worth and public character are made in its
sacred retreat. To love Home with a deep and abiding interest, with a
view to its elevating influence, is to love truth and right, heaven and
God. I envy not the soul that loves not Home. There is moral safety and
force in this love. Many a man who is an ornament to his family and a
blessing to the world would have gone to ruin had it not been for the
love he bore his Home and its inmates. A weakness of the home-love is
often the cause of moral ruin. Many a man of strong impulses and
impetuous character has braved hardships, faced dangers, resisted
temptations which would have been too powerful for him had it not been
for his strong love of Home. A strong love of Home in any man's heart is
a triple wall of brass around his moral nature--an impregnable bulwark
against the assaults of moral evil. No labor is too great for the strong
lovers of Home to accomplish. See them on ocean's billowy bosom; on
mountains of ice and snow; on fields of bloody strife; on burning
deserts; in trackless forests; amid disease, danger, and death, braving
every foe to life and peace, and all to fill their homes with comfort
and joy. In every proper sense in which Home can be considered, it is a
powerful stimulant to noble action and a high and pure morality. So
valuable is the love of Home, that every man should cherish it as the
apple of his eye. As he values his own moral worth, as he prizes his
country, the peace and happiness of the world; yea, more: as he values
the immortal interests of men, he should cherish and cultivate a strong
and abiding love of Home.

I take it that it affects our whole lives; ay, that it runs over the
grave, sweeps by death, and affects our future condition. Then is not
the idea of Home important? Shall we look thoughtlessly upon these
nurseries of immortal fruits? Shall we pollute and degrade the Homes in
which we dwell? Shall we send out from them unholy influences to corrupt
the world? These Home questions are the most important ones we can
raise. Their decision is to affect us more than any decision by the
supreme authority of our country. Not all the judges in the world ever
decide questions half so important and pregnant with solemn results as
those we are left to decide in our own Homes. Hence I would present the
subject of Home to young women as one in which they are as deeply
interested as they can be in any subject. It is expected that every
young woman will p