had implanted this thought in all creatures' minds as the germ of
eternal life, to cheer and support them in the shadowy hours of earth
and time. Yes, the thought and hope of heaven is universal. Many men
cherish ideas of hell, the very opposite of heaven; but this does not
interfere with their own hope of heaven. All men hope for heaven for
themselves. Hell is always for somebody else, if they are so unfortunate
as to be tormented with so fearful and saddening a thought. And this
thought of heaven, this universal impression of a better land, a
spirit-bower, so comforting, so elevating, so inspiring, grows naturally
out of our primary conceptions of Home. We all love Home--Home that is
a Home--and this love enlarged by the imagination, pictured in
perfection by the quick hand of Faith, consecrated by natural religion,
is our idea of heaven. Heaven is Home perfected, the consummation of the
heart's love of Home. In our ideas of heaven we gather our loved ones
about us just as we do in our Homes. What would heaven be to us without
our mother, our brothers and sisters, the dear home-companions of our
hearts? It would not be heaven because it would not be Home. The heart
could not rest there. It would fly away on the quick wings of its love
to the dear absent ones. A heaven half filled would not be a heaven. A
heaven with broken families would be heaven with broken hearts.

Every heart would pine in sadness in the loss of some of its dear
ones--some of its Home souls. Home-love is the germ of heaven-love. God
plants in Homes the seeds that shall bear fruit in heaven. Thus we see
that _Mother_, _Home_, and _Heaven_--these three words of such universal
interest and power--are associated and related words. They convey a
blessed trinity of ideas meeting in one associated glow of spiritual
beauty. They belong together and can not be separated. They are parts of
the same golden whole. Home, in all well-constituted minds, is always
associated with moral and social excellence. The higher men rise in the
scale of being, the more important and interesting is Home. The Arab or
forest man may care little for his Home, but, the Christian man of
cultured heart and developed mind will love his Home, and generally
love it in proportion to his moral worth. He knows it is the
planting-ground of every seed of morality--the garden of virtue, and the
nursery of religion. He knows that souls immortal are here trained for
the skies; that private