State of Ohio where the father and mother
were scarcely known outside of their own county. The size of their
farm was ten acres, but they reared two boys and two girls whose
mission has been world-wide and whose names are known wherever the
church of Christ is known and wherever the English language is spoken.
These, in the truest sense, are the homes of the nation, and such homes
give us men and women as true as steel.

Napoleon once was asked, "What is the greatest need of the French
nation?" He hesitated a moment and then said, with marked emphasis,
"The greatest need of the French nation is mothers." If you will ask
me the greatest need of America I could wish in my reply that I might
speak with the power of a Napoleon and that my words might live as
long, for I would say, the greatest need of the American nation to-day
is homes; not palatial buildings, but homes where Christ is honored,
where God is loved, and where the Bible is studied.

A returned missionary, who had been for twenty-five years away from his
home because he would not accept his furloughs, was asked after he had
been in California for a little season what impressed him the most
after his absence of a quarter of a century. The reporter expected him
to say that he was impressed with the telephone system which bound
houses and cities together, or that he was amazed at the wireless
telegraphy, by means of which on the wave currents of the air messages
were sent from one city to another; but the returned missionary
expressed no such surprise. He said, "When I went away from America
almost every home had its family altar; now that I have returned I have
watched very carefully and find that a family altar in a home is the
exception and not the rule." Wherever this is true there is real cause
for great alarm, for in proportion as the home fails the nation is in
danger.

Hezekiah had been sick unto death. The word of the Lord by the mouth
of the Prophet came to him, saying, "Set thy house in order, for thou
must die." Then he recovered for a season. The King of Babylon sent
messengers to him, and when the messengers had gone Isaiah asked him
the question of the text, "What have they seen in thy house?"